The new old sound

DO: As a man reconnecting with his son after so long, it must have been kind of special to finally make a record with your own father.

BM: Well, it was his record. I just stayed the hell out of the way. And when you're doing a record with your dad, he's the piano player, and I'm the saxophone player. It's not like a father and a son. It's like, he played one take, and I turned around and said, "Man, what the hell are you doing?!" And he doesn't go, "I'm your father." He said, "Man, I was tryin' to blah blah blah blah." I said, "Man, that sucked! Don't do that." And he said, "Naw, I don't think you're right, man." And I told him, "Trust me!" And he did the same thing to me. He would say, "You wanna play it like you mean it this time?"

There's never a point where it's a father and son anything. It's two cats playing. But it would be nice to have a father-son relationship with him. It would be nice. But my dad's, like, he's working on it. But he's more comfortable in Birdland. He likes Birdland better.

The Branford Marsalis Quartet performs April 28 at Sambuca-Addison.