News | Marsalis Music

American Girl Partners with 13-Year-Old Kate Connick and Her Father, Harry Connick, Jr.

IT’S A FIRST! AMERICAN GIRL UNVEILS TWO HISTORICAL CHARACTERS SHARING ONE UNFORGETTABLE JOURNEY THROUGH NEW ORLEANS IN 1853

Company Partners with 13-Year-Old Kate Connick and Her Father, Harry Connick, Jr.,
to Debut Original Song, “A Lot Like Me”

Middleton, WI—August 08, 2011: For the first time in American Girl’s 25-year history, the company is introducing two different historical characters, Cécile Rey^™ and Marie-Grace Gardner^™, in one six-book series set in 1850s New Orleans. The new characters—one African American and one Caucasian—show the power of friendship and community as they reach across the boundaries of race and class to help their families, friends, and city during a time of great need. To celebrate Cécile and Marie-Grace’s debut and the rich musical tradition of New Orleans, American Girl has partnered with 13-year-old Kate Connick and her father, world-renowned musician and actor Harry Connick, Jr., to create an original song—“A Lot Like Me”—with all proceeds benefiting the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans.
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Newport Jazz 2011: Miguel Zenón's Puerto Rican Songbook, Live In Concert

Publication: NPR.org
Author: Patrick Jarenwattananon
Date: August 8, 2011

Lately, the alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón has been listening to some of his parents’ favorite music. That is, he’s adapted a handful of classic popular songs from his native Puerto Rico for his jazz quartet. And on his forthcoming album Alma Adentro, he even contracted his friend Guillermo Klein to write backing arrangements for a 10-piece woodwind section. Lush and verdant — like the tropical isle which inspired them — the charts see a rare public performance at Newport’s central Quad Stage.

Visit NPR.org to stream Miguel’s set!

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Jazz to classical – Branford Marsalis appears with the Philadelphia Orchestra

Publication: The Times Union
Author: Joseph Dalton
Date: August 7, 2011

“Close enough for jazz” is a fun, shorthand way of saying that something’s “good enough.” Just don’t use the phrase in the presence of a serious jazz musician.

The expression certainly didn’t come up in conversation with saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who will be performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra on Wednesday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. But Marsalis did speak with surprising candor about the discipline and rigor involved in classical music. Read more »

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 »

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 »