Branford Marsalis Blindfold Test [transcript]

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:19 Branford Marsalis: Branford Marsalis, playing for record number one. Only. well, my my first inclination when I hear the size of the band and the orchestration would be the thing Gil Evans but it’s not Gil because he doesn’t write like that, like, oh, it has to be George Russell.

00:00:28:14 - 00:00:49:18 Branford Marsalis: He reminded me because I was, I was going to do a big band record, and that Jones was writing the arrangements for me when he passed, and one of the songs we were going to do was, New York, New York, you know, could, you know, with George Russell. So I listened to that song for about four months.

00:00:49:20 - 00:01:12:10 Branford Marsalis: goodness. And, we come to the conclusion where I come to the conclusion, then that’s a yes or no, but that it was quite. I couldn’t use almost anything that George had done. Not like, you know, good to finally get go with that. That was great. But then when the band started just the arrangement, it’s just kind of me.

00:01:12:13 - 00:01:34:20 Branford Marsalis: It just meanderings and nothingness. It just goes on and on and on, and it doesn’t have any point of reference or anything, and I just couldn’t. I knew there’s no way I could play that. And and I just didn’t want to hear that on my record. Is that what you hear here also? Unfortunately, yes. you know, so that’s how I knew it was him because it sounded so much.

00:01:34:20 - 00:01:51:15 Branford Marsalis: They mad reminded me. That’s why I kind of giggled, because I remember the frustration of figuring out where we like the second part of the song in New York and New York is great. The Republic slows down. Oh yeah? Yeah. And he starts talking about, you know, lack of attention is getting the head from. But it’s sort of like comes in bird, from the.

00:01:51:22 - 00:02:16:22 Branford Marsalis: That’s great harmony. But I think when George was just my opinion mean he tried to get very creative and very unusual. It was very unusual, but he just kind of sat there. Yeah. And and you know what I mean? I knew this was him after a while. Yeah, I know it was. Because George Russell is the only other guy that has a band with that kind of instrumentation other than good.

00:02:16:22 - 00:02:46:07 Branford Marsalis: Yeah, yeah. So and he really I don’t really I don’t get really well, you could I mean, it’s not I don’t get what you’re saying. If I just do anything, it’s just, two stars know stars. That’s what it was. It’s from a new album. I think it’s doing some blue. It’s rough. Man.

00:02:46:09 - 00:03:09:18 Branford Marsalis: But, I get my. Well, the the composition with Steve Coleman’s the Steve Coleman playing saxophone for. I love and admire the hell I love. I love the way he plays and I love his approach to the music, you know, particularly in composition as well as performance. Bobby McFerrin, I presume, singing. I’ve heard him do about 100% better than that.

00:03:09:21 - 00:03:27:01 Branford Marsalis: And, this is an I think he still the trumpet is the premier voice of the 20th century in terms of the voice, maybe that’s the interpretation. Sometimes, the tenor player, I don’t know the firm. The only person came in my mind was Chico Freeman. I don’t know if it was him on that. Was that him? In a minute?

00:03:27:04 - 00:03:55:25 Branford Marsalis: Okay. I don’t know if that was him or not, but, that was definitely Steve, the drummer. Who was Steve? Steve Coleman. Oh, that was Steve calling out too. You did hear, I think that one of the major problems I had with this record is recording technique is this you can’t tell what kind of relationship the drum and the bass player have, because the drum is in an isolation booth.

00:03:55:25 - 00:04:15:28 Branford Marsalis: You can tell he’s isolating, separated, and it sounds so bad because it never really swings, because there’s no air, there’s no dispersion, it’s no group sound. Yeah. You know, and those kind of records I oh, they always upset me so that it’s very hard for me to get to the music because the recording sounds so bad. And I think that subconsciously that happens to a lot of other people as well.

00:04:15:28 - 00:04:36:22 Branford Marsalis: And I would use this to make a pitch to get musicians to study more about the acoustics of music and why things work and why they don’t, and strive for better recording technique. The drummer taking a shot in the dark. Oh, it’s kind of it points to me like really hard, but I was never really sure, like the composition, I like that I don’t particularly like the arrangement.

00:04:36:22 - 00:04:59:06 Branford Marsalis: I like the composition, the you know, I don’t see that it would sound like Steve with anything, because it can’t be Steve’s record to me, because Steve stuff is a lot more structured in that the way that that turned out. Yeah, you know, it it was a whole lot of ifs. It sounded like Steve. I’d be surprised if it was somebody else.

