Branford Marsalis | The Sound and me 

Branford has the best interviews, hands down, as far as musicians go

Branford dropped a gold mine of information in a very short time.

Thank you very much

Branford Marsalis is one of the most important jazz musicians in the world. He is literally a national treasure.

Thank you Sting for introducing me to the fascinating universe of this man’s music. My First gig ever was the Blue Turtle’s tour in ‘85... made me want to listen to jazz music, and made me an outcast (lol) with my friends (I was 15, and all the music that was fashionable at that time became meaningless to me from that evening on... could not see the point in listening to madonna, jacko, dire straits or U2... even Sting became eventually flat to my ears and I loudly manifested my aversion to it). It made me concentrate more in what I was listening and rejecting top 40 radio pop/rock... now i only listen to classical and jazz in all its genres and hunt for gems in stores and www. The rest just plainly doesnt move me.

Branford says such interesting things!

Branford is brilliance!

Fantastic interview. Always a treat listening to B. Marsalis, and his brother too. Fountains of Jazz knowledge. Greetings from Uganda 🇺🇬👊🏿🖤

Thanks

I love this mans music. His passion forthe music comes out in so many ways . Sometimes intense andsometimes so subtly nuanced always fully present inthe music..

Branford, what a great guy, he´s the man.

Almost the debate about the Mark VI greatness. When they were produced the Reference 36 or 54 didn’t exist. When young John Coltrane shaped his so unmistakable sound, he had to listen to older great players. Then he became the then Mark VI standard of sax players. Great video, thanks.

Eloquent and informed, fabulous man

As David Byrne says, the venue makes the music

No-one has more interesting things to say about Jazz than Branford Marsalis. On the instrument and off.

Excellent.

Yes, Branford is absolutely correct about recording in large rooms. I was touting convolution reverb until Arne Wallander pointed out to me that it was a gimmick. Large rooms produce what he calls the bloom effect, where reverb tails brighten towards the end of the reverb trail. The sound of pizzicato in a real hall vs. a dry sample through convolution reverb sounds totally different. And mic bleed is absolutely important to the sound. It's a very unique sound that has been lost in modern times. But idiosyncratic recording has become a thing now so we might see a resurgence of it in the future.

Deep, because when I was with Art Blakey 1988-90, we did his 75th anniversary tour.....a long tour .......Bu ( Art Blakey) had 2 bands, his current band, and his Legacy Band ( cats that played with him) and the horn section was Jackie McClean, Curtis Fuller, and Benny Golson, and man, Benny was KILLING ! I went to Bu and said : " Bu, he sounds like Trane" !......Bu said : "Oh no, son......Trade sounds like HIM !"

Branford mentions Warne Marsh. I am quite happy with that, as Warne is an original, from top to bottom, whose playing I love so much. AMoF Branford and Warne are the one saxophonists whose sound and ideas I enjoy the most.

I remember back in '97 when I was trying to play trumpet like Louis Armstrong and my friend Carl Winrow told me to not play like Louis Armstrong because the world already had a Louis Armstrong. He said to play like myself. Develop my own sound. He said I can add some Louis Armstrong influence in my sound but not to play exactly like him. So from that time on, I played the way I wanted to without trying to blatantly copy Louis Armstrong.

hmmmm no wonder he likes to records in big rooms. I like listenig to Brandford, he s such a straigth shooter

Marsalis has an interesting mind. he once in rebuttal to what Cecil Tayor said about his fans, that his listeners should do their homework. Bradford countered with: "i'm a baseball fam. when i got out to Shea Stadium, i don't feel it's necessary for me to field ground balls with the infielders before the game."

You really dissed them in the “Woods”! They didn’t see that coming🎶🎵🎷

Fantastic interview.

Great video , lots of info, thanks👍

This was a fascinating interview with only one problem: Branford's music playing in the background was just as fascinating so it was a little difficult to focus.

