Branford Marsalis is like the Jeff Berlin of saxophone, they both follow the same adage "I don't care what people are saying as long as they are talking about me".
They both seem to say stupid stuff on purpose just because it will get people all discombobulated and they can appear to be shockingly controversial.
So now Branford thinks jazz sucks too, which is apparently what all the cool cats think these days - Rosenwinkel, Metheny, and now Branford. Okay, they all think most jazz sucks, not all jazz. He said this stuff this week while playing in Seattle during an interview the local free weekly.
2 comments:
I think you're being unfair to him. Read the full interview and found nothing controversial there, nothing he and others haven't said before, and nothing I disagree with. Modern poetry has a minuscule audience for most of the same reasons: too arcane, academic, and self-indulgent to appeal to an "outside the priesthood" audience.
Your title and summary are more unfair to him than anything he had to say about jazz.
He is kinda funny about that stuff is all, I do agree with him, there is a lot of crap music out there, no doubt. But he has a very long history of saying stuff like that and being a bit either/or about things. His "my students are full of it" video is just one other example. you tube it.
I think people do know who he is though, after being on the Tonight Show for a decade, or quite a while, however long it was. And I can only imagine how frustrating it is for him to see what passes for music and the economics of the music biz. But he does pile on with the "there is not very much good music" out there idea. Yea, and there is crappy tv shows and terrible movies and "The Davinci Code" and all kinds of baloney out there. No kidding.
Eh, its where you find it, it is out there. Might have to dig a bit because there are plenty of "Friday" songs out there to sift through now but it is out there.
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