A Conversation with Don Braden

AAJ: Are you getting paid?

DB: Definitely getting paid. Financially, to have that gig has kept it possible not to have to travel so much to make the ends meet or do any computer work. Basically when I got that gig, I was able constantly let go of any consulting work and so it remains.

AAJ: A little bird told me that you had created a software program?

DB: Right, right. It's actually a very simple program. It's for Festival Productions and I got the gig because I was recommended by John Lewis's son. He and I went to Harvard together. John was working for Festival Productions back in those days and they were looking for a way to track the ticket sales in a database format to report stuff. I wrote him a pretty straight-ahead program that gathered the ticket information from various sources, Ticketmaster and American Express, and tracked all the different sources, different buyers. It had a database for the buyers and a database of all the concerts, basically a way for them to monitor exactly what tickets were sold to what. Who bought them and then print out some reports based that information. It was cool, a pretty cool little program. I don't think they're using it now, but they used it for about four, five years. It was fun to get in that office and work with those guys, Mr. Wein, of course.

AAJ: Let's talk about your last two albums on RCA Victor, The Voice of the Saxophone and Fire Within.

DB: The main thing is the first one was more kind of a survey of different songs by saxophonist and it was an octet presentation. The focus was more on the arranging and more on the songs. The new record is more focused on improvisation and still on the compositions, in that it is a quartet oriented compositions, but it's still a lot of freer blowing and a lot more space in there for me to play. Of course, I've gotten better as a player anyway and as a writer. That's the on going process, I'm always working on what I've been doing, so I'm just getting better. That's the main difference. I'm just more out front on this new record. That's probably the most significant difference. The energy level is stepped up a notch. I've grown up and that's also the focus of the record as well. Between those two things, there's more edge in the sound on a Fire Within. It's the regular group, Dwayne Burno (bass), Cecil Brooks III (drums), Darrell Grant (piano), that's my working quartet. Those guys always sound good. We're always working together, well, not always, but whenever we can, we work together. We're actually doing a tour, this tour that's coming up in Baltimore and D. C., New York, Philadelphia. Then I did the London segment with Julian Joseph (piano) and Mark Mondesir (drums) and that came from working in a club in London for a few nights and just falling in love with the way these guys played. They sounded so good. I really wanted a chance to be documented with them. Julian's own records are really good and I just love the way he plays. I just wanted to get those guys on the record and it came out great. It enhanced my ability to work there, plus it enhanced Julian's ability to work here. So we've got a little partnership going. It's really going to be a long term thing, with Julian and those guys. With "Tain" (Jeff Watts) and Christian (McBride), of course, Kenny Kirkland was supposed to make that session. That's just a dream band. Those are guy's I've always loved and always wanted to work with and Christian's on three of my records anyways, form the old days. "Tain" and I go back to the Wynton days. It's a dream band. A band with guys that are out there, really pushing the envelope that I wanted to get together with. Of course, Kenny Kirkland was squarely in that scene, but since he passed away, we didn't get to do it. That's when I decided to leave the piano chair open.

AAJ: So that's why the pieces with "Tain" and Christian are in trio form.

DB: Yes, actually, we got a couple guys on the phone to fill it up, to fill up that spot, then I thought, "You know what? Let me just leave it open and let Kenny's spirit fill it." And that's basically what happened. We left it free to pay tribute to him by leaving that chair open.

AAJ: Jazz, more so than any other art form, has had to endure such tragic, untimely passing from its major voices like Kenny Kirkland, Albert Ayler, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Woody Shaw.

DB: And Clifford Brown.

AAJ: With that knowledge at hand, what is the most important aspect for a young musician?

DB: I think it's more important for them to learn to play well first. I think they should live. I think the cats who died for the most part pushed themselves beyond the limit. I don't think that's really what the music's about. Cats just did because that's what the deal was at the time, the drug thing, and cats talking stuff to women and so they're shooting them or whatever. That's all some B. S., man. The real deal is to live life and express yourself and it's not about rushing to get stuff down just in case you die early. It's really about living and expressing what you live and living on a high level. To these young people, number one, live. Keep breathing. Number two, practice your butt off and get great as soon as you can, whatever it takes. But you've got to live first. You've got to have something to express, so I think that's the priority. The priority is that. And then document, when you're ready to document. Don't rush to document. Really push yourself to get yourself up there. Play with as many cats as you can and then when you feel like you're really swinging, you've got a sound. You have something to say. You have the individual identity, which is crucial to get to as soon as you can, but you can't rush it. You just have to practice and go live life. Then you develop as a human being. If you practice, than you develop that individual musical voice, if you practice your instrument. You've got to live life to develop as an individual and then you're cool. It takes care of itself. And when you get to that point, then you document, and you keep documenting. And learn about business. You really have to study your business and know what's going on because people will take advantage of you. That's another reason not to rush when you're so young because people will take advantage of you. It's better to learn what you're doing than to jump out there too quick. You can get ripped off. You get some tunes down, but you get ripped off. It's better to learn what you're doing, get your voice together and when you're ready on all levels, jump in and record and keep recording.

