Branford Marsalis - Songs of Mirth and Melancholy

Songs of Mirth and Melancholy
June 2011
  1. One Way
  2. The Bard Lachrymose
  3. La Valse Kendall
  4. Face on the Barroom Floor
  5. Endymion
  6. Die Trauernde
  7. Hope
  8. Precious
  9. Bri's Dance
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Few contemporary pairings of saxophonist and pianist have been as inspired and productive as that of Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo.  Since replacing the late Kenny Kirkland in Marsalis’ quartet in 1998, Calderazzo has blended seamlessly into the uncompromising creative atmosphere of the ensemble and revealed new facets of his own conception, while Marsalis in turn has been inspired by the pianist’s challenging instrumental support and growing strength as a composer.  The relationship grows ever deeper, as documented on the new Marsalis Music CD Songs of Mirth and Melancholy.

Adding duo performances to their quartet collaboration is an idea launched on the golf course – or, more precisely, the 19th hole.  As Calderazzo explains it, “The duo originated when Branford and I would play a couple of numbers at celebrity golf tournaments.  But we really took it to another level at the 2009 Newport Jazz Festival, where we played four tunes in a short set and the interaction was really happening.  That’s when we decided to record.”

The session was a logical step for Marsalis, who has previously displayed his duo prowess in albums with his father Ellis (Loved Ones, Columbia, 1995) and Harry Connick, Jr. (Occasion, Volume 2 of Marsalis Music’s “Connick on Piano” series, 2005, and the complementary Marsalis Music DVD A Duo Occasion, filmed at the 2005 Ottawa Jazz Festival).  “I have only played duo with Harry, my dad and Joey,” the saxophonist says, “and with Joey I can go in different directions.”

As in his previous duo encounters, the goal for Marsalis is musicality rather than technicality.  “Playing duos is not a ‘you know the chords, I know the chords, let’s go’ situation,” he emphasizes.  “It’s not just starting and stopping at the same time.  I need a constant level of engagement from everyone when I play, and the drums in a jazz group can change the equation, in the sense that it can cover up people in a band who are just playing their parts.  The duo is more like classical chamber music.  You have to listen to each other or it doesn’t work.”

Calderazzo concurs.  “I like the idea of improvising together, instead of ‘backing’ a soloist.  If you trust what I’m trying to do, the music we make together will be far more interesting than what you could do on your own, and my partners have that same freedom to make what I do sound better.  I can throw anything at Branford, and his ears are so good that he’ll always figure out something to play.  And the variety of ways that he can play makes the duo really interesting.”

Marsalis has similar enthusiasm for the pianist, whose growth he has witnessed first hand.  “From the time I met Joey, when he was 14, I knew that he had a passion for music, and I always wondered how he would sound if he had more of the tradition under his belt.  With our band you have to know the tradition, so he started checking things out; but it was more he than I.  As my dad says, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him thirsty.  Joey was parched – not because he rejected other styles so much as never having been exposed to them – and he is not the kind of dude who backs away from challenges.”

“Branford has forced me to step it up,” the pianist concurs.  “My ability to make music is far better than it was when I joined the band.  I put myself out there now, painting myself into corners to see if I can figure out the puzzle.  That’s the great thing about getting older.  I don’t care about what the audience might think if I screw up, I just care about being the best musician I can be.”

These attitudes fuel the nine performances that comprise Songs of Mirth and Melancholy.  “We’ve all heard duo records that are just Music Minus Two, where guys don’t take advantage of the format and just play the same choruses on the same tunes.  They pretend that the bass player and the drummer are still there; but the object is not to play in the same way that you play in other situations.  You have to change the conversation as well as the setting.  Once you know the form, you can just react to each other, which you can’t do when a group gets larger.”

“The first things I rule out in duo playing are walking bass lines and ostinatos,” Calderazzo adds.  “The idea is to capture a spirit, a vibe, to improvise completely instead of just playing things that you know you can play.”

