An Early Father's Day for Ellis Marsalis

June 17, 2009

    It wasn’t easy, but New Orleans jazz pianist and patriarch Ellis Marsalis managed to cram a few words in edgewise as the annual Duke Ellington Jazz Festival drew to an exuberant close at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Monday night. Read more »

Submitted by Bobby on June 17th, 2009 — 01:44pm

Duke Ellington Jazz Festival: Jazz on the National Mall

Date: 06.14.2009
Publication: Washington City Paper
Author: Michael J. West Read more »

Submitted by Ben on June 14th, 2009 — 12:00am

Branford Marsalis' high-school musical

Date: 06.12.2009
Publication: Burlington Free Press.com
Author: Brent Hallenbeck

 

I know it was Branford Marsalis’ show tonight at the Flynn Center, but I couldn’t help but focus on his 18-year-old drummer Justin Faulkner after learning about the soon-to-graduate high-schooler at their Meet the Artist session a few hours earlier (see previous blog entry). This is no novelty act - the kid is impressive. He moves deftly from two-handed shuffle to a fuller, funkier beat, and delivered a couple of solos that rocked the house. When Marsalis wasn’t playing his saxophone and stood behind his three fellow musicians to watch and listen (which was often - he relishes sharing the load) he would bob his head to the rhythm and in approval of what Faulkner, pianist Joey Calderazzo and bass player Eric Revis were doing (Calderazzo, by the way, had a gorgeous piano solo on a beautiful tune he wrote called “The Blossom of Parting”; you can see all four band members in this fine photo from tonight by Free Press staffer Glenn Russell).
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Submitted by Ben on June 12th, 2009 — 12:00am

Justin Faulkner makes New York Times top five list of up and coming drummers on the jazz scene

Date: 06.11.2009
Publication: The New York Times
Author: Ben Ratliff

  Read more »

Submitted by Ben on June 11th, 2009 — 12:00am

Branford Marsalis Quartet - Metamorphosen

Date: 05.26.2009
Publication: The Wall Street Journal
Author: Larry Blumenfeld

 

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis enjoys a luxury rare in jazz, too: His quartet has been together for a decade. And it shows. Less the music of metamorphosis, as the title implies, this is the sound of a group that quite some time ago defined its profile, and now continues adding depth and detail to that picture.
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