Branford Marsalis News

Best jazz albums of 2011

Publication: Stanford Daily
Author: Alexandra Heeney
Date: December 7, 2011

“Songs of Mirth and Melancholy”–Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo
Jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis and pianist Joey Calderazzo’s much-anticipated duo album of original music is absolutely marvelous, with a mix of foot-tapping numbers like “One Way” and beautiful ballads like “The Bard Lachrymose.” The result is a wonderful album that shows off what a jazz duo is meant to do.
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Submitted by Bobby on December 8th, 2011 — 11:09am

Marsalis at the MFA

Publication: Boston Globe
Author: Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein
Date: December 8, 2011

Grammy-winner Branford Marsalis was at the Museum of Fine Arts last night for the first of two performances of “A Language Beyond Language,’’ a program that includes a talk and concert with his piano-playing pal, Joey Calderazzo . The duo has a new album, “Songs of Mirth and Melancholy,’’ which features a cover shot in the MFA’s Art of the Americas Wing. Last night’s event was sold out. Read more »

Submitted by Bobby on December 8th, 2011 — 10:09am

Jazz notes: Sinatra at Count Basie, Billy Hart, Los Mas Valientes, Branford Marsalis

Publication: Star-Ledger
Author: Tim Wilkins
Date: December 6, 2011

Marsalis at Kean
Branford Marsalis’ concert on Friday at Enlow Recital Hall of Kean University is the best of both worlds: It presents the tenor saxophonist in the comfortable company of his longtime quartet, with Eric Revis on bass, Justin Faulkner on drums and Joey Calderazzo on piano, but Marsalis and Calderazzo will also perform as a duo (as they appear on their 2011 CD, “Songs of Mirth and Melancholy”). Marsalis is a musical modernist who values lyrical content in jazz, as well as classical music: The CD contains homages to Brahms and Prokofiev. Read more »

Submitted by Bobby on December 6th, 2011 — 09:51am

Marsalis and TSO play it hot, and straight

Publication: The Globe and Mail
Author: Robert Everett-Green
Date: November 24, 2011

Toronto Symphony Orchestra

  • Branford Marsalis, saxophone
  • Andrey Boreyko, conductor
  • At Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on Wednesday

The last wind instrument to become a permanent part of the standard orchestra was the clarinet, in the mid-1700s. Membership in the club had closed by the time the saxophone showed up a century later.

Various composers, impressed by the sax’s wide compass and range of tone, have brought it into the orchestra as a guest, often an exotic one. Just about every major composer working during the 1930s had a fling with the saxophone, which by then had developed a racy career as a jazz instrument.

On Wednesday, the TSO played two short alto sax concertos from that period, one with strings and relatively straight, the other with winds and flavoured with ragtime. The soloist was Branford Marsalis, a much celebrated jazz musician who over the past decade has built up his repertoire of sax concertos with orchestra.

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Submitted by Bobby on November 28th, 2011 — 02:30pm

Classical music shakes its booty: Branford Marsalis at Roy Thomson Hall

Publication: The Toronto Star
Author: Peter Goddard
Date: November 23, 2011

The marriage of jazz and classical music has been as rocky as any Kim Kardashian romance, with often the same results: a bust-up that’s all noise.

So it was particularly heartening to see saxophonist Branford Marsalis, the Dr. Phil of musical matchmaking at Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday night where music straight out of the Euro-classical tradition aimed to show it could shake some booty. Read more »

Submitted by Bobby on November 28th, 2011 — 02:11pm