Branford Marsalis involves Bay Area to pay tribute to Keith Jarrett

In the mid -Seventies, Keith Jarrett was not only a well-liked jazz pianist. He was an actual phenomenon that was so amazingly productive that he made his era definition “American quartet” With saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian through the break to follow a very different group sound and a very different group repertoire.

He began his “European Quartet” with “Zuging” from 1974, an album that introduced no less than three melodies, which became standards, and one other that served as a melodic blueprint for the title track from Steely dans Eighties album “Gaucho” (This led to a lawsuit with a co -representative for Jarrett).

With the Norwegians Jan Garbarek (Tenor Sax) and Jon Christensen (drums) and the Swedish bass player Palle Palle Danielsson, the gospel-embroidered “belonging” was a cat Minister for artists who grew up within the Seventies like Branford Marsalis, which contained a 12-minute version of 12 minutes Jarrett's “The Windup” As the ultimate factor of his quartet album 2019 “The Secret between the Shadow and the Soul”.

As soon because the melody was within the band's repertoire, the quartet's bass player said Eric Revis: “We should record the entire (expedant) record,” recalled Marsalis. “But then the pandemic said: 'No!'” And when the quartet was traveling again in autumn 2021, it sounded rusty.

“It took eight months to get our thing back,” said Marsalis, 64. “We played Sfjazz and the mood between us came back on the third night. We wanted to record until we sounded good again. “

Mission fulfilled. Finally within the studio they interpreted Jarrett's classic album track for track, and the publication of the Branford Marsalis Quartet “Adoitering” marked the saxophonist of March twenty eighth March twenty eighth Blue Note Records Debut.

With Revis, the pianist Joey Calderazzo and the drummer Justin Faulkner, the quartet returns to the Bay Area for various live shows, including two shows on March 10 at Santa Cruz Boarding Jazz Center; March eleventh at Berkeley's Fracht & recovery; and March twelfth in Stanfords Bing Concert Hall (Presented by Stanford Live).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmi7kqhpjbo

The albums offer an interesting contrast between two famous ensembles at very different points of their airways. The latest member of Marsalis' quartet is Faulkner, who has captured the drum chair since he was 189. Calderazzo joined in 1998, a yr after the signing of Revis, and the group received the award as one of the crucial muscular coherent within the scene.

While you interpret one other quartet's album, “this group will never try to sound like another group,” said Calderazzo. “We simply took this music and played it as we wrote it. I did my best to not take heed to the record for some time because I knew we might do it. “

On the other hand, Jarrett's quartet clearly gets to know himself in “belonging”, a process that was recorded in 1974 on a YouTube video that was recorded in Hanover, West Germany, “that shows that they didn’t know the music so well,” said Marsalis.

But what started his ear as a teenager was Jarrett's strength as a leader and used the piano to “instruct them what to do and tips on how to do it,” he said.

“I feel that's one in all the the reason why Keith thrown away from the band with Dewey and Paul. They were already established and more often than not they appreciated their ideas about his. Ultimately, that is the rationale why he had to seek out musicians who would really follow him. “

Ultimately, Jarrett found his greatest success in himself. January was the 50th anniversary of his Solo Cologne Opera House appearance at the ECM double album “The Cologne Concert”. With more than four million copies in print, it is the best -selling solo album in jazz history.

For the rest of the decade, Jarrett changed solo tours and albums with his American and European quartets, although after 1983 he mainly worked with his “standards Trio” with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack Dejohnette. A number of blows led to his retirement from 2018 through the performance, and the “access” of the Marsalis quartet is well coordinated to remind jazz lovers of Jarrett's absence at the head of his 80th birthday on May 9.

Jazz musicians are increasingly interpreting his compositions, but his influence as a player has been inevitable for a long time. For Calderazzo, 59, “Keith got here later,” he said, after pointing out to players, who had preceded Jarrett in Trumpeter Miles Davis' band like Red Garland, Wynton Kelly and Herbie Hancock.

“It is difficult to be a contemporary jazz musician and never hear Keith,” he said. “Even if he is not alone, he is the guy who leads the quartet. So he plays the song through. The group is more or less followed by him and improvised. “

Branford Marsalis Quartet

If & where: March 19 and 21 March tenth in Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, 31.50 to $ 84, www.kuumbwajazz.org; March 20 March eleventh at Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, 84 to $ 89, www.thefreight.org; 7.30 p.m. March 12 in Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University, 25 to $ 135, live.stanford.edu.

Originally published:

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