Branford Marsalis & Joey Calderazzo: Songs of Mirth and Melancholy

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Calderazzo
Marsalis (ss, ts)

Label:

Marsalis Music

June/2011

RecordDate:

c.2009

Apparently we owe the existence of this duo, as compared to the long-standing Branford quartet with Joey, to their guest appearances at celebrity golf tournaments. Well, it's a gig, but maybe such a constricted setting is better on the whole than the mostly six-to-eight minutes tracks presented here. Marsalis is his usual highly competent self, covering roughly from Rollins to a bit of Garbarek, and the programme of seven originals plus a Wayne Shorter (‘Face On The Barroom Floor’) and a Brahms has enough meat on it. But Calderazzo, who in the press release prides himself on using no walking bass or ostinato, sometimes leaves the listener aware of a lack of texture. Marsalis is full of praise for the Durham (NC) auditorium where they recorded, yet it sounds as if it needs an audience there to assist the acoustic. I should be more enthusiastic, especially as the last track is called ‘Bri's Dance’, but the rewards are rather intermittent.

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