NEA Jazz Master and three-time Grammy Award winner, legendary saxophonist Branford Marsalis is one of the most revered figures in contemporary music. He returns with the Branford Marsalis Quartet for more virtuosic improvisations supercharged by the quartet’s extraordinary energy and telepathic musical connection.

EPSG:4326

Branford Marsalis Quartet

California State University, Long Beach

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master, GRAMMY Award winner, and Tony Award nominee, is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core of his musical universe remains the Branford Marsalis Quartet. After more than three decades of existence with minimal personnel changes, this celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a kaleidoscopic range of both original compositions and jazz and popular classics.

Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

Marsalis, the NEA Jazz Master, Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee, is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core of his musical universe remains the Branford Marsalis Quartet. The celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a kaleidoscopic range of both original compositions and jazz and popular classics. John Zeugner captured the impact of the Quartet in live performance in a recent concert review, calling it “casually confident, professional, cerebral, and supercharged with energy. The Branford Marsalis Quartet…was all of those adjectives and more.”

Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis is one of the most influential and revered figures in contemporary music. The NEA Jazz Master, Grammy Award winner, and Tony Award nominee is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core of his musical universe remains the Branford Marsalis Quartet. After more than three decades of existence with minimal personnel changes, this celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a kaleidoscopic range of both original compositions and jazz and popular classics. After the Grammy‐nominated Upward Spiral, on which guest vocalist Kurt Elling was seamlessly integrated into the group, the Quartet has followed up with the Grammy‐nominated The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, its most emotionally wide‐ranging and melody-driven collection to date. John Zeugner captured the impact of the Quartet in live performance in a recent concert review, calling it “casually confident, professional, cerebral, and supercharged with energy. The Branford Marsalis Quartet . . . was all of those adjectives and more.”

An Evening with Branford Marsalis

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis continues to thrill audiences around the world even after four decades in the international spotlight. From his initial recognition as a young jazz lion, he has expanded his vision as an instrumentalist, composer, bandleader and educator, crossing stylistic boundaries while maintaining an unwavering creative integrity. In the process, he has become an avatar of contemporary artistic excellence winning three Grammy Awards, a Tony nomination for his work as a composer on Broadway, and a citation by the National Endowment for the Arts as Jazz Master.

Branford Marsalis Quartet

Mar 16, 2024