Customer Reviews

Braggtown

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is really the tale of two Branfords, the first being the tenor saxophone wielding scrapper fighting his way through bruising workouts that sound like Crescent era John Coltrane, chased by Elvin Jones own doppelganger, Jeff "Tain" Watts. The other Branford is the romantic poet using his soprano saxophone at crawling tempos to create lush patient improvisations. Besides Marsalis and Watts, Joey Calderazzo plays piano and Eric Revis plays bass. The burning tenor songs make the biggest impact on me, they are the easiest to understand as they are firmly rooted in the past and paovide the frame of reference in the music that John Coltrane had pioneered in the mid-1960's.

"Jack Baker" leads off the album and along with the Watts feature "Blakzilla" and "Black Elk Speaks" the music is very exciting and very much in the post bop tenor saxophone tradition. Often, Calderazzo and Revis become superfluous to the music, and Marsails and Watts break away and interact much like Coltrane and Jones at their most intense. The soprano saxophone features, "Hope," "Fate" and "O Solitude" are much more difficult for me to understand, as the music is taken at a very slow pace and requires a lot of patience to listen to and understand. Marsalis also has a very limpid tone on the soprano, which although quite individual and unique, is not something that reaches out and grabs your attention. So in the end, there is an interesting album which runs the gamut from very fast to very slow, becoming the tortoise and the hare simultaneously.

"Hope", for me, is one of those rare pieces that comes along every 100 albums that you buy - one of those songs that you could hear 1,000 times and still get your heart ripped out each time you hear it. Kenny Garret's "Sing a Song of Song" (although not a ballad) was that way for me and "Hope" is, like Sing a Song, one of those songs that I could hear every day for two years and still enjoy it immensely every time.

The other songs are great too - a very enjoyable album - but I just haven't found anything better than "Hope" in a long time.

Good album, though I feel fellow jazz musicians, music students, and jazz critics, (those know-it-alls who write for snooty jazz magazines), will enjoy it a lot better than I ever will. The intent seems pretty clear: the inner sleeve notes use a lot of technical terms that will probably get some people very excited but mean absolutely nothing to an ordinary layman listener like me.

The quartet is Branford Marsalis on saxophones, Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass and Jeff Tain Watts on drums. They kick off the album with "Jack Baker", a burst of muscle and testosterone... maybe that's what the cover locker room photographs are all about... and I'm loving the main theme of the song but then the solos start and I just feel lost. It's not till the main theme is played again that I regain any sense of what's going on.

"Hope" and "Fate", written by Calderazzo and Marsalis respectively, are much more on my level, with rhythms and melodies I can actually get a handle on and these two tunes with the sombre "O Solitude" are worth the price of the CD all on their own.

The Watts-penned "Blackzilla", (written in 13/8 time, we're told), is to me, just a whirlwind of sounds and 100mph saxophone playing. It's probably my least favourite track on the album.

"Sir Roderick, The Aloof", written by Marsalis is another nice tune to listen to but the closer, "Black Elk Speaks", written Revis sounds to me like just more saxophone saying a lot but nothing I understand. It calms down a bit towards the middle, with lovely playing from Calderazzo but then it just breaks down again and I just feel like pressing the stop button.

I've always believed that jazz should be thought provoking but I've also always believed it should be fun. When it gets to the point where I get a headache trying to figure out what's going on, I just lose interest. I'm more Yellowjackets or Pat Metheny than I am Keith Jarrett or, interestingly enough, Wynton Marsalis. While I've been a Branford fan for many years, I've never been able to get into Wynton.

Anyway, if anyone reading this is interested in music in a very similar vein featuring all four members of this quartet but a little more down on pedestrian level, I recommend (if you haven't got it already) this quartet's drummer's 2002 album "Bar Talk". It's just as good musically but so much more fun.

Good album but (for me), not a great one.

Unique and edgy. Hard to say but not unusual for Brandford. I really like the Crazy People Music album of the 90's better. Also the audio on Braggtown was muffled and not well mixed.

Less focused on tradition than *Footsteps of Our Fathers,* less overtly spiritual than *Eternal,* the seven tracks of *Braggtown* have their own boasts to make. In the album's highlight, "Hope," the piano of composer Joey Calderazzo blends with Marsalis' yearning soprano tone in a ballad that descends almost into hopelessness at midpoint, then intensifies as Marsalis' ascending runs sustain an insistent search into the inexpressibility of what will set us free. Drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts shines on his composition "Blakzilla": pounding the toms, slashing at cymbals, his angry accents evident even under Branford's wailing tenor line. Yet there's a milder classical influence here also: "O Solitude" is based on a Henry Purcell work, and the liner notes compare Calderazzo's work to Chopin and Messianen. On "Black Elk Speaks," by bassist Eric Revis, Branford's tenor recalls and even quotes late-era Coltrane. But Revis -- repeatedly growling "a beautiful day to die" -- comes to the forefront with his percussive fretwork and ferocious use of the bow. Branford's quartet has earned some bragging rights.

"Braggtown" finds saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his quartet continuing to build upon the strengths of their last four outings going back to `02's "Footsteps of Our Fathers" through `04's DVD/CD of Coltrane's "A Love Supreme."
With tunes once again coming from each member of the foursome the individual and collective strengths of the group remain front and center. At times overtly muscular, the opening "Jack Baker" is propelled by Jeff "Tain" Watts' powerful drumming and Marsalis' searing tenor. The group also showcases their affinity for beauty and understatement, witness pianist Joey Calderazzo's "Hope" and an eloquent reading of 17th century composer Henry Purcell's "O Solitude."
Younger brother Wynton may garner more in the way of headlines, however, with each successive disc Branford continues to make the case that he is the Marsalis to be reckoned with.
"Braggtown" represents another bold step forward for a saxophonist and ensemble that are emerging as the most important of our generation.

this CD will be a classic one day
beautiful music is the only thing
I can say about it.

I've been listening to jazz for almost 40 years and I'm not sure I really know enough about music to do this record justice in a review. But here goes. What I can say is that there's a lot going on here. Marsalis has developed over the years, flexing his Coltrane muscle to the breaking point, but at the same time retaining a beautiful, lyrical tone when tackling slower ballads. "Hope" and "Solitude" are among some of the most moving tracks I have heard in the past few years and from reading other reviews on this record, it looks as though I'm not the only one with that opinion. Like the rest of his family, Branford continues to search for his voice in a journey that will not disappoint his listeners.

What none of the reviews here tell me is that as a fan of Brandford M I've listened to him become less and less interesting with Kenny Kirkland's passing away. At this rate the man is going to get badly wrapped up around his instrument's mouthpiece and no one is going to be able to untangle him!

Freedom Suite added nothing to Sonny Rollins' classic, neither did A Love Supreme though it better suited his gorgeous tone. Eternal puts me to sleep though I tried hard to enjoy it and this - well, I haven't played it again since I bought it on its release, except to write this review. I found nothing had changed for me. Despite all the technically clever stuff, it just isn't anywhere near there! I wish the man would stop telling us how you have to get over the mountain of notes JC built and play some music again!

If you like high musicianship and are not too particular about musicality, then this is still for you. Please buy it. But if like me you like to listen to jazz played by excellent musicians rather than being lectured to about it, then avoid it. Try the next one. You might get lucky.

The soul of Coltrane, the polish of John Williams. He's come a long way from "I heard You Twice the First Time" (which iwas already great).