Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an uncommon musician and provides a rare treat for fans of live jazz music in London.
The 44-year-old Grammy award-winning saxophonist has continued to exercise and expand his skills as a performer, a composer and now, at the head of his Marsalis Music label, a producer for both his own projects and those of the jazz world’s most promising new artists. For a truly exceptional experience of live jazz music in London, catch Marsalis at Ronnie Scott’s on his next visit.
Marsalis took the bold step of founding his own label in 2002 as a means to ensure the uncompromising presentation of recorded creative music in a variety of genres. “My brother Ellis III once pointed out the difference between those who want to provide a service to the community and make a profit, and those who just want to make a profit at the expense of the community,” Branford explains. “That insight describes perfectly what Marsalis Music is about. We want to provide a service to the music community first. We want to create an atmosphere where people who make creative music can be heard.”
The point has been illustrated on the eleven compact discs and two DVDs that Marsalis Music has released to date. All three of the label’s CDs released under Branford’s name – Footsteps of Our Fathers, Romare Bearden Revealed, and Eternal – have made numerous best-of-year lists, with Eternal receiving a Grammy™ nomination for Best Instrumental Recording by a small ensemble. Branford’s latest release, Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ in Amsterdam, features a “near-miraculous interpretation” of the immortal John Coltrane composition by the Branford Marsalis Quartet writes David Rubien in his March 2005 article for the SF Gate. The performance, filmed in hi-definition at Holland’s legendary Bimhuis club, has been cited as an example of state-of-the-art music DVD.
Though he is best known for his jazz recordings, Marsalis has continued to explore classical music at the same time. His 2001 Sony Classical recording Creation, which features the American chamber orchestra Orpheus, was the acclaimed saxophonist’s first classical recording in 15 years. This outstanding program of music by early 20th-century French composers, featuring works that resonate with the then-new phenomenon of American jazz, confirmed the judgment of Wes Phillips of onhifi.com that Marsalis is “an innovative jazz saxophonist who also happens to be a classical performer with phenomenal technique.”
On the heels of this successful recording, Marsalis has also begun to make time in his busy schedule for classical recitals that have found him featured with symphonies in a host of American and European cities, including Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore and Düsseldorf. Each of these appearances has found Marsalis applying the same impeccable technique and interpretive insight that he brings to his work with his jazz ensembles, the Branford Marsalis Quartet.
Today, Marsalis is shaping the future of jazz in the classroom. The members of his quartet were recently named Artists in Residence at North Carolina Central University. This follows Marsalis’ previous associations with Michigan State University and San Francisco State University. Marsalis Jams, a program he conceived and founded as an educational initiative of Marsalis Music, has also been presenting concert/jam sessions with young musicians in colleges and high schools throughout the United States. These efforts invariably stress a mastery of craft, a comprehensive knowledge of music past and present, and a refusal to acknowledge artificial boundaries – the same strengths that have made Branford Marsalis a leader in both the jazz and classical realms.