Tag Archives: Austin Johnson

Festive Season gets off to a bright start in the Bay Area

by Gilly Lloyd
examiner.com
December 4, 2014

In this first week of the Festive Season, SFJAZZ presents the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet – showcasing the talents of yet another talented member of the extraordinarily gifted Marsalis family – who in 2011 were the recipients of an NEA Jazz Master award.

Originally a drummer on the New Orleans jazz scene, Jason’s versatility includes a stretch with the Marcus Roberts Trio, the co-founding of an Afro-Caribbean jazz combo, Los Hombres Caliente, with percussionist Bill Summers and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, a highly impressive list of recordings, and he has also performed internationally with conductor Seiji Ozawa in interpretations of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F.

Having turned his attention to the vibraphone in recent years, Jason formed his Vibes Quartet, with Austin Johnson on piano, Will Goble on bass and Dave Potter on drums. The Quartet focuses on original material by Marsalis, but also explores a wide range of material which includes compositions by Bobby Hutcherson and Hermeto Pascoal, and has now produced two albums – A World of Mallets in 2013, and most recently, an album entitled 21st Century Trad Band.

Jason Marsalis heads to San Francisco with Vibes Quartet

by Andrew Gilbert
San Jose Mercury News
December 2, 2014

For a jazz musician, hailing from the Marsalis family carries obvious benefits, and certain specific challenges. With the achievement bar set dauntingly high, Marsalis siblings risk being ridiculed or simply ignored if they don’t measure up.

Jason Marsalis, the youngest of the illustrious New Orleans clan of musicians who were collectively named NEA Jazz Masters in 2011, defied long odds by racking up a singular set of accomplishments unequaled by his father, pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis, and his older brothers, saxophonist Branford, trumpeter Wynton and trombonist/producer Delfeayo.

A standout drummer as a teenager who went on to play an essential role in two celebrated ensembles, the Marcus Roberts Trio and Los Hombres Calientes, he’s come into his own as a bandleader playing an entirely different instrument, the vibraphone. The Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet opens a four-night run at the SFJazz Center’s Joe Henderson Lab on Dec. 4.

Marsalis credits his father with planting the seed for his instrumental transformation. “He suggested I take up the vibraphone when I was in high school, but that was in a classical context,” says Marsalis, 37, from his home in New Orleans. “Years later, I became more serious about exploring my own music on the vibes, and I started to hear a sound that I wanted.”

Marsalis recently released his second album with the Vibes Quartet, “21st Century Trad Band” (Basin Street Records), and the project is something of a manifesto. Featuring an excellent but still evolving young band with pianist Austin Johnson, bassist Will Goble and drummer David Potter, the group is very much a reflection of Marsalis’ chronologically encompassing aesthetic.

In jazz, “trad” means traditional New Orleans jazz from the first decades of the 20th century. While the style came to be called Dixieland when it experienced a popular revival decades later, in New Orleans the polyphonic group improvisation associated with trad was never eclipsed by later developments like big band swing and bebop.

But few jazz musicians of Marsalis’ generation (or the two or three previous) are familiar with trad. He found his current crew, all of whom hail from North Carolina, as impressionable undergrads at Florida State University, where he was an artist in residence with the Marcus Roberts Trio in 2003.

“Musicians today are not going to be comfortable with trad, but these guys had a certain respect for that style,” he says. “When I would call a trad tune like ‘Hindustan,'” a piece first recorded in 1918, “they enjoyed playing it. They don’t look down on it as an old style that doesn’t pertain to them.”

More than anything, Marsalis’ beautifully calibrated group approach flows from his formative experience with pianist Marcus Roberts, who spent nearly a decade in Wynton Marsalis’ band. Jason joined Roberts’ trio at 17 as a drummer, and he’s played a crucial role in the development of the group’s balletic control of dynamics, tempo and texture.

