Branford Marsalis

Humans are imperfect. That's one of the reasons that classical and jazz are in trouble. We're on the quest for the perfect…

— Branford Marsalis

My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.

— Branford Marsalis

If it's not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what's the point of playing Terrapin Station?

— Branford Marsalis

I think that if you keep banging at the door all you need is a little foothold, a little tiny foothold, and…

— Branford Marsalis

It's hard to get into Newsweek because, as more of our former intellectual magazines take on a pop focus, if there's no…

— Branford Marsalis

The way to learn the language is to rip off other players. As Benny Golson told me, "We all start off sounding…

— Branford Marsalis

We have something that is unique. We have our craft. We have our art. We have our desire.

— Branford Marsalis

There is not a sentence in the world that could respectfully do justice to the life and music of Jerry Garcia.

— Branford Marsalis

Coltrane came to New Orleans one day and he was talking about the jazz scene. And Coltrane mentions that the problem with…

— Branford Marsalis

So much of Jazz doesn't have an audience other than music students or musicians.

— Branford Marsalis

One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians…

— Branford Marsalis

We all played bad before we played good.

— Branford Marsalis

I think that one of the problems that jazz has is that it's so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself.

— Branford Marsalis

There's not one Tin Pan Alley song on my record.

— Branford Marsalis

A lot of musicians have a tough time hearing what we're doing in a trio format.

— Branford Marsalis

I gave up my base in popular culture when I left the Tonight Show.

— Branford Marsalis

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

— Branford Marsalis

If youre going to use standards as criteria for signing musicians, you can sign thousands. If youre going to use some sort…

— Branford Marsalis

One of the things that's clear to me from interviews that I've read is that the more popular successful jazz musicians had…

— Branford Marsalis