Doc's Jazz Music Reviews

One of my favorite albums by Branford Marsalis is his Quartets latest, "Braggtown", which was released in 2006.

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"Tenor/soprano saxophonist Branford Marsalis is a master of the "burnout"--an intense but deliberate and focused style of jazz that has its roots in John Coltrane. Unlike many Trane-ologists, however, Marsalis uses Trane's concepts instead of the master's notes. On Braggtown, named for a neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina, Marsalis delivers a virtual clinic on how to play 21st-century jazz, with drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, pianist Joey Calderazzo, and bassist Eric Revis. The pieces range from the uptempo "Jack Baker" and "Blakzilla"--Watts's polyrhythmic props to Godzilla--to the reverent rendition of the 17th-century composer Henry Purcell’s "O Solitude," and Revis's intense, long-form composition, "Black Elk Speaks," complete with his impassioned, Mingusian bass solo, with references to Star Trek: The Next Generation. On all of the tracks Marsalis's tone is impossibly brilliant and burnished, and for my money, this recording is the worthy successor to his 1990 masterpiece, Crazy People Music." --Eugene Holley Jr.
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One of the signs of musical genius is the ability to take a well know song and improvise upon it until it is like an entirely new song. Branford and his quartet achieved this distinction on the John Coltrane jazz classic, “Acknowledgement” from “A Love Supreme”

Branford Marsalis is an American jazz saxophonist born in 1960. He is the oldest of the six Marsalis brothers, sons of Delores Marsalis and pianist Ellis Marsalis, Jr.: Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis III, Delfeayo Marsalis, Mboya Kinyatta, and Jason Marsalis. Wynton, Delfeayo, and Jason are also jazz musicians. Ellis is a poet, photographer, and network engineer based in Baltimore. (Wikipedia)

Rendition of “Acknowledgement” by the “Branford Marsalis Quartet




Resolution