Grammy-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis to play Detroit's Orchestra Hall
Three-time Grammy-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis will take the stage at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall on Friday night with his quartet. The 2011 NEA Jazz Master will present a program of top-quality jazz from what the Los Angeles Times called “the highest echelon of jazz tenor saxophonists.”
Marsalis spoke with the Free Press by phone from Kalamazoo, where the symphony there held the world premiere of an orchestral work he composed.
He's also been recording a new album, which he hopes to release in the fall. But in the meantime, he’s all about practicing.
“I always work on playing,” he said. “I’m really focused on playing (as opposed to writing) right now. I’m practicing pieces … trying to eliminate weaknesses. I’m learning a couple of 1930s tunes that I find really difficult, like the song ‘Nobody’s Sweetheart.’ It’s a hard key for me, so I spend half an hour playing it, sometimes slowly, sometimes briskly, just trying to get hold of it.
“If I’m learning a new song, I just bring it onstage and play it until I stop screwing it up. If it’s an older song, I listen to recordings of people who play it well, and emulate those recordings; after a while, the more I play it, I start developing my own ideas about it. My own personality pushes its way to the front.”
Marsalis will be joined in Detroit by pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner.
This won’t be Marsalis’ last visit to the Motor City in the near future, however; he’s booked with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for two nights of Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin in late September, as well as headlining their opening gala night the same weekend.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at [email protected].
Branford Marsalis Quartet
Friday, April 5, 2024
8 p.m.
Orchestra Hall
3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit
Tickets start at $19
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Branford Marsalis Quartet to play Detroit's Orchestra Hall