If Roberts instilled in Marsalis an orchestral and narrative approach to the trap set, his experience in Los Hombres Calientes, which he cofounded with Headhunters percussionist Bill Summers and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, provided a high-performance vehicle designed to explore the African rhythm continuum from the motherland to the vast New World African Diaspora.

“I was interested in world music, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and Haitian music, and Los Hombres came at the right time,” Marsalis says. “As a drummer, it helped open up my drum playing.”

Just because he’s turned over the drum kit to another player in the Vibes Quartet doesn’t mean he isn’t acutely attuned to every rhythmic detail.

He took drummer Dave Potter under his wing when the young percussionist started asking him questions. It’s a high-pressure situation for a young player, but Potter has embraced the challenge, and most nights he’s flourishing. And if the drummer’s taking care of business, a jazz band is more than halfway home.

“Jason’s concept of the group is definitely like an amalgamation of all the groups he’s played with, and also his family,” Potter says. “From Marcus, there’s the focus on dynamics and variation, with arrangements that are extremely tight and well orchestrated. But Jason also gets a lot from Branford’s and Wynton’s earlier groups, being very spontaneous when the improv sections begin. He wants the group to have the freedom to go any direction that the music takes us.”

Good vibes from Jason Marsalis at Jazz Showcase

by Howard Reich
Chicago Tribune
November 21, 2014
What else does drummer Jason Marsalis play? Vibes, and quite well.

Listeners often think of Jason Marsalis first as Wynton Marsalis’ younger brother and second as a New Orleans drummer.

But like his siblings – including saxophonist Branford and trombonist Delfeayo – Jason stands as a first-rate musician-bandleader in his own right. He also happens to be a fine vibraphonist, as he reaffirmed Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase. Leading the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet, he delivered original compositions and standards with elegance and grace, evoking a legendary ensemble that’s clearly a model for him: the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Nowhere were the parallels between the two units more apparent than in Marsalis’ “Characters,” from his “In a World of Mallets” album of 2013. For starters, the piece unfolded gently, at a relaxed tempo and with an easy but imperturbable sense of swing one associates with the MJQ. Drummer Dave Potter’s deft brushwork brought a nocturnal atmosphere to the proceedings, while Marsalis’ sinuous melodic lines and ultra-sophisticated chord progressions attested to his skills as composer. In many ways, Marsalis’ “Characters” showed the influence of ballads by MJQ pianist John Lewis, but with an unpredictability of line that proved to be a Marsalis signature throughout this performance.

The vibraphonist’s phrase-making was decidedly more animated in “The 18th Letter of Silence,” from Marsalis’ newly released album, “The 21st Century Trad Band.” Like most of Marsalis’ compositions, this piece bristled with melodic invention, the vibraphonist emphasizing linear playing, sharp instrumental attacks and irrepressible rhythmic urgency. Pianist Austin Johnson, bassist Will Goble and drummer Potter stayed with the leader in some of the most hard-driving music of this set.

“Blues Can Be Abstract, Too” crystallized Marsalis’ views on tradition and innovation, the vibraphonist drawing upon blues conventions but updating them with idiosyncratic turns of phrase and a complex overall structure. Here was the Marsalis Vibes Quartet at its most tautly controlled, the vibist presiding over a meticulously conceived arrangement in which each musician’s contributions emerged right on cue.

But no two pieces in this set conveyed the same sensibility, which underscored the many musical curiosities that drive Marsalis’ work. In his “Ballet Class,” the formalities and harmonies of classical music dovetailed with nascent ragtime rhythm. Jason Weaver’s “Blues for Now,” from “The 21st Century Trad Band” album, inspired Marsalis to take an orchestral approach to his instrument, the vibraphonist carefully layering themes and colors through the course of the work.

Some of the most ethereally beautifully music of the evening emerged in “Love Always Comes as a Surprise,” which originated in – of all places – the film “Madagascar 3.” Marsalis produced florid improvisation here, developing the tune’s underlying harmonies in softly shimmering tones.

