Joey Calderazzo News

Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo - Songs of Mirth and Melancholy (Marsalis Music, 2011)

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 »

Submitted by Bobby on September 8th, 2011 — 09:40am

Branford Marsalis And Joey Calderazzo: A 'Melancholy' Duo

Publication: All Things Considered
Author: Kevin Whitehead
Date: August 22, 2011

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis and pianist Joey Calderazzo’s Songs of Mirth and Melancholy is longer on the latter, taking cues from the brooding romantic music of 19th century Europe. They play one Brahms song straight, with soprano sax taking the vocal line. And Marsalis says he borrowed isolated chords or ideas from Wagner, Prokofiev and Schumann for his tune “The Bard Lachrymose.” It sounds like it wants to be a 19th century art song. Read more »

Submitted by Bobby on August 29th, 2011 — 12:42pm

Branford Marsalis/Joey Calderazzo: Songs of Mirth and Melancholy

Publication: Financial Times

Author: Mike Hobart
Date: August 13, 2011

Haunting sax entwines with rhapsodic piano in this largely original repertoire

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis has an equally full-bodied tone on this lovely studio recording with pianist Joey Calderazzo, but here the emphasis is more on melodic purity and the cadences of classical romance than urban grit.

Read more »
Submitted by Bobby on August 15th, 2011 — 10:08am

CD: Marsalis and Calderazzo

Publication: Rifftides
Author: Doug Ramsey
Date: August 1, 2011

A dozen years of togetherness in Marsalis’s quartet have bred familiarity that allows the saxophonist and the pianist to flow through one another’s thoughts. In these duets, their interactions and reactions are as profound on the mirthful pieces as on the melancholy. Marsalis wrote three of the songs, Calderazzo four, Wayne Shorter and Johannes Brahms one apiece. The Brahms “Die Trauernde” is an art song, but then so are all the others. Influences as diverse as Mahler and Ron Carter may be apparent, but categories don’t apply here. Well, one category does; this is fine chamber music. Read more »

Submitted by Bobby on August 8th, 2011 — 11:18am

Jazz and Blues: Branford Marsalis + Joey Calderazzo, Songs of Mirth and Melancholy

Publication: TONE Audio
Writer: Jim Macnie
Date: May 2011

Seems like piano/sax duets offer lots of elbowroom. In the large, each participant has leeway when it comes to bending a melody or messing with a tempo. Indeed, it was an extended pas de deux from Cecil Taylor and Jimmy Lyons that helped cement my love of jazz decades ago, and from the Steve Lacy/Mal Waldron exchanges to the Archie Shepp/Horace Parlan outings, I’ve been a fan of the keys and reeds setting ever since. Two new titles present their participants in a similar environment. Read more »

Submitted by Bobby on August 8th, 2011 — 11:17am