Branford Marsalis [Royal Garden Blues]
This is one of my most favourite Jazz discs, it was one of the first albums i listened to when i was young and new in listening to Jazz, and it was a nice revelation, those days of this new genre of music unfolding to my ears are never to be forgotten, how truly wonderful Jazz is, i picked this up originally as a cassette tape in a second hand shop for £1 or £2, it's an ideal introduction for a newcomer, Marsalis uses tenor and soprano saxes, and even plays both on one track, the backing musicians are varied, he uses 11 different guys in quartets, a nice mix, i bought other Marsalis albums around the same time, i was not impressed, but his offerings just recently are very good, he seems to have matured, i played this disc in 2010 [23rd November 2010].
Branford Marsalis is an American Saxophonist, from a clan of Jazz musicians, he's now 51, but this was recorded in 1986 when he was only 25, i was attracted to the album from the front cover [photo by Robert Cohen], a very colourful, almost clownlike clothing [think The Joker from Batman & Robin], the light is gorgeous, a mottled effect on him, plus the saxophone itself reveals a sunset glow, i like the way his saxophone is slung over his shoulder like some sort of shovel or pick axe, and his name is nicely shown in perfect lettering at the top, this is a great album, and i highly recommend it.
Well the tracks i really liked were the last 3 [tracks 5-7], all are great in their own way, Royal Garden Blues remains my favourite, and yet track 6 Shadows has such a strong depth and intensity to it,
Here's Branford Marsalis playing 'Shadows' on his MySpace page.
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