AAJ: So can we expect to see you on the cover of Fortune anytime soon?

DB: I would say that I've not mastered it. I would say it's not extremely difficult, but it is difficult. I certainly wouldn't say that I've mastered it. There's a lot that I don't know, but I know some things. I've been out here for a while. I'm no longer a kid in this business. I've got some stuff together, had some record deals, and all this stuff. The basics are pretty straight ahead, but you do have to spend time. You need some experience. Plus, it's always changing. The political landscape of the music does vary from year to year. For instance, right now, retail is really bad. There's behavior patterns are based on that.

AAJ: Let's talk about that. Record retail sales are the lowest they've been in years. And it's not just in our music, but in rock, across the board, it's getting hit pretty hard, what do you attribute to that dramatic decline?

DB: Probably the fact that there is so much to choose from in the world, cable TV, internet, not to mention life, normal life. I think all the different choices, people are not just running out and buying records. Just like in live music, people aren't running out to jazz gigs as much as they used to in the '80s. The other factor is the economy. As much as they talk about how good the economy is, I think people are less sure of themselves compared to what they were in the '80s because of all the downsizing. So people are less likely to go out and spend some money and put it on their credit card than they used to be in the '80s. The '80s was like, "Let's just put it on a credit card and everything's cool." Everyone was always hanging out at the clubs. The clubs were always jammed in the '80s. Now in the '90s, people don't come out unless they know what it is and they know it's going to be happening. Then they'll invest, but now it's much more of an investment decision to come out to the gigs or to buy a record.

AAJ: Ironic, considering the Clinton administration and Wall Street says it's the best economy's been in recent history.

DB: I suppose in some way, according to certain indicators. If you look at the numbers maybe, but if you look at people's moral, just how they feel about their money, I think that's harder. I know I keep very close tabs on what I spend. Even though I'm not a victim of downsizing, my wife is. She's never been downsized, but she's had to downsize people over at Xerox, where she works. Corporations are going through this phase where they want to cut all the time to show a profit, year over year growth, profit growth, which in my mind is pretty absurd, but it's their company so what can I do. No one asked me. I think that influences what people do. I think that's why retail's hurting, one of the reasons, one of the main reasons.

AAJ: Are you caught up in the frenzy of IPO's of all the internet stocks? Amazon.com is worth more on paper than all the book chains in the world put together, ever will be.

DB: Yes, I am. I haven't bought any yet, but I'm trying to keep an eye on Amazon and different ones, just to see what happens. I don't have any money to invest in stocks. I'm a mutual fund guy. I need to get some more money together before I go do some trading. I also travel. Trading, you have to pay pretty close attention to it on a regular basis to the market and I'm not ready to make that commitment as of yet. I'm very interested in the stock market and in that whole scene, internet stocks and other kinds of stocks too, computer stocks, bio stocks, pharmaceutical and stuff.

AAJ: Play Monday morning analyst with me for a minute, are the internet stocks over appraised?

DB: I would say so, for the most part. Just based on the fact that they are jumping up so much, certain ones. So I would proceed with definite caution. But there is a lot of room for growth, so we'll see. The stock market has so much smoke and mirrors involved with stock prices. That's the one thing I've learned, even from mutual funds. They go up in unpredictable ways that don't necessarily mirror performance. It's all about the news. What's the news? Oh, the stock went up. Is the company a good company or not? I don't know, but the news says it's such and such. Oh, five more points.

AAJ: What does the word jazz mean to Don Braden?

DB: Swing! Swing! Swing! All the great jazz, always was swinging. Whatever the different kinds of stuff, there's always a feeling of forward momentum, tap your feet, snap your fingers, dance a little bit, whatever. Even the faster stuff always had a groove to it. So swing is the first thing. The other things I think are important are having a great sound, a great personal, beautiful sound. All the great jazz musicians always had that. And then there's substance. The substance of harmony, and melody, and rhythm that made the music so edifying and so interesting, fascinating. Most important of all, well, not most important, but just as important is the emotional and spiritual power and passion that the music has. The "Fire Within," that's what that's about. It's about that emotion, putting yourself in five hundred percent into a tune, or a solo, or a night. Just really putting yourself out there. It's tough because the audiences can be cruel sometimes and all, but that's still your job. That's why you practice your craft, so when you put your stuff out there, it's going to be presented in the most beautiful way possible. Although, you never quite know what's going to happen. That's the joy of improvisation.

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