When Wynton Met Willie

Music aside, personality-wise, how is it working together? Is one of you …
NELSON: On drugs?

That's not exactly where I was going.
MARSALIS: We really follow each other. I think we're gracious that way. There's no crazy soloing over one another.

NELSON: We [Nelson and his harmonica player] can't play anything more than they [Marsalis and his quartet] can play. There's only so many chords, and they know 'em better than we do. Honestly, I don't read music that well. Or I don't read well enough to hurt my playing, as the old joke goes.

MARSALIS: And it's not like we need to translate. We're coming from the same American experience. The songs he picked to play—"Bright Lights, Big City," "Basin Street Blues"—we don't need an arrangement for those. The grooves we play are shuffle grooves, swing. We grew up playing that music. There wasn't one time where we had to stop and say, "Willie, what do you mean?" We are together.

NELSON: Even though some of us may not look all that together.

I heard you two barely rehearse.
MARSALIS: Willie doesn't do two or three takes. Just once, and then, "That's good, gentlemen." That's how we play. We record live.

NELSON: If you can play, then what the f––– do you want to rehearse for? Just play.

Willie, you still tour like mad. How different are the shows with Wynton?
NELSON: Honestly, it's a lot easier for me to come out and work with Wynton and his guys, because in my shows I'll go out and play for two hours or more. With Wynton, they've already played for an hour and a half before I come out. I come out and do the last 30 minutes, and all of a sudden I've had a great night.

Wynton, was there any sort of intimidation factor in working with a legend like Willie?
MARSALIS: I've been around musicians all my life. My daddy was a musician, and we played all kind of gigs. I played with philharmonic orchestras when I was 22 years old. That's intimidating! This man is natural. He makes you feel at home. When he comes to rehearsal, there's not 65 people around him, scurrying to make it all right.

NELSON: Send in the dogs to clear the place out first.

MARSALIS: It's not like that. He's very approachable.

NELSON: We used to work in clubs where we had to build up the crowd. We'd hop from table to table, have a drink with everybody, hoping they'd show up tomorrow night. By the time you made your rounds you're about half drunk.

MARSALIS: How could you not love this man?

© 2008