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Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

LIVE REVIEW October 26, 2019

Branford Marsalis at The Ohio Theatre

Branford Marsalis Quartet Ohio Theatre Cleveland, Ohio October 10, 2019Branford Marsalis is a jazz chameleon. Few saxophonists could go from playing his brother Wynton's straight-ahead outfit to pursing cross over opportunities with pop-star Sting and hip-hop legend Guru to now making music with Gabriel Prokofiev, the great-grandson of pioneering Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.On October 10 at the Ohio Theatre, all these experiences came together for an experience that did not ...

ALBUM REVIEW March 22, 2019

The Branford Marsalis Quartet: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul

By Mike Jurkovic

It was back in 2012 when the last quartet-only recording Four MFs Playin' Tunes (Marsalis Music) was released. So give more room on the floor to the evil toys dancing their pants off to the pure, wild, free-styling surge of “Dance of the Evil Toys," the killer, lead-off track to the Branford Marsalis Quartet's first full release in seven years, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul. After touring with Sting, and in support of {[Kurt Elling}} ...

ALBUM REVIEW March 15, 2019

The Branford Marsalis Quartet: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul

By Doug Collette

Anyone who's seen the Branford Marsalis Quartet in concert is well aware of what high-flying improvisations the group can embark upon. But the foursome's abandoned approach hardly precludes due emphasis on structure---how better to highlight it than leave it behind?--which is also why this band makes studio albums as trenchant as The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul. Yet the irony in this duality is that strong material is the foundation for concise, purposeful musicianship, whether within ...

LIVE REVIEW March 10, 2019

The Branford Marsalis Quartet at Jazz Standard

By Peter Jurew

Branford Marsalis Quartet Jazz Standard New York, NY February 20, 2019 The Branford Marsalis Quartet came into jny: New York's Jazz Standard in late February to showcase The Secret Between The Shadow And The Soul, their first new album release in seven years and, in marking the special occasion, to blow the roof off that primetime jazz basement. That it has been seven years since the band's last new release does not ...

LIVE REVIEW February 18, 2018

Branford Marsalis and Jean-Willy Kunz at the Kimmel Center

By Victor L. Schermer

Branford Marsalis, Saxophone, and Jean-Willy Kunz, Organ: From Classical to Jazz Kimmel Center for Performing Arts Philadelphia, PA February 16, 2018 This concert of mostly classical works for saxophone and large scale pipe organ turned out to be somewhat of a surprise to the audience of jazz fans, who packed in to hear their hero, Branford Marsalis. The concert emcee, Michael Barone (a radio producer who also hosts a program called ...

IN PICTURES July 1, 2017

Skip Norris Memorial Concert

By C. Andrew Hovan

The old saying goes that we all die twice; once when we take our last breath and then a second time when our name isn't spoken anymore. It is highly unlikely that the name of Wesley “Skip" Norris will vanish from the tongues of jazz devotees anytime soon. Especially not after the memorable and extraordinary sendoff that took place last Friday evening in Detroit. An advocate for jazz in so many ways throughout the past decades, Norris fostered a strong ...

ALBUM REVIEW May 19, 2016

The Branford Marsalis Quartet with Special Guest Kurt Elling: Upward Spiral

By Dan Bilawsky

To one extent or another, jazz has always maintained a discriminatory dividing line between vocalists and instrumentalists. Instead of being viewed as equals--artists on par with all the rest, possessing the same good sense, skill, and stake in an artistic outcome--vocalists have often been unfairly stigmatized and interned in a separate category. But all of that has slowly been changing, due in no small part to a large and continually growing crop of vocalists who are consistently raising the bar. ...