Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis: I’m a MF Musician!

“I don’t use songs as a vehicle to glorify myself. I’m going to play whatever is required to make the song successful.” These are the words of Branford Marsalis. He’s a man that understands that it’s not all about him. Considering the big names he’s played with from Sting to …

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Alexandra Jackson: A Voice All Her Own

Atlanta native Alexandra Jackson is a singer, songwriter, musician, and arranger. At the tender age of four, she began what would become twelve years of classical piano lessons. As the youngest daughter of Atlanta’s first African-American mayor and civil rights activist, Maynard Jackson, and Valerie Jackson, and one of the …

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Pharoah Sanders: A Spiritual Journey Through Music

  Jazz, the genre that has sub-genres within the culture itself. There is Swing, Bebop, Harmony, Afro-Cuban, Modern, Smooth, Cool, Avant-Garde and Free or what some call Cosmic/Mystic/World Fusion Jazz. This sound of the 1970’s includes artists such as Sun Ra, Lonnie Liston Smith, Ronnie Laws, Yusef Lateef, Alice Coltrane …

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The Public Theater’s Public Forum Duets: Wynton Marsalis and Suzan-Lori Parks

The Public Theater, one of the nation’s first non-profit theater companies, has been producing contemporary works and Shakespeare plays for the past 60 years. A devoted artistic establishment, and a promoter of political, social, and artistic dialogue, The Public runs a distinguished forum that they call Duets. These Duets are …

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Live Review: Wynton Marsalis’ “Blood on the Fields” at Jazz at Lincoln Center

Wynton Marsalis conducts the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performing “Blood on the Fields” At its best and most pure, music is three dimensional. Vivaldi proved it with his piece “The Four Seasons.” George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” did as well, along with Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly and Quincy Jones’ Walking …

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Wynton Marsalis at Chicago Symphony Center

On Friday, April 27, The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis performed at Chicago Symphony Center, as part of the Symphony Center Presents Jazz series with a special tribute to bandleader Wynton Marsalis in honor of his 50th birthday—a yearlong celebration. The evening celebrated Marsalis’ compositions, …

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Terence Blanchard: The Man with the Crescent Touch

When examining the arc of one’s artistry, what must be considered above that individual’s personal aptitude of his respective skill is the fact that you are a product of your environment. Terence Blanchard is an arc type for this principle, extracting the rich spirit of his New Orleans upbringing from …

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