What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.
But recently I began to feel that maybe I wouldn’t be able to do what I want to do and need to do with American musicians, who are imprisoned behind these bars music’s got these bars and measures you know.
There’s an album by Antonio Carlos Jobim – the album with ‘The Girl From Ipanema.’ That’s the most seductive music ever.
Before you can make good music, you just have to shut up. Then the music can say what it has to say.
We have been working with Habitat for Humanity and we have built eighty homes, 80% of which are being lived in by New Orleans’ musicians. It is called the Musicians’ Village and at the center is the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.
I’m a Cancerian, the typical crab with the tough outer shell and the soft bit in the middle. I don’t think I’ll ever come to terms with people being unnecessarily nasty, but I can take it if someone doesn’t like my music – I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.