House of Drumming.com

Branfords attitude towards "european jazz" comes clear here.

Yussuf wrote:Branfords attitude towards "european jazz" comes clear here.

"...we don't feel that we have to assert a national superiority."

>>>

Yussuf wrote:Branfords attitude towards "european jazz" comes clear here.

Man...that's a lot of BS. I've never met anyone here in Europe who has that attitude.

Well, I did meet musicians [European] who claimed that 'American Classical Orchestras will never sound as good as native European orchestras'. But as far as I know John Coltrane is worshipped like a god over here, so he's dead wrong there. 'Euro jazz' is different from American jazz, and it is not better ;-] Europe never had people like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Buddy Rich, Thelonius Monk or Charles Minges...let alone Ella or Frank Sinatra.

My favorite part is :

"If they want to call it Jazz, that's work for me, as much as I don't sound like them..."

One thing sure, is that in Europe when you're an US musicians, they give them everyting, way more that what they would give to European...
European Jazz Festival programm are around 80% full of US musicians, maybe more.

But I know what he means and I agree, Jazz is Jazz, why puting European Jazz ? Or South-African Jazz ? Stupid.

"...we don't feel that we have to assert a national superiority."

As a Norwegian watching the news, and George carlin would probably also agree, this is the most hillarious statement I've ever heard.


When I studied in the US I was also constantly told thet Europeans can't swing. I sort of confronted my teacher with that a bit by explaining and playing something swinging what seemed to be the "European" and then the "American" way. I could see it both ways, a million ways inbetween and I could also eplain every little minute factor I changed and how that worked. There's more than one way to do things and if intentional all of them are valid.

Branford comes across as a serious passive aggressive, bordering on aggressive aggressive...
Every conversation is about something he's clearly bitter about and yet he wants to be ... ya but I don't care I'm above that..

Watch the Wynton video I posted. Really good.

I like the way Branford just spits it out. It just comes out of his mouth un-edited. He seems like he is responding to some leading questions by the interviewer. And he is very definite about how he feels about things. Of course, that's his opinion. He may or may not be correct, but he is thought provoking.

Interesting Wynton Marsalis interview and thoughts from jazz pianist Ethan Iversons Do the Math -site(lots of great interviews etc., for anyone interested). I don't really agree with everything but kind of understand more where these guys are coming from. http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/wynton ... guide.html