The Words and Wisdom of Big Joe Burrell

Our very own blues legend gives more advice. Read carefully.

Let’s talk about actions; in particular, how you act on stage, and how you act toward other musicians.
Every musician is not the same. So, there will be times you’ll find yourself working with someone and perhaps their style is not the same as yours. You may not agree with them or what they’re doing. But, now, just because of that, there shouldn’t be any reason to show animosity toward them. Don’t get angry or stop having anything to do with them; or for that matter don’t look down on them.

I remember a time, years ago, back in Detroit, around the 1940’s. There was this musician, I’ll call him Bill; excellent saxophone player. We were at the Coney’s Club, one time. I’d been listening to him make this high-pitched squeal on the sax. I thought it was a pretty cool sound, you know. I knew he had been playing with some of the great musicians of our time, like Louis Armstrong. He’d been around. I was pretty impressed with it. I knew there was no key for it. So, being curious, I asked him, “Hey, Bill. How do you make that note, man?” Now, instead of being friendly and showing me, he acted like he couldn’t be bothered and got kinda angry toward me.

Years later, I saw him in New York City. He acted all friendly toward me, you know. “Hey, Joe. How ya doin’?” Then he told me how he was having trouble and he couldn’t get work. Well, I remembered how he’d acted toward me back in Detroit, so I didn’t help him. I could have given him a job, ‘cause we were on our way to play in Bermuda for six weeks. That was wrong of me. But you see, I was acting toward him the way he acted toward me.

Either way is not right. Don’t burn bridges. Musicians need to stick together. Who knows when you might need that person’s help. Maybe not today, but maybe tomorrow.

Nowadays, musicians are in five or six different bands, as you know. Personally, I believe you should commit yourself to one band, and make that band work. Otherwise, you spread yourself too thin and you may sell yourself too cheap. But, that’s a topic for another time. How it applies here is: if you need to be in all these bands to get along, you don’t want to set yourself up in a situation where people hear you talking about others or you don’t get work because you’ve treated another musician -- or even your fans poorly, looked down on them, or whatever. These kinds of actions, or this kind of angry behavior, will put you out of work. In other works: sooner or later, it’s gonna backfire.

But, perhaps the biggest mistake here, is the people talking about him could be the next ones in his place. So, don’t be talking him down. It could be you.

Musicians need to stick together. Like I was saying about myself with Bill, years later, in New York City: I should have helped him get work. Instead, I went and looked down on him ‘cause he’d looked down on me. That’s not good. Unfortunately, it’s pretty common. You make people angry and they’ll act angry back at you. It’s catching, like a domino effect. The key is to stick together in this world. It’s hard enough to make it as a musician. Don’t make it harder for yourself or the other musicians around you. Work it out.

People see musicians up on stage and they think, “Oh, look how happy he is. Being a musician’s a great life!” People think we have fun all the time. But it’s hard. We work hard. We practice hard. But, we don’t always get along or stick together, and we should. We need each other. We need the work, the money, and we need to help each other.

You may not like someone’s style of playing but don’t knock it or smirk or put it down. People can see that, especially while you’re on-stage. That’s what I mean about your actions. We’ve all heard the expression: Actions speak louder than words. Well, it’s true.