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Branford Marsalis: Eternal

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Marsalis Music
Released: 2004.09.14
Time:
 68:20
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): Branford Marsalis
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.branfordmarsalis.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] The Ruby and the Pearl (Ray Evans, Jay Livingston) - 8:52
[2] Reika's Loss (Jeff "Tain" Watts) - 7:51
[3] Gloomy Sunday (László Jávor, Sam M. Lewis, Rezso Seress) - 12:43
[4] The Lonely Swan (Joey Calderazzo) - 9:04
[5] Dinner for One Please, James (Michael Carr) - 8:00
[6] Muldoon (Eric Revis) - 4:13
[7] Eternal (Branford Marsalis) - 17:41

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Branford Marsalis - Saxophones, Producer
Joey Calderazzo - Piano
Eric Revis - Bass
Jeff "Tain" Watts - Drums

Rob "Wacko" Hunter - Engineer, Mixing
Greg Calbi - Mastering
Arnold Levine - Art Direction, Design
Sarah Lainie Smith - Art Producer
Roderick Ward - Production Coordination
Rafi Zabor - Liner Notes

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded at Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown, New York on October 7–10, 2003.



Coming as a complete contrast to the saxophonist's often turbulent output in recent years, Eternal is a collection of introspective ballads. Marsalis states that he's primarily concerned with the naked emotional content of these selections. He isn't weighed down by the responsibility of adhering too slavishly to their melodic core.

Each quartet member contributes their own composition, and these are topped up by three less obvious standards. Marsalis is supremely relaxed throughout, reflecting with a calm grace. The album's packaging underlines this mood with its photograph of what looks like a waterfall of light. On the reverse, Branford is sitting on a garden bench, contemplating the natural universe.

The album is dedicated to the memory of a whole load of the recently departed, some of the more famed being Ray Charles, Elvin Jones, Steve Lacy and Malachi Favors.

"The Ruby And The Pearl" makes a slow glide, imbued with a laid-back Cuban feel, as Joey Calderazzo paces through an elegant piano solo that acts as a pathway for the leader's pointillist soprano curlings. Drummer Jeff 'Tain' Watts offers the romantically gloomy "Reika's Loss", which is followed by "Gloomy Sunday", Marsalis switching to tenor, darkening the mood with the threat of power soon to be unleashed. This is an intense strength that doesn't require speed, aggressive attack or extreme notes to make its mark. Watts rotates around his deep toms, creating a stormy swell. Branford enunciates slowly, with tender vibrato. The players are sensitised to the spaces that lie between each other.

Calderazzo's "The Lonely Swan" inhabits a single plane, without undergoing much development, but is blessed with an evocative nature. A ballroom reverb pervades "Dinner For One, Please, James", as Marsalis enters Coleman Hawkins territory.

The album's eighteen minute title track is dedicated to Branford's wife Nicole. The saxophonist insists on taking his time, nuzzling away quietly before eventually building up to a passionate surge, then becoming tranquil for its closing passage.

The listener can find solace in misery; melancholy can be an attractive proposition. There are many ballad albums that can run the risk of erring towards mellow blandness, but this disc knows the secret of romantic wistfulness. Its bittersweet mixture of desolation and ecstasy is finely balanced.

Martin Longley, 2004
BBC Review



Eternal is Branford Marsalis' third release on his Marsalis Music imprint, and his fourth with the working quartet of Joey Calderazzo, Eric Revis and Jeff "Tain" Watts. It is an album of evocative ballads, and thus a marked departure from the early-jazz jubilation of last year's Romare Bearden Revealed.

As for repertoire, Marsalis nods to jazz classics but also continues his practice of featuring band members as composers. Watts weighs in with "Reika's Loss," a slow and heartfelt waltz. Calderazzo gives us "The Lonely Swan," a yearning melody with dark cadences and a moderate bossa feel. Revis' haunting "Muldoon" features Calderazzo and Marsalis in duet; Orrin Evans and Gregoire Maret interpret the same piece on Revis' stirring debut album, Tales of the Stuttering Mime (11:11).

