press

Publication: Fairfax News
Date: September 21, 2011

Known for his unmatched technique, forward-thinking approach and incredible versatility, three-time Grammy-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis is a member of the first family of jazz and has performed with many 20^th century jazz giants, including Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Sonny Rollins. George Mason University’s Center for the Arts presents “An Evening with Branford Marsalis,” featuring a program of original compositions and modern jazz standards, at the Concert Hall on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 at 8 p.m.

Rounding out the Branford Marsalis Quartet are pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner. Read more »

Publication: Associated Press
Author: Chevel Johnson 
Date: September 19, 2011

New Orleans’ rich melting-pot history has always been a big draw for authors.

But telling it through the eyes of two antebellum 9-year-old girls — one black, one white — offers unusual perspectives on life’s challenges in the mid-19th century.

American Girl Brand LLC, a subsidiary of toy giant Mattel Inc., usually introduces its dolls (and the book characters based on them) one at a time.

In August, the company launched two — called Cecile Rey and Marie-Grace Gardner — along with a six-book series set in New Orleans that details their fictional lives, friendship, and tests they and family members face in dealing with the spread of yellow fever in 1853. Read more »

Check out Eric Jackson’s Jazz on WGBH episode highlighting the music of Branford Marsalis. Listen here. Read more »

Miguel Zenón and host Josh Jackson talk about Miguel’s latest project on The Checkout. Miguel’ discusses his personal connections to the songs featured on the album and the histories of the original composers. Check out the interview here. Read more »

Publication: The Seattle Weekly
As Told By: Chris Kornelis
Date: September 14, 2011

The following is edited from an interview with jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis, whose latest album, Songs of Mirth and Melancholy, is a collaboration with pianist Joey Calderazzo.

You put on old records and they always sound better. Why are they better? I started listening to a lot of classical music, and that really solidified the idea that the most important and the strongest element of music is the melodic content. Read more »

Publication: The Washington Informer
Date: September 8, 2011

On August 25, as the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approached, one of the most positive responses to the catastrophe that devastated New Orleans was unveiled – The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. Located at 1901 Bartholomew Street in the heart of the Musicians’ Village in the Upper Ninth Ward, and named for one of the city’s most influential pianists, educators and living legends, the Center will serve as a state of the art facility for the preservation and ongoing development of New Orleans music and culture.

Like Musicians’ Village, the innovative New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity project that has provided 72 single-family homes and 10 elder-friendly duplex units for the city’s displaced musicians, the Ellis Marsalis Center was the brainchild of one of Ellis’s sons, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and one of his most celebrated pupils, singer/pianist/actor Harry Connick, Jr. “Jazz is a tremendous part of the city’s tradition,” Connick explains, “and after the storm we had to do more than just hope that the tradition would continue.” Read more »

Publication: Music and More
Author: Tim Niland
Date: September 7, 2011

Tenor and soprano saxophonist Branford Marsalis pares back to a saxophone and piano duet format, joined by longtime colleague Joey Calderazzo for a subtle ballad oriented program. Slow themes abound, but on the two pieces where Marsalis switches to tenor saxophone, the opener “One Way” and “Endymion” his unique muscularity on the bigger horn comes through. Read more »

Publication: Mercury News
Author: Richard Scheinin
Date: August 24, 2011

Branford Marsalis: The great saxophonist’s quartet has my vote as the cockiest, and maybe the best, working band in jazz. It pours through Coltrane burnouts, hard swing, elegiac ballads (a la Keith Jarrett in the ’70s) or takes you back to jazz’s early days with W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.” Every time it takes the stage, some kind of gleeful workout is bound to happen, some sort of display of macho virtuosity that turns into spiritual exploration. Read more »

Publication: 80 Grados
Author: Mariana Reyes Angleró
Date: September 2, 2011

The first section of this article is about Miguel Zenón’s latest project written in Spanish, and the second section includes an interview in English with Miguel Zenón Quartet bassist, Hans Glawischnig.

Para bajar o subir el diapasón en medio de un show los jazzistas suelen recurrir a los estándar como “Caravan” o “Round About Midnight”. Ese no es el caso del saxofonista Miguel Zenón. “Yo prefiero tocar una canción del repertorio latinoamericano, siempre lo hago”. Así empezó a hacer arreglos de distintos temas del cancionero popular y lo tenía listo para tocarlo con su cuarteto cuando hiciera falta. Read more »

Publication: Louisiana Weekly
Author: Geraldine Wyckoff
Date: August 29, 2011

Big Chief Little Charles Taylor of the White Cloud Hunters Indian gang and Joe Jenkins, who played percussion alongside Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., quietly sat on the front porch of Jenkins’ house in the Musicians’ Village. The two Mardi Gras Indian veterans watched as a flock of media armed with notepads and cameras scurried around the newly completed Ellis Marsalis Center for Music just across the street. Inside, internationally renowned jazz superstars saxophonist Branford Marsalis and pianist/singer Harry Connick Jr. were holding court, talking about the Center that their mutual visions, determination and much work helped create.

That it is altogether possible that one day the two Musicians’ Village residents could share their sewing, singing, and tambourine skills with young people in a multi-million dollar facility almost seems incongruous. Equally unlikely is that this Center, complete with a state-of-the-art, acoustically superior performance and recording hall, sits in the Upper Ninth Ward. Not that long ago, the coming together of such disparate entities would have been deemed, well, at least improbable. Read more »