00:04:59:09 - 00:05:26:10 Branford Marsalis: Yeah. 103 through 2 or 3. Okay. Probably it would have gotten a four if I could, if I could distinguish it better. The recording technique brings it down to a three. Right. Okay. I have no idea who that was. It will remind me of, some of that, some of the pieces you’re forced to play when you study classical music as a saxophone major, you know, of those institutions.

00:05:26:13 - 00:05:47:23 Branford Marsalis: But they didn’t remind me of, saxophone students because they didn’t have that obnoxious vibrato that most classical saxophone is with at soprano play. It sounds like they listen to a lot of waves or that, you know, they’re very influenced by the weather report when, The music sounds like it would be good in a horror movie.

00:05:47:25 - 00:06:08:27 Branford Marsalis: I mean, really, you know, as good as attention and climax is concerned, but it reminds me of a lot of, 20th century composers who write for saxophones in the classical genres. Like, I fail to see the point of it. Yeah. You know, it just kind of. It is what it is. And it goes on and other than showing what kind of impeccable technique the performers have musically, it does nothing.

00:06:08:27 - 00:06:27:07 Branford Marsalis: It just sits there. It’s like, you know, you can’t I can’t even think of any other instrument that has to suffer through that. Though, even in trumpet, like, the quantum of the is at least musical. Yeah. I mean, the that was some of the most unmusical stuff that I’ve heard in quite some time, and not in terms of the musicians performing.

00:06:27:07 - 00:06:50:17 Branford Marsalis: It’s just the the piece itself is just, no, it doesn’t leave you a whole lot to play with, you know, a whole bunch of animosity scales. You know, books are, skills that you can find in any, any music resource. If you practice them long enough, then you can play them. You. I mean. For stars, for technique, zero.

00:06:50:17 - 00:07:05:09 Branford Marsalis: For musical content. Yeah. Well, what that.

00:07:05:12 - 00:07:25:03 Branford Marsalis: Certain records need no rating. you’re mentioning one time I was, I was reading Downbeat, and this idiot was, reviewing Miles Lavin to plug nickel. Probably one of the greatest albums that that quintet ever recorded, you know, which was really a tribute to how you sound. I mean, he gave it like three stars, two stars or something like that.

00:07:25:03 - 00:07:43:18 Branford Marsalis: Who did? I don’t remember who it was. Whatever it was, he’d be shot. I mean, really, and he was saying that it was like a ho hum record really wasn’t nothing exciting. I mean, he’d probably got into the week before he reviewed it, said when sounded good, it sounded like Wayne’s man. He sounded good, but, oh, I mean, somebody really didn’t have an idea of creativity.

00:07:43:20 - 00:08:05:26 Branford Marsalis: And that’s when I realized that certain records meant they shouldn’t even they shouldn’t even I mean, they they shouldn’t even be rated, shouldn’t even be considered like, you know. Yeah. 5000 stars automatically. Yeah. So Sonny Rollins playing Nigeria spelled backwards. Yeah. You know, this is a guy already talking about that. You know, what can I say, man? Miles in New there.

00:08:05:26 - 00:08:22:27 Branford Marsalis: Max I don’t know. I’m I don’t remember that. Well I remember either saying. It didn’t really sound like him.

00:08:22:29 - 00:08:26:26 Branford Marsalis: And Percy Heath.

00:08:26:29 - 00:08:36:20 Branford Marsalis: submitted.

00:08:36:23 - 00:09:00:20 Branford Marsalis: Versions. The first verse of a verse. Yeah. For Kenny Clark. Yeah. It’s like the clue, man. I don’t Percy Heath, man. I love the way he plays the bass. So slim. The lines are so lyrical and smooths. I love to do a record with him when they. Yeah.

00:09:00:23 - 00:09:05:24 Branford Marsalis: Yeah.

00:09:11:01 - 00:09:36:12 Branford Marsalis: See, I went to when I really went to school. I went to school for arranging. So it reminds me of, there were a lot of students who came in and you had to re harmonize, all standards. So when we cast, we do it whenever they want it, whenever they wanted to do something that sounded new and inventive, they would, get all of these chords and they figure out all these chords that work with the melody line.

00:09:36:15 - 00:09:53:20 Branford Marsalis: They really don’t work with the melody line, because, I mean, if they had work that go with the melody line and Strayhorn would have wrote it that way and put it down, but would they’re harmonize all of these chords, and who ends up happening is most of them run into a brick wall and you get a good one on everyone, and you can’t figure out which one’s using, which one’s not to use.

