Belonging Branford Marsalis Quartet

• 1 Spiral Dance 08:21
• 2 Blossom 11:01
• 3 ‘Long As You Know You’re Living Yours 08:56
• 4 Belonging 07:35
• 5 The Windup 12:40
• 6 Solstice 14:18
• Total Runtime 01:02:51

Info for Belonging

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis, one of the foremost jazz artists of our time and a pacesetting creative force in the music for more than four decades, is set to make his Blue Note Records debut with the March 28 release of Belonging, a full album interpretation of Keith Jarrett’s 1974 ECM album of the same name which introduced the pianist’s European Quartet. Belonging is Marsalis’ first new release since 2019 with his acclaimed longstanding quartet featuring pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Justin Faulkner.

Marsalis admits that he was into other music when Belonging was released in 1974. “I was a freshman in high school, listening to R&B,” he recalls. “I didn’t know Belonging existed.” That changed once he shifted his focus to jazz, although he was only familiar with Jarrett’s solo piano music until pianist Kenny Kirkland introduced him to Jarrett’s European Quartet with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson, and drummer Jon Christensen. “We were sitting on a plane sometime in the eighties and Kenny put his headphones on my ears and played [Jarrett’s 1979 album] My Song. When he tried to take the headphones back after five minutes I slapped his hand away; and when we got to the next city, I went out and bought every recording by that band.”

A similar discovery occurred when Marsalis decided to include “The Windup” from Belonging on his band’s previous album, 2019’s The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul. “We were all listening to ‘The Windup’ for the last record, and Revis said that we should just record Belonging, the whole album is so great and we could do things with it. We all liked the idea, and then the pandemic came. When the pandemic ended, we all still felt that yeah, we should do this.”

The quartet applied Marsalis’ previous approach to classics by Charles Mingus, the Modern Jazz Quartet, John Coltrane, and others – neither slavish fealty to the originals nor extreme deconstructions. “On the composition ‘Belonging,’ I clearly played things that Jan played on the record,” Marsalis points out. “I didn’t try to reject the idea when it occurred, but at no point did we plan to consciously pay tribute. I’m always listening to the whole record, not just the saxophone solos, and the most impressive thing about Belonging for me is how it all fits together.”

Unlike Jarrett’s band, which convened for the first time when it recorded Belonging and would only later become one of the signature groups of the 1970s, the Marsalis Quartet can call upon a rare history as a band. Revis joined in 1996, Calderazzo in 1999, and Faulkner in 2009, and their ability to hear and react to each other is unparalleled. Of equal importance to Marsalis is the lessons time has imparted. “The biggest benefit we have is 50 years of information that Keith’s band didn’t have, and our ability to process that shared experience.”

Marsalis notes that “The whole purpose of this group is to be more like a chamber group than a jazz group,” and in the process he has taken listeners along without compromising his approach. “All that any audience for any music wants is a great melody and a great accompanying beat” he explains. “It doesn’t really matter where our journey goes, as long as we keep the dance going.”

Branford Marsalis Quartet:
Branford Marsalis, saxophones
Joey Calderazzo, piano
Eric Revis, double bass
Justin Faulkner, drums

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Branford Marsalis
From his initial recognition as a young jazz lion, he has expanded his vision as an instrumentalist, composer, bandleader and educator, crossing stylistic boundaries while maintaining an unwavering creative integrity. In the process, he has become an avatar of contemporary artistic excellence winning three Grammy Awards, a Tony nomination for his work as a composer on Broadway, a citation by the National Endowment for the Arts as Jazz Master, and a 2021 Primetime EMMY nomination for the score he composed for the Tulsa Burning documentary.

His first instrument, the clarinet, gave way to the alto and then the tenor and soprano saxophones when the teenage Branford began working in local bands. A growing fascination with jazz as he entered college gave him the basic tools to obtain his first major jobs, with trumpet legend Clark Terry and alongside Wynton in Art Blakey’s legendary Jazz Messengers. When the brothers left to form the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, the world of uncompromising acoustic jazz was invigorated. Branford formed his own quartet in 1986 and it remains his primary performance vehicle. The Quartet has established a rare breadth of stylistic range, as demonstrated on the band’s last release: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul. Known for the telepathic communication among its uncommonly consistent personnel, its deep book of original music replete with expressive melodies and provocative forms, and an unrivaled spirit in both live and recorded performances, the Branford Marsalis Quartet has long been recognized as the standard to which other ensembles of its kind must be measured.

Branford formed the Marsalis Music label in 2002, and under his direction it has documented his own music, talented stars such as Miguel Zenón, and un-heralded older masters including one of Branford’s teachers, the late Alvin Batiste. Branford has also shared his knowledge as an educator. He enjoys working with students and has formed an extended relationship with North Carolina Central University where he has been teaching for the past eighteen years. He has also taught at Michigan State University and San Francisco State University and continues to conduct workshops throughout the world.

As for other public stages, Branford spent a period touring with Sting, collaborated with the Grateful Dead and Bruce Hornsby, served as Musical Director of The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno and hosted National Public Radio’s widely syndicated Jazz Set. The range and quality of these diverse activities established Branford as a familiar presence beyond the worlds of jazz and classical music, while his efforts to help heal and rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina mark him as an artist with an uncommonly effective social vision.

Together with Harry Connick, Jr. and New Orleans Habitat for Humanity, Branford conceived and helped to realize The Musicians’ Village, a community in the Upper Ninth Ward that provides homes to the displaced families of musicians and other local residents. The centerpiece of the Village is the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, honoring Branford’s father. The Center uses music as the focal point of a holistic strategy to build a healthy community and to deliver a broad range of services to underserved children, youth and musicians from neighborhoods battling poverty and social injustice. In January 2024, following in his father’s footsteps, Branford was appointed Artistic Director at the Center and in this capacity, he will shape the artistic trajectory and steer the organization's creative vision for the future.

This album contains no booklet.