Very Interesting Insights from Branford Marsalis

[Tal_175]

[Sam Sherry]

In the words of Jaco Pastorius, "It ain't braggin' if you can back it up."


One of my favorite Bran quotes:

I remember when I was with Art Blakey's band, listening to Coltrane and playing by ear. Blakey came up behind me and he tapped me on the shoulder because I had my headphones on and he said, "What are you doing?" So I said, "I'm trying to learn to play like Coltrane." And he laughed. He said, "That's not how you learn to play like Coltrane," which I didn't understand. So I sarcastically said, "Oh, so if I wanna play like Coltrane, I shouldn't listen to Coltrane." And then he said, "Well, when Coltrane was 15, what do you think he was listening to? Tapes of himself in the future?"

Here's the full interview. Check it out -- it's really worth it.

[sgosnell]

In the words of Jaco Pastorius, "It ain't braggin' if you can back it up."

Or the much earlier words of Dizzy Dean, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it." Dizzy could do it.

[AllanAllen]

Here's the full interview. Check it out -- it's really worth it.

Great read

[docsteve]

I like his statements on getting "the sound" from a piece of equipment. I totally agree that the sound is not in the instrument or the fingers, it's in the head. The instrument and the fingers just helo to bring that out.

(OK, we can close the Gear section now)

I remember when I first moved to New York, we all bought mouthpieces and we all said, "This mouthpiece makes this sound, this mouthpiece can make you sound like Coltrane, this mouthpiece can make you sound like Sonny Rollins..." So we'd buy the mouthpiece, and for about a week or so, it worked. And then within two weeks, we were back to our own sound.
I was talking to a neurologist who said that no matter what ideas you have in your head, the only way to change the idea is to actually change it. The sound I have is the sound that's in my head. So the question is, can we change the sound that's in our head? And if the answer is yes, then how do we do it?

[Bop Head]

I like his statements on getting "the sound" from a piece of equipment. I totally agree that the sound is not in the instrument or the fingers, it's in the head. The instrument and the fingers just helo to bring that out.

(OK, we can close the Gear section now)

I remember when I first moved to New York, we all bought mouthpieces and we all said, "This mouthpiece makes this sound, this mouthpiece can make you sound like Coltrane, this mouthpiece can make you sound like Sonny Rollins..." So we'd buy the mouthpiece, and for about a week or so, it worked. And then within two weeks, we were back to our own sound.
I was talking to a neurologist who said that no matter what ideas you have in your head, the only way to change the idea is to actually change it. The sound I have is the sound that's in my head. So the question is, can we change the sound that's in our head? And if the answer is yes, then how do we do it?

There is that anecdote by (IIRC) Jimmy Heath who once lent his sax to Bird for a gig as a kid. Unfortunately afterwards there had no magic happened to the instrument by Bird playing it sounding like Bird. Jimmy still felt he himself sounded like shit ...

[ruger9]

Loved that video interview!!! I'd pay to take a class from Branford, about this stuff exactly. I don't want to take a class on PLAYING jazz, I'd love to take one on HOW jazz was, and is, played. "You can't play scales and patterns for an hour", "there's got to be a compelling melody", "it's got to swing"... I love this stuff.

"If we're going to play the song, let's play THE SONG. Let's not take the song and turn Ito a vehicle our own egotistical machinations". YES!!

And once again- for anyone interested- I'll recommend his brother's book:

Amazon.com

[Sam Sherry]

There is that anecdote by (IIRC) Jimmy Heath who once lent his sax to Bird for a gig as a kid. Unfortunately afterwards there had no magic happened to the instrument by Bird playing it sounding like Bird.

I got to play (double bass) with Mr. Heath once -- it was the weekend before 09/11/2001 actually.

The two big lessons from studying up for that gig were:

A. Several decades after switching from alto to tenor (to get away from Bird), his sound still struck me as a natural alto player. Which fits RIGHT in with Bran's comments!

2. That is Jimmy Heath. John Coltrane's Best Friend Of Youth. Percy Heath's BROTHER. There is no way you can impress him. Just enjoy it and make sure he does too.

Thank you Mister Heath.