Branford Marsalis gave a fiery interview to Bob Young of the Herald this week on the state of jazz. But then he went out Tuesday night and provided the exception that proves the rule. Marsalis and his quartet played their new album, "Braggtown" from start to finish at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. It was heartfelt and creative and uncompromising, all the things Marsalis says too much jazz these days isn't.
Opener "Jack Baker" was a Coltrane-ish burner, built around a repeated phrase that Marsalis smacked into over and over again with his tenor, in between surges of sometimes furious soloing. This is the track that's stuck in my head now. "O Solitude" was an exquisite ballad, with Marsalis' sweet soprano at the opposite end of the spectrum from the tenor. At times when Marsalis stepped out of the spotlight, pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts seemed like less of a unit than three talented players on their own courses. But when Marsalis returned to the stage, it somehow seemed to glue them together instantly.
Unlike the other two rhythm section players, Watts plays big most of the time, and I was less enamored of his composition for the album, "Blakzilla." But for the encore, Calderazzo ceded his seat to a young Berklee pianist whose name I didn't catch, a regular with Watts' band apparently, and they played Watts' "The Impaler." It was one of the night's highlights.
It's Marsalis Month in Boston, with the album coming out on Cambridge-based Marsalis Music, Branford picking up an honorary degree from alma mater Berklee (whose president introduced the quartet on Tuesday), and a bunch of Marsalis Music artists performing at the Beantown Jazz Festival at the end of the month. (Full disclosure, I'm moderating a panel.) In that context, Tuesday night was a worthy command performance.
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