Name: Delfeayo Marsalis
Nationality: American   
Occupation: Trombonist, composer, producer
Current release: Delfeayo Marsalis's Uptown on Mardi Gras Day is out via Troubadour Jass.

If you enjoyed this Delfeayo Marsalis interview and would like to know more about his music and current live dates, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.



When did you first start getting interested in musical improvisation?

I dabbled a little in high school, but it really happened once I got to Berklee College. Some of the guys were in school with Branford, so they encouraged with what I would call good peer pressure.

My first recital there is still one of my favorite recordings of me improvising!

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances involving prominent use of improvisation captured your imagination in the beginning?

Early on, J.J. Johnson was the main influence, but I also checked out Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, the usuals. I came at it from the modern side and started checking out the early players (Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Be Webster) a little later.

The first album I transferred to cassette in the Berklee library was Sidney Bechet on Blue Note. So it was a great time and the school had great resources.



What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation? Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or historic lineage?

I consider my playing to be “inside” or mostly diatonic, so I like to play with musicians who have more of an “outside” approach. Still, I’d say my music is listener friendly, so in that respect, it’s part of a long tradition of what we would call “jazz” players.

My main goals are to play music that sounds good and will put my audiences in a good mood.

What was your own learning curve / creative development like when it comes to improvisation - what were challenges and breakthroughs?

The main challenge for me is to not play the things that I know will work. We call it improvisation, but it’s a combination of organizing ideas / phrases that are familiar and spontaneous creativity.

The biggest breakthrough for me came about a decade ago when I realized that what people love most about New Orleans music are the dance rhythms in solos, not the harmonic ingenuity. You can hear a difference in how I play on The Last Southern Gentlemen and Jazz Party that reflects more of the 2nd Line tradition.

Tell me about your instrument and/or tools, please. How would you describe the relationship with it? What are its most important qualities and how do they influence the musical results and your own performance?

I play a Courtois TRR802 trombone that was customized by Mike Corrigan. It’s more of a classical horn, which suits me do to my early training, but the modifications give me the type of sound I hear most … classically round with jazz directivity.

My horn also has stained-glass in one part, which is the thing most people comment on because of its uniqueness.

Can you talk about a work, event or performance in your career that's particularly dear to you? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

I played about 10 or 12 gigs with my dad for TLSG tour. One of the shows yielded our recording Kalamazoo.



There was a fair amount of drama around the date, because I flew from Boise, ID to Greensboro for a concert with the  North Carolina A&T jazz band on the one day off and then flew to Kalamazoo, MI for a kid’s show at 9am. It was the first concert with that particular band and ended up being one of my best live performances. Fortunately, it was recorded and we were able to release it on CD. The venue was supposed to record only 15 minutes of the show, but recorded the entire concert, so I believe it was meant to be.

The last song - a duo with my dad - "Do You Know What It means To Miss New Orleans," is probably the best single song that I’ve recorded to date and I believe, the best representation of who I am.

How do you feel your sense of identity influences your collaborations? Do you feel as though you are able to express yourself more fully in solo mode or, conversely, through the interaction with other musicians? Are you “gaining” or “sacrificing” something in a collaboration?

Being a trombone man, I’m all about collaborations and serving in a more supportive role. This is what a great producer does as well. I’d say that I’m perhaps too agreeable in some instances.

For example, I would have been more insistent on certain things when producing my older brothers back in my 20s. I mean, it worked out, but I see now that even though they would never admit it in the moment, they respected my opinion about the way the music sounded. But the constant “big brothering” made me more reserved than I should have been.

For example?

On Branford’s “Trio Jeepy,” there were a couple of endings that weren’t as clean as I would have liked, but Branford liked the spontaneity of it.



With Wynton’s larger ensemble recordings, I should have insisted on the band playing more balanced in the room instead of relying on “fixing it in the mix.” Again, not anything catastrophic, but we’re always trying to create the best possible product.

Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his perspective, what kind of materials have turned to be particularly transformable and stimulating for you?

Well, more people organize than improvise and I consider to be myself the former more than the latter. I like to interject bluesy ideas that might be equated with funk or rhythm and blues into solos lines.

I’m hoping to add more modern elements, as well, but it’s a never-ending process.

When you're improvising, does it actually feel like you're inventing something on the spot – or are you inventively re-arranging patterns from preparations, practise or previous performances?

Haha!

To you, are there rules in improvisation? If so, what kind of rules are these?

Yes, certainly. It’s a lot like talking or “using your words.” The basic rule is that the more complicated the message, the simpler or more inviting the delivery has to be. This can be from the stand point of song placement or solo in a set.

The other rule is to play your best stuff first. So, for me it’s something at a slow or medium tempo and relaxed.

In a live situation, decisions between creatives often work without words. How does this process work – and how does it change your performance compared to a solo performance?

Well, I never play solo, so, there’s that.

When you share the bandstand with someone for a number of shows, you understand exactly who they are, better than if they told you verbally. The real great musicians are versed in the different styles and improvisational approaches, so they can accompany just about anyone. Listen to Duke Ellington & John Coltrane vs. Duke Ellington & Louis Armstrong.



Ellington knew exactly how to support each one perfectly and it often meant not playing (interfering) during Coltrane’s solos. Ellington also understood that Coltrane’s journey was more a singular one than Armstrong’s, so he let him go.

Armstrong was the first truly great soloist, but he preferred to have a supporting cast. Not that one is any better than the other, just different, and great musicians support each other’s journeys.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? In which way is it different between your solo work and collaborations?

Because of my production background, I find that I’m often expected to make certain decisions or take control of situations. I’d much rather be a sideman at this point, but I seldom get those calls!

Even though I lead a lot of situations, I always try my best to support the leader as a sideman.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and performance and what are some of your strategies and approaches of working with them?

I always try to have my band play in a way that is most conducive and productive for the audience, given the space. We can’t always control things like the equipment or the engineer, so we just have to do our best each time.

I prefer playing smaller venues because of the proximity of the audience. The main thing for a larger space is to have an engineer that is able to make the adjustments necessary for the audience to enjoy the performance. I once played at a church in Cincinnati that wasn’t going to sound good with the set-up we had (2nd line music with a drum set). There are other examples, too, but in that moment, you can only make the best possible decisions for all involved.

That’s really what we work for years practicing and rehearsing for - not when everything is right, but when things are certainly not!

In a way, improvisations remind us of the transitory nature of life. What, do you feel, can music and improvisation express and reveal about life and death?

Improvisation mirrors life. Music doesn’t have to be simple, but it doesn’t have to be complex either. Some people are kind and considerate, others are self-centered and selfish, and there’s a whole lot of variations betwixt the two.

For the performer, it’s important to know to what degree he / she is naturally one or the other and to what degree can we put our personal issues aside (like Louis Armstrong apparently did so often) and use our training/hard-work to create music that has both uplifting and healing properties.

I’m not opposed to any genre or style if those two elements are at the forefront. I mean, why else play music?