Marsalis plays soprano sax on these three pieces, and on Evans and Livingston's "The Ruby and the Pearl," which Wayne Shorter played on 1960's Second Genesis (with Art Blakey on drums). But as Rafi Zabor reveals in his online-only liner notes (at marsalismusic.com) Marsalis' model here and on "Dinner for One Please, James" is Nat "King" Cole. Still, it's interesting to compare Marsalis' supremely laid-back "Dinner for One..." with Coleman Hawkins' brighter version on The Hawk in Hi-Fi. Marsalis' tenor is at its most expressive on a 12-minute "Gloomy Sunday," faithful to the spirit of Billie Holiday's 1941 version. The quartet plays the bridge only once, near the end of the take.

To close, Marsalis and Co. give us "Eternal," nearly 18 minutes of ethereal yet thematically coherent music-not a ballad, really, but true to the album's balladic intent. Though the song never comes to a full boil, its beautifully drawn dynamic and rhythmic contours make clear how highly developed this band's art has become.

David R. Adler, November 2004
© 1999–2014 JazzTimes



It takes skill to perform a jazz ballad effectively. It's one thing to burn notes with rapid-fire precision, yet another to explore the intricacies of slower ones. Not only is the music a factor, but the dynamics of mood, style, and emotion also come into play. There have been many jazz ballad recordings and now one of today's foremost saxophonists, Branford Marsalis, gives his spin with Eternal.

Consisting of seven compositions with unique contributions from each member of Marsalis' longtime stellar quartet—pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts—the music is thought-provoking and performed with great clarity and life.

On some similarly themed recordings there has been at times an overshadowing sense of melancholia. This is not the case with Eternal, where each composition is translated differently with the commonality that Marsalis states: "All of the songs reflect the idea that there is beauty in sadness. Even sad songs sound happy when some people interpret them..."

The new contributions from each member of the quartet do indeed vary in mood and dimension. Watts' "Reika's Loss" has an atmospheric and light quality, supported by Marsalis' rich soprano voice and Calderazzo's delicate meanderings. Calderazzo's "The Lonely Swan" is brooding yet soulful, with a mid-tempo flow. The cerebral piano and saxophone duet "Muldoon" is offered by bassist Revis, while Marsalis' title composition, "Eternal," is a nearly eighteen minute long piece which begins quietly then builds to a feverish crescendo as each musician contributes to its energy.

True ballads have a timeless quality, and this is proven again on the Billie Holiday tune "Gloomy Monday," which is one of the highlights of the recording. The richness and depth of the 1930's classic "Dinner for One Please, James" is a testament to both the quartet and composer Michael Carr. Performed with the usual impeccable talent with which Marsalis and his quartet have become synonymous, Eternal succeeds at providing both mood and substance.

Mark F. Turner - September 9, 2004
© 2014 All About Jazz



Eternal finds saxophonist Branford Marsalis in a contemplative mood performing a mix of original and standard ballads with his usual quartet of pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts. The title track, written for his wife Nicole, is a hushed and cerebral affair, but never feels anything but warm. Similarly, the lead-off track, "The Ruby and the Pearl," contains the faint blush of Ellington-ian exoticism and "Gloomy Sunday" brings to mind the rumbling and atmospheric late-'60s work of longtime Marsalis touchstone John Coltrane. The album, his second solo outing for his Marsalis Music label, is dedicated in memory to a list of people one can only assume were as influential musically on Marsalis as emotionally. Among them are bassist Malachi Favors, drummer Elvin Jones, saxophonist Steve Lacy, and the one and only Ray Charles. Their spirits are palpable here as Marsalis and his band have clearly documented a handful of quietly beautiful and deeply moving performances.

Matt Collar - All Music Guide



When you hear that an artist is doing a ballad record, the first thing that comes to mind is "accessible product, commercial album for the masses." And, truth be told, some records seem to fit that description perfectly—Michael Brecker's Nearness of You: The Ballad Book , for example, sported an ace team of players but was ultimately unsatisfying featherweight music best suited as background dinner fare. This year, however, has seen two ballad albums with loftier ambitions: Joe Lovano's I'm All for You managed to be accessible without sacrificing any musical commitment; and now, saxophonist Branford Marsalis' Eternal , which may be the weightiest, most significant ballad record to come out in years.