One key for both musicians is to absorb a wide variety of influences without feeling shackled by them.  “I can play a little like a lot of guys, and a little of it all comes through,” Calderazzo admits.  “But I could spend a lifetime trying to play like Herbie [Hancock] or McCoy [Tyner] and never do it.  In recent years I feel that I’m finally developing my own stuff, and since I can’t tell you what my direction is, maybe it really is my stuff.”  As Marsalis sees it, “We are all products of our environment, but I’ve always felt that I could improve by borrowing from other people’s environments.  So when I listen to one of my new pieces, ‘The Bard Lachrymose,’ I can hear things that I lifted from Prokofiev and Schumann.  I’m not trying to write things that are intentionally hard; but because I’m drawing on so much that I’ve heard, what results cannot be approached with the familiar methodology.”

The nine tracks on Songs of Mirth and Melancholy show the diverse results that can flow from these shared concepts.  In addition to “The Bard Lachrymose,” which reflects lessons learned from Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett about liberating melodies from rigid bar-line constructions, Marsalis contributed two other new compositions, “Precious” (“I went home and wrote that one right after seeing the movie”) and “Endymion.”  There are two new Calderazzo compositions, the jaunty opener “One Way,” which nods in form and title to Ron Carter’s “Round Trip,” and the tender “La Valse Kendall,” plus new versions of Calderazzo’s “Hope” (first heard on the Branford Marsalis Quartet disc Braggtown) and “Bri’s Dance” (which both opened and closed Calderazzo’s solo CD Haiku).  The duo also covers Wayne Shorter’s “Face on the Barroom Floor,” a longtime Marsalis favorite from the Weather Report album Sportin’ Life, and the Brahms song “Die Trauernde,” which Marsalis identifies as “the inspiration for how we approach everything as a duo.”

As usual, the program allows Marsalis to display his multi-instrumental chops.  He is heard on tenor saxophone on “One Way,” “Endymion” and “Precious,” and soprano saxophone on the remaining numbers.  “When I hear a song in my head, I can tell within the first couple of bars which horn will be the right horn,” he says.

Marsalis also has no doubts about where to record.  Like his previous three Marsalis Music discs and the two by Calderazzo that Marsalis produced for the label, Songs of Mirth and Melancholy was taped in Durham, North Carolina’s Hayti Center.  “I love recording in the South because of the pace,” Marsalis explains, “and I love Hayti because it’s not really a studio, so you don’t deal with the usual studio hang-ups.  There is a special property in the room, achieved by accident that studios and concert halls pay millions to achieve.  The sound is incredibly intimate, and very naked.”

The same could be said of the sounds that Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo have brought forth in this passionate and profound duo collection.

Please visit our YouTube channel to watch the video “Inspirations and Methods;” part 1 in a series of videos that focus on the making of the duo’s debut album.

Branford Marsalis - Saxophones
Joey Calderazzo - Piano

Other Releases by Branford Marsalis

Upward Spiral
Branford Marsalis
2016
The Branford Marsalis Quartet with Special Guest Kurt Elling Soar on Upward Spiral.
 
First Meeting of Acclaimed Ensemble and Singer Yields a Program of Small Group Jazz with Voice for the 21st Century
 
It is no secret that the Branford Marsalis Quartet can be as freewheeling off the bandstand as in performance.
In My Solitude: Live at Grace Cathedral
Branford Marsalis
2014

Branford Marsalis continues to prove that there is no context too large or small to contain his gifts. A reigning master of the jazz quartet format, dedicated champion of the duo setting, in-demand soloist of classical ensembles both chamber and orchestral, and session-enhancing special guest on an array of rock, roots and pop performances over the course of his career, his ever-broadening creativity and instrumental command have created the profile of a multi-dimensional musician with few peers among contemporary performers. Read more »

Four MFs Playin' Tunes
Branford Marsalis
2012

Branford Marsalis           saxophones
Joey Calderazzo             piano
Eric Revis                       bass
Justin Faulkner              drums
  