Intriguing interview . Just wish we had the time and resources to delve into this fascinating topic . The beauty about Branford and his group is their sound . I think one develops their sound whilst trying to play / mimic as much of the great voluminous material that has come before .

12:43 A big reason why I left Berklee.

So true I hate small rooms for recording. The sound of my trumpet bounces off the walls and dies suddenly, small rooms ruin Legato playing as well as dynamics . All acoustic instruments need their proper space to breathe. Acoustic instrument social distance for a safe and effective musical conversation. Thanks BM and Selmer P for sharing

Hello bro Master music powuer feling bendiciones 🙏

I love both musicians but... WHY IS KEITH JARRETT IN THE BACKGROUND OF BRANFORD TALKING ABOUT COLTRANE? Related because... they all play jazz?

It’s interesting that the soundtrack here is either Jan Garbarek with Keith Jarrett or someone sounding like Garbarek(Marsalis?) while talking about sounding like someone else.

First backround song is by Keith Jarrett. Tenor on it is Jan Garberek.

Finally, a great jazz musician admitting that he wonders why people like Coltrane's tone so much. Just because Coltrane was a great and pioneering musician doesn't mean that every aspect of his playing was perfect. This is true of all musicians, artists, and other great thinkers.

How did the mouthpiece change someone's sound the first week?

Great interview. As a 40 year saxophonist, Its hard for me to listen to Coltrane on many cuts. Often his sound seems thin and harsh to me. I definitely see Hodges influence, but in Tranes case, he often seems out of tune ( Especially on Soprano). He sure knew where to put his fingers, though. As far as my tone, I go all over the place - Rudy Weidoeft to Louis Jordan, Sammy Butera - Clifford Scott to Stan Getz ( who has MANY tones) and Yoursel, of course,Yourself. My advice - listen to everybody YOU like, and make your own sound. Mouthpiece does influence tone a lot. I use everything from stock plastic Ebolin on alto to to metal #7 Barone on Tenor.

Why, when you have such an experienced and articulate musician revealing his secrets, do you have to put some of his more dischordant music so loud in the mix?!?!?!? Let the man speak!

Branford is interesting enough that it isn't necessary to have music underneath every single thing he says as a background track. It comes across as an irritating nervous tic in terms of 'film composition.' In a way, it is a denigration of the music, and a denigration of his thought.

just listened to a 10h European podcast radio show on Sonny Rollins (yes, 10x 1h, covering 1951-2001 !!!). My opinion of Rollins is that it seems very overrated to me. First of all as a player, he does not seem to me better than Johnny Griffin, Stitt, Roland Kirk, Phil Woods, Lateef ... but enjoys a much more important reputation ... and unjustified in my opinion. Ok he plays well, but not better than the musicians I mentioned. In terms of composition, he did not compose anything, everyone knows that St Thomas is a Caribbean folklore already recorded by Randy Weston in 1955 under the title Fire Down There. His other compositions from the 50s ... well, Oleo, Airegin etc ... this can in no way be compared to the compositions of Trane, Bird, Monk or Shorter ... also, his playing and his sound are terribly degraded after 1966 (36 years). It seems that he was traumatized by the arrival of Ornette, Trane, Ayler ... In the 60's he tried to be more free than Ayler, more calypso / blues than Ornette, and more mystical than Trane, but he didn't. did not succeed. Then in the 70s / 80s he tried to be funky, disco ... with really ridiculous and cheesy results ... Did he want to be funkier than James Brown himself? Also, in the radio show they say that he was paid current $ 300,000 for himself to record the Nucleus album (so listen to the result !!!!), and that, for his concerts, his financial claims were unrealistic, only the big festivals could afford it. He played with the Stones but didn't want to go on tour with them because, according to Jagger himself, he wanted too much money! I mean, I'm not making anything up here. In my opinion, he should have remained what he was before, a disciple of Bird at the Tenor, and quit at the age of 40 to leave a quality job, and without trying to follow fashion. Thank you for not insulting me because I have documented myself on Rollins and I like to have constructive discussions without being attacked on my person.