Branford Marsalis

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

I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.

You hear it in your brain. Whatever makes sense. Some songs work well as quartet songs, sometimes they don't.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

When I have to compete with John Coltrane and Miles Davis and Louie Armstrong on iTunes, which I'm doing now, that's a problem. That means that jazz is not being heard by younger audiences.

But with each passing year and each new study, the evidence for the genetic contribution to individual and group differences becomes more firmly established than ever.