There were standards, too, Marsalis letting “I’m Confessin’ (That I Love You)” speak sweetly for itself, the tune slightly embellished but delivered without pretense. When it came to an uptempo version of “You and the Night and the Music,” however, Marsalis took flight, his brisk tempo setting the stage for deep swing rhythm and intelligent transformation.

In none of this music, however, was instrumental virtuosity presented as a goal. So though there’s no shortage of jazz vibraphonists who show more technical wizardry (Stefon Harris) or innovative audacity (Jason Adasiewicz), the musicianship, seriousness and tonal beauty of Marsalis’ art were unmistakable.

To him, it’s all about the music, not the musician, a point he reiterated in his arrangement of Cliff Hines’ “Interzone,” with its gripping repeated-note theme and his four-mallet chordal voicings. By the end of the set, Marsalis had covered more musical facets, forms and expressions than one typically encounters in a single evening, and it’s a good bet there’s more where that came from.

in performance: jason marsalis vibes quartet

by Walter Tunis
LexGo
November 14, 2014

The most immediately arresting aspect of last night’s performance by Jason Marsalis at the Phelps-Stokes Auditorium of Berea College was the profoundly cool sound he summoned from the instrument before him. Known through area concerts over the past two decades as a drummer (including a 2005 show on this very stage), the youngest sibling of New Orleans’ famed Marsalis family favored the vibraphone and the melodically lustrous but sonically reserved tone it conjured.

On the opening bars of Blues Can Be Abstract, Too, the vibraphone’s notes hung liked chilled colors in the air that grew more expansive when Marsalis chose to add pedal induced sustain. The tune served as a beautiful introduction not only to the instrument but to what the bandleader chose to do with it.

Fronting what he aptly calls his Vibes Quartet, Marsalis flirted with jazz tradition and tried out more than a few progressive ideas. But that hardly translated into the big band majesty Lionel Ham\pton brought to the instrument from the 1930s onward or the scholarly combo improvisations defined a generation later by Gary Burton. Aside from a few fleeting passages where Burton’s innovations in playing the vibes with four mallets instead of the usual two surfaced, Marsalis followed his own muses, including a few from his native New Orleans.

On Blues for Now, one of eight com positions performed from the Vibes Quartet’s second and newest album, The 21^st Century Trad Band, a rugged Marsalis solo on the vibes led into a tight trio run instigated by pianist Austin Johnson. The music became noticeably more playful during the checklist of conflicting grooves that set the stage for The Man with Two Left Feet and its jovial percussive breakdown from drummer David Porter. And for pure Southern melody, nothing beat the curiously titled 18^th Letter of Silence where a sunny vibes stride by Marsalis quickly served as a contrast to the dynamics of his rhythm section. Johnson got the lion’s share of the solo spotlight but Potter and bassist Will Goble drove the tune.

Ultimately, it was the show-closing title composition to The 21^st Century Trad Band that defined the performance with a mash-up of familiar melodies (When the Saints Go Marching In was the most detectable), twisted bits of swing and some furious syncopation. The elements may have been rooted in the past but the end results brought the music into the here and now with the tonal splendor of the vibes leading the charge.

Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet: The 21st Century Trad Band review – an engaging, tuneful set

by Dave Gelly
the Guardian
November 8, 2014
Jason Marsalis Not just vibraphone, but glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba and even tubular bells. The youngest of the remarkable Marsalis brothers plays them all, sometimes multi-tracking several at once. This is an engaging set, tuneful and good-humoured, with titles like Blessed Unrest and The Man With Two Left Feet. Marsalis has a wonderfully crisp technique and a flair for inventing catchy melodies. As for the title number, you’ve never heard When the Saints Go Marching In sound anything like this. The rest of the quartet – pianist Austin Johnson, bassist Will Goble and drummer David Potter – really shine here.

