Contemporary Jazz

Artist: Branford Marsalis
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 074646385029
EAN: 0074646385029
ASIN: B00004W5AU

Release Date: 2000-08-15

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Tracks:

In The Crease
Requiem
Elysium
Cheek To Cheek
Tain Mutiny
Ayanna
Countronious Rex

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Customer Reviews:

Great, mature jazz.......2002-02-16

This album is by far Branford's best work to date. The whole thing just breaths of maturity; it is truly contemporary jazz at its finest. The compositions are complex, but they are fresh and they swing! The songs Requiem and Cheek to Cheek are simply astonishing. Check it out!

From Hero to Zero in one CD!.......2002-01-28

This CD is a very special one - so why am I giving it only three stars? Well, it's because it lacks balance in the quality and nature of the compositions. Maybe this is just another way of saying that Branford is no "one-trick pony" as he can handle many different styles of jazz.

However, this CD works for me only on one track, the remainder seems lacking in innovation, warmth and seriousness. The one track which does work is "Requiem" - but it works so well that it overcomes all of the other tracks and renders the rest of the CD as mere filler.

"Requiem" is a triumph of modern jazz and is the best thing that I have heard in jazz for some time. I love this track and at over 10 minutes it is something you can really get into. It has a similar feel to Coltrane's version of "Alabama" but where Coltrane leaves a lot unsaid Branford takes the theme forward and develops it completely to the point where there is nothing more to be done. A masterpiece of emotional articulation it manages to tell a story with no words just feelings. It is an emotional journey which will leave no-one unmoved. This track is a fitting requiem for Kenny Kirkland, the bands usual pianist who died as this CD was being planned and he is replaced here by Joey Calderazzo. The main part is for piano and Joey expresses the music beautifully. This track starts perfect and stays perfect throughout. I have never been able to turn it off or leave the room when it is playing - I can't play it in the car if my girlfriend if with me in case she talks to me and I have to turn it down. That's how involving it is.

All three stars are for this one track but what a track! Buy this CD for this alone; it's worth it.

A truly complete album........2001-10-01

In responce to a previous review, I really can't see how anyone could call this recycled. Apparently, neither can he, since he really makes no case for his statement. Even though it's written in the liner notes, I still am having a really hard time feeling the broken/compount meter in the first track, and whatever it is - whether you like it or not -- it's fresh, as is every track on this album. I love Joey Calderazzo on this recording -- especially his solo on the second track: requim. I'm really not sure how this sounds to other people, but the delicacy with which he plays makes me think instantly of Claudio Arrau playing a Chopin nocturn. Cross refrencing a classical pianist for an anology may not be entirely appropriate, but there's nothing else I can think of and it was my instant association. I had to listen to that track three times to decide that I like Branford's solo. I REALLY like it. It was just very off beat for a balad... not harmonically or rhytmically even, but the whole curvature of how he built and structured it was like absolutely nothing I've ever heard. The third track is my favorite, but I've got nothing to say about it. It's just really good -- and the Cheek to cheek... I don't know... Sun Ra would have really dug it, and I love Sun Ra, so of course I dig it too. Branford is not just artistic, creative and very close to what I would call a harmonic and rhythmic genious, but he's also very clever and apparently has a great sence of humor.
Make sure you listen for a hidden track. I hate being a poor sport and all by giving it away publicly, but it's a really cool track. After the last track, there's about a minute of dead silence and then the hidden tune starts.

Simply amazing and adventurous music.......2001-04-22

This recording, I feel, is just the beginning of what is potentially a revolution of at least the world of Jazz. Of course, that will only happen if some other prominent members of the community follow Branford's lead.

But anyway, this music does exactly what I search for music to do. "What is that?", you ask. Well, that is to challenge me as a listener. I'm sure that wasn't the direct intent, but more likely a bi-product of Branford & Co. challenging themselves. Not technically, of course, but artistically. Every note of this recording rings with the sound of what is to come next.

Requiem was the siren getting our attention and Contemporary Jazz has been the first statement of a new era. It is now time for Jazz to look & move forward.

Top rate musicians create intense textures.......2001-04-20

On this recording the top rate musicians of contemporary jazz stretch out into new fields of music. Each song is a lyrical and screaming jungle of intense textures that would make the pioneers of contemporary jazz, like John Coltrane and eric dolplhy proud. Each song honors the classic players of old as well as moving into new directions of "contemporary jazz." The rhythmic and modal exploration on this disc has proved to me that jazz didn't die with the old greats. Joey Calderazzo and "Tain" Watts,two fairly new faces on the jazz scene, make an extraordinary break out on this CD. I would reccomend this to anyone interested in true-to-its-roots contemporary jazz.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Christmas on Death Row (Clean) ~ Various Artists

Local Band Does O.K. ~ Umphrey's McGee

Electric Landlady ~ Kirsty MacColl

Here Comes Death ~ Speedealer

Definitive America ~ America

The Best Years of Our Lives ~ Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

Sweet Dreams

Get Around ~ Guana Batz

The Best of Home Bass ~ Thrill da Playa

Powers That Be/Let It Roll ~ Hieroglyphics