I can’t deny it. I love the music of Branford Marsalis. His music moves me to no end. Because I was a saxophone player, I much more familiar with the intracacies of the horn and how difficult it can be to make it sing like Marsalis does. And Marsalis is one of the great ones in the lineage of great tenor players. He was born of the same tribe of the most proficient soloist with Coltrane and Rollins. Even with his avant-garde improvisations, arrangements and compositions he can still swing as hard as any reedman from the golden era.
I don’t own Marsalis’ entire catalog, but I will suggest that I own the best of what he has offered over the years. And this new record, Metamorphosen, will stand up next to anything else he as recorded.
Metamorphosen finds Marsalis in unusual surroundings. Meaning that for the last few years he’s been basically recording in the trio format sans piano. With this recording he’s added the piano back and is no less adventurous and astute in his improvisations as he would be in the more free jazz format. Tapped to join him on this date is Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on Bass and longtime collaborator and time keeper, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts.
As an arranger, Marsalis always has a fresh new take on classic music. One of the stand out pieces is Thelonius Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning”. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to hear the newness of this music.
Calderazzo’s piano is soothing and exciting. Revis’ bass playing is steady and Tain’s drumming and symbol work is as perfect and as interesting as it ever was. The playing on this record just seems to be personal. And to hear Brandford’s soprano, which to me is the hardest saxophone to play well, is just beautiful. All the tunes just turn into playful dialogue between the players.
From Marsalis’ work with Sting to his classical foray, Romances for Saxophone, he always puts in a better than average perfomance. I believe Metomorphosen will go down as one of the best records of this gifted reedman’s career.
