| By Scott Roush
A ranford Marsalis, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz
Creative Director Chair for the 2006-07 season, views a performance with the DSO in 1994 as contributing to a turning point in his storied career.
It was September 1994 and Marsalis was in Detroit for two concerts with the DSO. Former Music Director Neeme Järvi was conducting him and the Orchestra in Ibert’s Concertino da camera for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra and Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Fantasia.
Multi-Grammy Award winner Marsalis, who was then music director for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at the time, was making his DSO debut. After his performance, which he believes was terrible; Marsalis came to the conclusion that had been forming in his mind – that he couldn’t fully commit himself to his music if he only worked on it part time. He decided to quit The Tonight Show soon after and focus solely on making great music, which he continues to do to this day.
“Even though the audience may not have realized it, I was not pleased with my DSO performance,” Marsalis says. “However, the decision to leave The Tonight Show put me in the place I’m in now.”
Detroit music lovers will be happy with the place Marsalis is in now, as he returns to the city for three different concerts this season (see schedule on page 16) as well several master classes with Detroit’s young people in April. One of the lighlights of his appearances will be the 2007 Classical Roots concerts and gala, a celebration honoring the contributions of African-American composers, musicians and music educators. Marsalis will be the featured soloist on works by Mahler, Milhaud and Ibert in a program led by DSO Resident Conductor Thomas Wilkins.
Later this season, Marsalis returns to Orchestra Hall for a concert with his quartet, performing jazz repertoire, including selections from his latest album, Braggtown, which draws its inspiration from many sources, including a 17th Century English composer, an Indian Warrior and a Japanese horror film to create, as Marsalis calls it, “one of the band’s most comprehensive and compelling recordings to date.”
As the DSO’s Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director, Marsalis continues the educational initiatives he started with Marsalis Jams, a program that stresses the mastery of jazz to high school and college students throughout the country. He will also hold a jazz symposium at Wayne State University, and lead master classes with the Civic Jazz Orchestra and the Detroit School of Arts Jazz Ensemble in April.
“It is a tremendous honor to be the jazz chair for the DSO,” he says. “Jazz has such a strong tradition in Detroit, which is one of my favorite cities because it is real. It has everything – the good stuff and the bad stuff.”
While he is best known for his jazz recordings, Marsalis, 46, continues to explore classical music, a journey that started when at the age of 15 in his hometown of New Orleans. As part of one of jazz’s most prominent families (including father Ellis and brothers Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason), Branford grew up immersed in jazz and popular music. However, he discovered classical music as a teenager, pretending not to listen while brother Wynton would play DSO recordings in their home.
“I didn’t want to admit to listening to it, because at 15, it wasn’t cool to listen to classical music, but I was pulled in by the melodies,” he notes. “The music was a challenge to my intellect. I could learn a pop song after listening to it once. But classical music took me much longer because of its complexities.”
Marsalis’ interest in classical music has continued through his career, and in 2001 he released his most recent classical recording, Creation. It features a program of jazz-influenced and inspired classics from early 20th century French composers, including Milhaud, Ravel, Debussy and others.
Since that recording, Marsalis has made time in his schedule for classical recitals with numerous symphonies in the United States and Europe. These days, he is listening to St. Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach, one of his favorite composers, along with other greats such as Mozart, Brahms and Mahler. “They have such an advanced sense of orchestration and they did so much with melodies,” he says.
Marsalis is looking forward to playing with the DSO after a 13-year hiatus, and says the concerts will be more challenging than jamming with his quartet.
“Here I come, this jazz guy, ready to play with one of the greatest orchestras in the country,” he says. “I have to prove that I belong up there not only to the musicians, but also to the audience, who have a really complex understanding of the music.”
Marsalis is being too modest. Critics have been laudatory in reviews of his classical performances. “In tonal quality, (Marsalis) projects a full, round and warmly vibrato-laden sound, with none of the saxophone’s characteristic blare or grunt. Shut your eyes and you’d swear it was some kind of other instrument, most clarinet-like,” says classical music critic Graham Stahle of The Australian, that country’s leading daily newspaper.
DSO Resident Conductor Thomas Wilkins selected the pieces Marsalis will be performing during Classical Roots, as the two have performed together several times in the past.
Ibert’s Concertino da camera for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra is one of the few signature pieces for saxophone that can be played with an orchestra, according to Marsalis. “It’s a technical challenge for the saxophone,” he says about the piece. “I like to play it by reacting to the orchestra.”
Marsalis played Mahler’s Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen with Wilkins during a concert with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, but he had a shoulder injury at the time which limited his playing ability. He looks forward to performing now that he has tended to the injury, and especially to Mahler’s use of melody. “He has five or six melodies going on at the same time and he passes them from section to section,” he says.
Scaramouche by Darius Milhaud was originally written for piano and Marsalis believes the piece is more effective when played slower. “It’s a very catchy composition and the second movement is absolutely beautiful,” he notes.
Despite what Marsalis thinks about his first DSO collaboration, Classical Roots audiences need not worry about his performance being anything less than spectacular. They will be treated to a saxophone full of natural, liquid sounds played by one of the finest musicians – classical or jazz – on the scene today.
To order tickets for Classical Roots or other upcoming Branford Marsalis concerts at Orchestra Hall, call (313) 576-5111 or go to www.detroitsymphony.com.
Scott Roush is the Publications Manager for the DSO. You can reach him at sroush@dso.org.
Branford Marsalis @ The Max
Feb. 22-24
Classical Roots: Branford Marsalis
Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Branford Marsalis, saxophone
TBA, soprano
Brazeal Dennard Chorale
Brazeal Dennard, director
ROSAMAND & JOHNSON “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”
ELLINGTON Les trios rois noirs (The Three Black Kings)
ANTHEIL A Jazz Symphony
MAHLER Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
MILHAUD Scaramouche, Op. 165c
MUMFORD Without a Cloudburst of Echoing Brightness
IBERT Concertino da camera for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra
PERKINSON Symphony of the Sphinx
Feb. 24
National City Young People’s Concerts
Branford Marsalis
Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Branford Marsalis, saxophone
May 17
LaSalle Bank Paradise Jazz Series
Branford Marsalis Quartet
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