While making an mp3 from this record for today's show, I reread the liner notes for Branford Marsalis' Random Abstract written by his younger brother, album producer, and one-time down-the-hall-neighbor of the blog Delfayo Marsalis, and was reminded, not without nostalgia I'll admit, of the self-confident bullshit one can pour out regarding a subject one feels strongly about when one is in his or her early twenties. (not that he's wrong, necessarily, about any of this.) The paragraph below is a typical example of an attitude common around Famous Music College (site of said hallway) at this time (the late 80's). (At that time your opinion on fusion could either bond or antagonize people the way your opinion on, say, Obamacare for example, will today.)
I mean, he's not wrong here, but this sort of over-the-top, shouted from the mountaintop, lines-drawn-in-the-sand tone used here is typical of the average 22 year old, especially one who's been given this large a platform. And it's not as if I couldn't done something similar myself. Reading it I felt like I was right back there. I'm not knocking him, although I'm sure he feels the same way (like I said, he's not wrong), but surely he would dial it down a notch or five when expressing himself today.
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