Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2014 (Blues, R&B + Jazz): D’Angelo, Paul Rodgers, Branford Marsalis

Publication: Something Else!
Author: Nick DeRiso
Date: December 21, 2014

There were surprises, and there were comebacks. There were consolidations, and amazing innovations. But what bound together these Best of 2014 selections was a streak of soulful emotion.

No. 3 — BRANFORD MARSALIS – IN MY SOLITUDE: LIVE AT GRACE CATHEDRAL (JAZZ): Never one to shy away from a big moment, Branford Marsalis brought his saxophones — and nothing else — to one of jazz’s most iconic settings. The results don’t supercede Duke Ellington’s initial 1960s-era Sacred Concert — held there, as well — so much as endeavor to expand the vocabulary of that stirring triumph. Ellington, back then, was focused on blending jazz, black gospel and classical into a kind of large-scale, yet intimate tapestry of emotion. Marsalis instead crafted more in miniature but at the same time, pushed in his own way to blur the lines between post-bop jazz and contemporary classical. In place of the sacred, he delved into modernity of free-form improv — and the results were stunning.