Octo_Russ

Branford Marsalis [Royal Garden Blues]

This was one of the very first Jazz discs i bought, way back in 1993, i only got into Jazz in 1992, i saw the front cover, and it piqued my interest, if you don't know by now, i take great delight in the visuals of each album, here's a man hefting the tool of his trade over his shoulder, much like a gardener would heft a shovel over his shoulder, it's that saxophone that gets me, a complex machine, and yet it's the guy blowing it that really makes the sound, plus a lovely golden instrument in what looks like the evening, and not merely the colour gold, but there's something about that saxophone that turns things into gold, you can see it's a worn instrument, and not merely a showy thing to see, the dark green at the top goes with the bright colours of his clothes, and his name at the top is well displayed, but it's the music on the inside i was even more wowed with.

Branford Marsalis is an American Jazz saxophonist, born in 1960, he's the oldest brother in the Marsalis family, he made this record in 1986, this was his second solo album, and even though i feel he's lost his way on subsequent albums, just fairly recently he's making some excellent Jazz again, especially the albums Requiem and Braggtown.

I love this album, it's in my all time top ten Jazz discs, and 38th in my favourite discs of all time [as of today, though this should change over time], Marsalis uses a bewildering array of musicians on this record, 12 in all [4 Pianists, 3 Bassists, 4 Drummers, and himself], though each composition is only a quartet strong, surprisingly the results are consistent, not 3 or 4 different groups by the way, the musicians get shuffled around, about half only get used once, while others get used 3 or 4 times, it's a nice mix of famous names, you would actually think it's only one tight regular quartet.

On this listen i really liked tracks 5 & 7, but the one i always come back to, which has a peach of a tune, is the title track 5 'Royal Garden Blues', it starts off with one of the greatest little short drum intros ever [0:00-0:03], full of lovely resonances and gorgeous sonority, this is one of the joys of this track, hearing

Al Foster play his drums on a beautifully recorded track, and then Marsalis comes in with soprano saxophone, playing this irresistible Dixie tune [0:03-1:01], like something that should be played by the clarinet, and of course the soprano sax really does sound a lot like a clarinet on this recording [i love the clarinet], right after Marsalis goes into his solo, and it's good to hear

Ron Carter on the bass, playing these fast walking bass lines, and Al Foster has three tasty sharp hits on the drum [2:09+], just what the music needed at that point!, and Marsalis develops a frantic wailing intensity shortly after [2:22-2:27], and during the piano solo, Foster has a nice little sequence of tick-tock hits, without the tick! [3:47-3:54], the return of the main theme at the end is brief [6:36+], but it's good old Foster that gets the last word with a dull cymbal hit! [7:00], one of my most favourite Jazz tracks, and from an album to die for.

Here's Branford playing a slightly different take of Royal Garden Blues on YouTube.