00:09:53:23 - 00:10:17:21 Branford Marsalis: The saxophone solely section was really happening because it’s cool to do that. And so sections because the lines are moving by so fast, you know it, it doesn’t matter. The soul part was real nice. I’ll the only person that can figure this being is the modern jazz, the modern the World Saxophone Quartet, because that’s the only saxophone group I’ve ever heard that has such that full bodied sound.

00:10:17:27 - 00:10:36:26 Branford Marsalis: Yeah. You know, I don’t know if it’s the sound of it. It’s just. It’s just it has to be there because they have that sound that I’ve never heard. The only group I’ve heard that come close to that is the 125th Street Saxophone Quartet. Oh, yeah. Bobby Watson. Yeah. Jackson, Jim Horton and, the other guy’s name, I can’t remember.

00:10:37:04 - 00:10:57:06 Branford Marsalis: Yeah. But, you know, all those other all those other groups don’t have that sound. It sounds like it sounds like they’re trying to play louder than the next guy. Yeah, or it sounds like they just. It sounds like they’ve been in the studio too long again, you know, and it’s dudes. But these cats have that sound. They sound like they’ve been playing together a lot.

00:10:57:09 - 00:11:19:12 Branford Marsalis: So I can’t think being anybody with them was the. But, The, the, the like the range and the, the re harmonization of the melody is a bit hokey for me. Yeah. So I give it like four stars for sound and performance. Yeah. And I had to give it like a two on that arrangement. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean.

00:11:19:14 - 00:11:20:21 Unknown Speaker: Hello, love.

00:11:20:23 - 00:11:38:02 Branford Marsalis: Good to see you again. Have you? You know what is a what you just said when you said it, that you can turn it off now. I already know what this is. I’m singing this whole track for you from the beginning to the end. Like. Like at that. Well, yeah, I really do. I think it’s killer. I can’t remember the name of the track.

00:11:38:02 - 00:12:01:03 Branford Marsalis: What’s it called? Splash. Right? Yeah. I thought, I think I think this record shows a lot of things. It shows, Marcus Miller’s, emergence as a first rate producer. I think it’s finally, with Miles, as always wanted, which was to be, like, successful in the pop format, even though I don’t know how successful he’ll be.

00:12:01:05 - 00:12:21:11 Branford Marsalis: I know that, it’s what he wanted, you know, the record companies would do themselves a favor by shoving him in the jazz section and putting him more in the pop section where he wants to be. This is a very marketable album. The first side, I think the second side is dreadful, but the first side is very marketable, and it has some great tunes on it.

00:12:21:14 - 00:12:45:17 Branford Marsalis: You know, the whole first side with him is that on the first side? Definitely the last cut, first side? No, you should know, right? The first side is happening an is kind of kind of rough, I think. I think Marcus could have done himself a bit, a greater favor by not playing saxophone on that. You know, because that was that was like the real low point of the album.

00:12:45:19 - 00:13:09:04 Branford Marsalis: But, this is one of those rare records where even though he’s playing every instrument, it doesn’t sound like it, you know? And that’s a true credit to him. I think that it’s, I know for a fact that Miles knows very little about the way these records are done and the recording technique used to do them. So I think that it’s kind of a downer, that it’s such an incredible.

00:13:09:06 - 00:13:27:03 Branford Marsalis: Musical presence is miles Davis has been reduced to a spectator on his own record because I know from how these records are made, and I know from playing with Miles that the only thing he did was come in and play them over the, you know, overdub his parts when the rhythm track was finished because his mind doesn’t think like Marcus is.

00:13:27:03 - 00:13:49:09 Branford Marsalis: This is definitely a Marcus Miller production. Oh yeah. You know, and it’s kind of it’s kind of down and Miles is reduced to a spectator on his own record. But the record is happening. You know, I like the cuts particularly like I said it again on the first side. So I give, I give five stars. The side one, you know, judging, judging this as a pop record.

00:13:49:15 - 00:14:07:10 Branford Marsalis: First of all, let’s be honest. Yeah, this does not I’m not judging. This is a jazz record at all, right? Judging. This is an instrumental pop record. You know, George Howard and all those guys. Yeah. This, this record gets five stars. The production is much better than all those other records. An instrumental record. Shout! In fact. And special effects.

00:14:07:12 - 00:14:36:20 Branford Marsalis: The production on This is incredible. Miles sounds better than he sounded, I think, on any of those records since he’s come back. Yeah. for side one. Two stars for side to five stars for side one. That was like, yeah. Okay. That’s very interesting because,

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