Even when the quartet, featuring pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, tackles more traditional fare like "Dinner for One Please, James," the tender ballad retains a substantive feel that, while completely accessible, reveals many layers on repeated listens. Watts, normally thought of as a powerhouse drummer, is outstanding in his pure simplicity, with brushwork that dovetails perfectly with Revis' equally modest playing. And yet, while this album is for the most part somewhat restrained, it is still imbued with deep feeling and rich subtext. Calderazzo, a player with more of a reputation as a post-Tyner burner, displays a subtlety and lyrical depth that, for all its austerity, is filled with passion.

As much as the album is about poignancy and a certain romantic sense, there is always the feeling that there is something more substantive lying just beneath the surface. Revis' "Muldoon," a duet between Calderazzo and Marsalis, is a rubato tone poem that conjures images of darker loss and brighter redemption. Marsalis' lush tone seems to go deep inside the tune, being more about finding the inner essence of the piece as opposed to merely contriving clever ways to navigate it.

A characteristic of the whole album is, in fact, how the quartet manages to transcend the simple parameters of the material and instead finds something more basic, more elemental. This is not an unusual goal, but somehow when faced with a programme of material that is so deeply emotional while at times so deceptively simple, Marsalis and the group succeed in finding the place where music becomes the purest representation of feeling. The playing is so inspired and intuitive that one forgets about more conceived musical concerns and, instead, finds oneself in that same moment the musicians are so clearly in.

While there is little to compare on a musical basis, somehow the ghost of Coltrane is watching over Eternal , especially on the 17-minute title track that closes the album. There is a spiritualistic sense coupled with a sense of adventure that makes this more than simply a collection of slow tempo pieces. Instead, Eternal goes to that deepest place, the core of human experience and, consequently, may be Marsalis' most fully realized record to date.

John Kelman - September 23, 2004
© 2014 All About Jazz



Eternal is an album by saxophonist Branford Marsalis recorded at Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown, New York in October 2003. It peaked at number 9 on the Top Jazz Albums chart. The Allmusic review by Matt Collar states "Eternal finds saxophonist Branford Marsalis in a contemplative mood performing a mix of original and standard ballads... dedicated in memory to a list of people one can only assume were as influential musically on Marsalis as emotionally. Among them are bassist Malachi Favors, drummer Elvin Jones, saxophonist Steve Lacy, and the one and only Ray Charles. Their spirits are palpable here as Marsalis and his band have clearly documented a handful of quietly beautiful and deeply moving performances".

Wikipedia.org



Musik zum Nachdenken - nicht so sehr über die Musik, vielleicht mehr über sich selbst. Branford Marsalis hat sein neues Album jenen gewidmet, die ihm viel bedeuteten: Kollegen wie Elvin Jones, Steve Lacy, Ray Charles, einer Freundin aus der Kindheit, die gestorben ist. Selten wurde ein musikalisches Andenken so überzeugend umgesetzt. In jeder einzelnen Note meint man die Liebe zu spüren, die den Saxofonisten mit diesen Menschen verband und verbindet. Und noch vielmehr, denn: die Musik vereint sich ebenso unmittelbar mit dem Hörer; sie verbrüdert sich, verbündet sich, sie überwindet die Einsamkeit - die der Interpreten, die der Zuhörer, die der Verstorbenen. Ganz erstaunlich. Der Titel Eternal trifft es auf den Punkt genau. Die Töne erzählen von dem was nicht gemessen wird, das Album schlägt eine Brücke, es besiegt die Vergänglichkeit, das Verstreichen von Zeit ist nur noch eine äußerliche Hülle. Eternal ist ruhig, aber niemals schleppend. Das Spiel ist verhalten im Geist, aber jederzeit präsent und hellwach. Es ist zart, aber nicht traurig, oder doch nur selten. Diese Jazzmusik ist emotional und tief, geerdet in der Tradition, zum Erblühen gebracht von herrlichen Mitspielern, von Jeff "Tain" Watts (Schlagzeug), Joey Calderazzo (Klavier) und Eric Revis am Bass. Das ist ein Höhepunkt des Branford Marsalis Quartet.

Katharina Lohmann - Amazon.de
 

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