MAGIC OF JAZZ, THE MARSALIS WAY

Printed in Lansing State Journal 2/20/2020

Branford Marsalis doesn’t like music categories, like jazz, classical, R&B, show music, hip hop, rock, movie music, etc. He plays it all. Marsalis prefers to call himself, simply, a musician. And most of the music world agrees.

Joe Lulloff, professor of saxophone at Michigan State University, who has collaborated with Marsalis many times says, “Branford is a complete musician.  He’s a renaissance musician.”

Marsalis and his Branford Marsalis Quartet are appearing at Wharton Center on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

Coincidentally his famous (and younger) brother Wynton will be in Ann Arbor on March 11^th with the Philadelphia Orchestra for the premiere of his Tuba Concerto he just completed. It appears that both of these great musicians have something in common – they are not only world class jazz musicians (Wynton on trumpet, Brandon on saxophone) but are also involved in composing, teaching, arranging and performing of music in all styles.

Rodney Whitaker, head of MSU’s Jazz Department says, “They were raised by their father to do the things they’re doing now. Their father was an intellectual and they were raised to be hard workers and with academic rigor.”

What must it have been like growing up in the Marsalis house in New Orleans?  Their father, Ellis, was a brilliant pianist and professor of music. There were two other boys in the family – Jason is a drummer and Delfayo is a trombonist.

Branford says, “My father was very Socratic.  He didn’t tell you much, but he taught you to think.  Sitting around the dinner table was a tough gig in our house.  Everything you said, you had to back up your ideas with facts. You were always thinking, thinking about what we you were saying and what you wanted to do. If you didn’t have a basis for what you were saying, we heard about it from dad.”

Whitaker played a gig with the Marsalis family back in 2016 in Indianapolis. “It was very interesting dynamic to see how the family communicated on the stage.  Amazing to see.”

Although Ellis was a jazz musician, he allowed his boys to play anything they wanted.  “We played in the school band, youth orchestras, as well as R&B bands.  Ellis was strong on the idea of commitment- whatever we chose to do, we had to commit to doing it all the way through.  No giving up.”

The saxophonist began his musical journey as a clarinetist but switched to saxophone because he thought that it was “easier to get girls if I played the sax”.

Although Marsalis was always a star in the jazz world, he became known in the general public eye when he was the band leader for the Tonight Show band when Jay Leno had the program.  When he realized that part of his job would be to always laugh at the boss’s jokes whether they were funny or not, he felt that he may be more challenged in other areas of the music world and left the show.

Since Leno, Marsalis spread his wings – he taught at MSU during the 90s, wrote the music for Spike Lee’s “Mo Better Blues”, appeared with Sting and Grateful Dead, soloed with a classical concerto with the NY Philharmonic, collaborated with Harry Connick, Jr. on a Habitat for Humanity Project after Hurricane Katrina, and recently headed up the music for the award winning film “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”.

Marsalis was a MSU visiting professor just before Whitaker took over the helm of the program. Whitaker says, “He worked with the big band, combos and taught sax lessons.  He was very straightforward and honest with the kids. We saw significant growth from our students when he was here”.

Despite his broad range of music exploits, the Branford Marsalis Quartet has always been his main avenue of his music expression. The group won a Grammy Award in 2001. He says, “I like doing everything, but can’t imagine not playing jazz. However, I practice classical every single day.  I think playing classical music exposes all of the elements of your playing.  It’s all there, and the classical style doesn’t allow you to slip out of the structure. When a classical piece is written, you as a performer can’t change it.”

Lulloff says, “Branford has a real talent with classical.  He’s a very expressive and astute play.  He has a depth of phrasing that I like.  It’s inspiring.”

He founded the quartet in 1986, and although some musicians have come and gone, the quartet has maintained its high standards through the years. “We had a hard time during the covid period”, says Marsalis.  We weren’t able to communicate together the way we used to. Just last week, it all came back during a gig and we were in the groove again.  But it took a long time.”

For a jazz quartet, internal communication is everything. When they walk out on the stage to perform, nothing is planned out.  “We have no set list,”, says the 61-year-old Marsalis. “We call it all from the stage. The magic of jazz is that you never play the same tunes every night and they’re never played the same way twice.  That’s what’s exciting about playing jazz.”

The four musicians have no arrangements or any formal structure to the music they play in concert.  Marsalis announces the tune and they begin their high-flying act called live jazz. Marsalis will signal to the person who will have the next improvised solo, and the group will all communicate when it flows to the next person.

“We don’t use the bar lines of music.  We have to hear the music ultimately as sound.  Actors live by words but the words have to come from you.  With us, it’s the music.

“The primary element of our plan of performance is melody.  We are there to sing the melody, after that is the beat, and the third is improvisation.”

IF YOU GO

AN EVENING WITH BRANFORD MARSALIS

Wednesday Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m.

Wharton Center Great Hall

Tickets from $32. Whartoncenter.com, 517 432 2000 or 1 800 wharton.