…the album is a knockout: hard nosed and hyperacute, tradition minded but modern, defined by the high-wire grace of his working band.” -Nate Chinen, New York Times

Legendary saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his tight-knit working band invite audiences into their world of musical cohesion with the release of Four MFs Playin’ Tunes. On this nimble and sparkling album, the band respects the emotional intent of each song and executes that intent with musicianship focused solely on serving the purpose of each tune. Read more »

Metamorphosen
Branford Marsalis
2009

Branford Marsalis - Saxophones
Joey Calderazzo - Piano
Eric Revis - Bass
Jeff “Tain” Watts - Drums

Time flies when you are making great music, as Branford Marsalis will be the first to attest. “I had no idea that two years had passed since we made our last album,” says the celebrated saxophonist, composer, producer and leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet. The realization prompted a simple charge to Quartet members Joey Calderazzo, Eric Revis and Jeff “Tain”Watts. Read more »

Braggtown
Branford Marsalis
2006

Over the course of its life - and most particularly on its previous Marsalis Music scs - the Branford Marsalis Quartet has revealed an ability to express every kind of emotion, including an informed sense of history (on the label-launching Footsteps of Our Fathers in 2002 and the 2004 DVD Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ Live in Amsterdam), a sensitivity to other artistic disciplines (Romare Bearden Revealed from 2003) and a profound sense of intimacy that stretched the concept of a “ballads album” (2004’s Eternal). Read more »

Harry and Branford: A Duo Occasion
Branford Marsalis
2005

Pianist Harry Connick, Jr. and saxophonist Branford Marsalis are old friends who regularly
surprise the music world with their eclectic tastes and ability to deliver in a variety of idioms.
When the pair got together to record Occasion from Marsalis Music’s Connick on Piano
series, the setting may have been unexpected, but the results were typically challenging and
satisfying. After the positive response that Occasion received upon its spring 2005 release,
further encounters by the pair were inevitable. One particularly memorable set, from the Read more »

A Love Supreme Live In Amsterdam
Branford Marsalis
2004

For Marsalis Music’s second DVD release, label founder Branford Marsalis and his quartet have been captured in a complete performance of John Coltrane’s 1964 masterpiece A Love Supreme. This legendary suite, which tenor saxophonist Marsalis included on his label’s premier release, Footsteps of Our Fathers, was performed at Amsterdam’s Bimhuis during a European tour in March 2003. Read more »

Eternal
Branford Marsalis
2004

For Rafi Zabor’s full liner notes for Eternal, please follow this link.

Many musicians create collections of ballads to serve as background listening in one-dimensional moods. Branford Marsalis is an uncommon musician, however and Eternal is no ordinary ballad album. The new CD, Branford’s third on his Marsalis Music label, will be released on September 14. Read more »

Romare Bearden Revealed
Branford Marsalis
2003

Branford Marsalis Quartet
Branford Marsalis  saxophones
Joey Calderazzo  piano
Eric Revis  bass
Jeff “Tain” Watts  drums

Special Guests
Harry Connick, Jrpiano
 Delfeayo Marsalis  trombone
Ellis Marsalis  piano
Jason Marsalis  drums
 Wynton Marsalis  trumpet
Reginald Veal  bass
Doug Wamble  guitar

Jazz musicians have frequently inspired and been inspired by visual artists; but the interchange has never been more direct and intense than on Romare Bearden Revealed. This disc, comprised entirely of newly recorded music, was produced by saxophonist Branford Marsalis in celebration of “The Art of Romare Bearden,” a major retrospective that opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 2003. Read more »

Footsteps of Our Fathers
Branford Marsalis
2002

Branford Marsalis has never been one to stand still. The acclaimed saxophonist forges new paths with an assurance born of lifelong dedication and keenly honed knowledge, in the company of his stunning quartet. Together they have created Footsteps of Our Fathers, a joyous homage to jazz immortals living and dead who helped shape a value system that inspires not only Branford’s playing and writing, but also his determination to ensure that true creativity will be properly documented through his new Marsalis Music label. Read more »