Branford Marsalis
Marsalis has taken a fair amount of criticism for detouring his jazz career to play with Sting for 18 months and to sit in with such pop performers as Tina Turner. (Some of the most biting comments came from Marsalis' brother Wynton.) He and his saxophones seem to have survived the experience with his lyrical, adventuresome style intact. It's not as if he had been touring with Lester Lanin all this time. This album is not quite the traditional jazz throwback its title suggests. The title song is indeed the 1919 Clarence Williams tune that's a favorite of Dixieland bands. Marsalis just borrows the basic melody and takes off with it in a jazz mode more reminiscent of the '50s and '60s than the '20s. Kenny Kirkland, Herbie Hancock or Larry Willis man the piano on most cuts, with Willis' moody composition Shadows providing some of the album's most evocative passages. The bassists are Ira Coleman, Ron Carter and 19-year-old Charnett Moffett, and the drummers are Marvin Smith and Jeff Watts. Everybody maintains the same tone of restrained invention. That includes Branford, who seems to have seen rock 'n' roll and lived to tell about it. (Columbia)
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