Branford Marsalis blindfold test from 2002

[JETman]

I am looking forward to hearing Branford Marsalis in concert tonight at UCONN. There is room for everyone. Last week I heard Dave Burell in a solo performance and Gerald Cleaver's Black Host with Darius Jones and Cooper-Moore. I love it all!

Don't get me wrong, I think Branford is a hell of tenor saxophonist. Not a huge fan of his soprano playing but then again I havn't listened to nay of the recent recordings.

I have no issue with the music itself except that it just doesn't interest me so much as it is always the same or similar formats - quartet with sax, piano, bass and drums - same as I have little interest in the Jarrett trio for the same reasons - just not that interesting to me. I'm sure it would be a good show, but then again the Barry Harris trio is playing down the street from me - and they are great musicians - but they are playing music that is not really of interest to me - so it's a personal choice - I just find it a bit boring to be doing the same thing for 50 years as that trio would be doing - yet Harris is maybe the last bop pianist - and he grew up with the music - so he is no neobopper.

But as musicians, his current band is probably terrific as most experienced jazz musicians are terrific musicians. But I know to Branford as the name of his recording indicates, he just plays tunes.

And he calls himself a "MF". That surely takes guts!

[JSngry]

Hmm -- he thinks James Moody might be Lew Tabackin...

I could maybe, on any given day, hear either Lew Tabackin or Bennie Wallace for one cut and think that they were each other. But how James Moody gets into that equation...I'm not sure.

Then again, players sounds are their voices. Hearing them on a record is like getting a phone call from them. You pick up the phone, they say hey, and you recognize their voice if you've got it etched in your mind for whatever reason, be it ongoing repetition or be it a lot of recent dialouge or be it a notable distinctiveness. If you've not heard the voice in a long time, it might not click right away. But you don't pick up your phone, hear your uncle who you've not heard in five years say heywazzup and think that it's your wife calling from the office, ya' know?

[marcello]

I remember this when it came out.

I'm not too surprised that he couldn't identify Moody. I know I couldn't either, but he comments on Coleman Hawkins / Don Byas are off base, and he obviously hasn't listen to Zoot Sims very much and even less of Lockjaw Davis.

I also think he off base about the Tim Garland song. Not everybody writes like that at all! Tim is unique and a real composer. A fantastic reed player also. One of my favs.

I have to love him for the Joe Locke props!

By the way, I feel that Branford is a protean tenor saxophonist.

[Larry Kart]

Don't understand about difficulty in identifying Moody if you've heard him much. His tone and his phrasing (especially when he doubles things up) are quite distinctive.

[JSngry]

And he's got that little chokey-growl thing he does on a high note. Very distinctive player.

[Chuck Nessa]

Not hearing Lockjaw trumps all.

[JSngry]

Yeah, if Brandon was Japanese and this was the WWII era, he'd be obligated to commit hari-kari over that one.

The Japanese of that era were not made of sugar candy.

[Guy Berger]

Hmm -- he thinks James Moody might be Lew Tabackin...

I could maybe, on any given day, hear either Lew Tabackin or Bennie Wallace for one cut and think that they were each other. But how James Moody gets into that equation...I'm not sure.

Then again, players sounds are their voices. Hearing them on a record is like getting a phone call from them. You pick up the phone, they say hey, and you recognize their voice if you've got it etched in your mind for whatever reason, be it ongoing repetition or be it a lot of recent dialouge or be it a notable distinctiveness. If you've not heard the voice in a long time, it might not click right away. But you don't pick up your phone, hear your uncle who you've not heard in five years say heywazzup and think that it's your wife calling from the office, ya' know?

LOL! Major Branford fail here, no doubt about it.