New Orleans finest ready to go home with music lovers
20th May 2019 · 0 Comments
By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer
New Orleans’ springtime festival season is a lucrative and smart time for many artists to release new recordings. They get maximum exposure at both the French Quarter Festival and New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival that are filled with music-loving folks, often from out of town and with some spending money in their pockets. Both of the native New Orleans musicians whose albums are reviewed here performed to rave reviews at the Jazz Fest with Crawford amazingly making some eight appearances including his own hot set in the Blues Tent and onboard for tributes to Fats Domino and Henry Butler. Branford Marsalis was, of course, blowing next to his brothers, trumpeter Wynton and trombonist Delfeayo with Jason behind the drums for a tribute to their father, pianist/educator Ellis Marsalis.
Davell Crawford
Dear Fats, I Love You
(Basin Street Records)
Davell Crawford, the Piano Prince of New Orleans, recorded Dear Fats, I Love You just seven days after the death of his friend and inspiration, the great Antoine “Fats” Domino. For this tribute, Crawford is alone at a Steinway Model D piano performing a selection of some of Fats’ most beloved hits. Unusually, particularly for an artist who is also known as a wonderfully soulful vocalist, Crawford’s conception was to perform these songs minus their familiar lyrics. Instead, he lets the piano sing the words that Fats’ fans know so well as heard on the opening cut, “Ain’t That a Shame.”
In most cases, it only takes a bar or maybe even just a couple of notes to recognize these Fats favs. Then Crawford lets his musical imagination and abilities flow with exceptionally well-suited improvisations and arrangement that have Fats and his hometown of New Orleans at their core. Naturally the master pianist includes his own brand of triplets, trills, staccato and two-handed boogie-woogie styles. Crawford’s embellishments on the romantic “Careless Love” are just lovely and he goes to town on a speedy version of “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday” that includes those signature Fats quotes but in an entirely new way.
Perhaps the most “reimagined” selection is Domino’s and Dave Bartholomew’s composition “I’m Walkin.’” The original jaunty tune changes personalities as the mood becomes dreamy as the tempo is slowed way down. It’s a beauty. Crawford lets the piano provide the signature call and response of a swaying, “I Want to Walk You Home.”
Dear Fats, I Love You is a beautifully conceived, magnificently performed and captured musical letter of true endearment. We love you too Fats.
Branford Marsalis Quartet
The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
(Okeh/Sony Masterworks)
Saxophonist Branford Marsalis sounds like he’s just where he wants to be on The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul. He’s among his remarkable longtime music mates, pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faukner that give the leader plenty of room and way more than intuitive support. This quartet is one, like-minded group that challenges each other and the listener.
The album opens with Revis’ “Dance of the Evil Toys” that embraces a sense of playfulness in a lyrical yet chaotic atmosphere. Marsalis’ tenor jumps out of the toy chest and enjoys the freedom of expression with the rest of his talented band seemingly just as glad to be free of confinements that strip the soul.
Marsalis contributes only one original tune to the package leaving the writing to Revis and Calderazzo. The leader has been quoted explaining why that’s the case saying, “I’m a player; I’m not a musician/composer.” Obviously he trusts the guys, and they obviously deserve that yet his “Life Filtering from the Flowers” and past self-penned tunes display his talents as a composer. Marsalis’ horn calls out much like a conch shell that’s blown from a faraway shore to begin the song. Calderazzo’s elegant piano and the splash of Faulkner’s cymbals drift on a quiet current that increasing becomes a raging sea when the saxophone just stands up and blows. Yeah.
For some just some plain fun, the quartet covers pianist Keith Jarrett’s familiarly lively “The Windup.” It’s a good choice for this group that knows how to swing and enjoy. Calderazzo and Faulkner respectively throw in some classic New Orleans stylin’ with the pianist offering some familiar Crescent City licks and the drummer giving the tune a strong back beat that offer a new perspective on the tune as well as a smile. As for Marsalis, he gets in some funky honkin’.
The other tune the band covers, Andrew Hill’s “Snake Hip Waltz” also embraces a spirited flavor. Marsalis grabs his soprano saxophone that increases the light-heartedness of the rhythmic number.
The Branford Marsalis Quartet’s The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul is simply a solid album made possible by great and adventuress musicians. There are no dull moments with these guys goin’.
This article originally published in the May 20, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