Jason Marsalis brings percussion jazz to Seattle’s Jazz Alley

by Kim Hastings
axs.tv
November 5, 2014

A river of New Orleans jazz music runs deeply through the Marsalis family. From father Ellis through Branford, Wynton, Ellis Jr. and to the cousins beyond, music is the lifeblood that flows through their veins. Little surprise then that Jason, the youngest of the Marsalis family, carries on the proud tradition. Jason Marsalis and the Jason Marsalis Quartet bring their love of all things jazz to Dimitrious’ Jazz Alley Wednesday Nov. 5. One show only, the music begins at 7:30 p.m.

Jason Marsalis has been drumming all his life. In the last 15 years, he added the vibraphone to his repertoire. It is this fusion of percussive sound that he features in his newest album, 21st Century Trad Band. In a live appearance on KPLU’s Studio Sessions, Marsalis was asked about musical influence.

“Well my family first, but I also was strongly impacted by the Afro-Cuban sounds of Abelardo Barroso, Bebo Valdez, and Armando Parazo,” said Marsalis.

When asked about his current album Marsalis said, “People hear ‘Trad Band” and they think that was something from a long time ago. I want to show the people that it’s something that can work today.”

Marsalis’ group includes Austin Johnson (piano) Will Goble (bass) Dave Potter (drums) and Marsalis, concentrating on vibraphone but also taking a turn on the skins himself.

Marsalis’ career was briefly derailed by Hurricane Katrina but has since taken on new life. His 2009 release “Music Update” was his first release as bandleader. The album was Jason’s celebratory response to his family winning the distinguished NEA Jazz Masters Award. Since that time, his career has only flourished. 2013 was a monumental year in which Marsalis released his next recording as a leader on vibes entitled “In a World of Mallets”. The album went to Number 1 on the CMJ Radio Charts and also won an Offbeat Magazine award, a New Orleans music magazine, for best Contemporary Jazz Album.

Marsalis’ fans can expect to hear a wide-ranging eclectic set at Jazz Alley. From the titular track to the off-beat “For the Man With Two Left Feet” the Marsalis Quartet keeps the music humming. Featured are Jazz riffs and signature long pieces that show off the abilities owned by everyone in the group. The show is designed as an homage to jazz, blues, and the myriad music that has shaped Marsalis’ life.

With ‘The 21st Century Trad Band’ comes yet another Marsalis

by Dan MacIntosh
axs.tv
November 3, 2014

If you think the Marsalis family line ended with trumpeter Wynton and saxophonist Branford, you’re wrong because vibe play Jason Marsalis – the youngest sibling – has just released his second Vibes Quartet recording, The 21st Century Trad Band, on Basin Street Records. It’s the follow up to 2013’s In a World of Mallets, which made it to number 1 on the JazzWeek radio charts. This new effort continues the collaboration between Marsalis and his band, which includes Will Goble on bass, Austin Johnson on piano and David Potter at the drums.

The album includes tracks like “Offbeat Personality,” which features a complex arrangement that mixes hard-swinging with melodic segments, as well as a few unexpected turn-arounds and a quiet intro. “The Man with Two Left Feet,” on the other hand, matches traditional jazz elements with a more contemporary feel. It shows what happens when a band is able to log many miles and years together prior to recording together.

Marsalis incorporates a wide variety of instruments on this release, including marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells (remember The Exorcist theme?), vibraphone and xylophone. One track is even a bit of an off-kilter blues workout called “Discipline Meets the Offbeat One.”

This album once again includes compositions from Marsalis’ band mates, but also features some works by fellow New Orleans musicians. For instance, Cliff Hines’s “Interzone” is included, as is Jason Weaver’s “Blues for Now.” Both men are graduates of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Marsalis also gets a little social/political on one track, “BP Shakedown,” which is obviously inspired by the BP oil spill. A further sonic exploration is “Nights in Brooklyn,” which takes on film noire sounds.

Marsalis has already received high praise from other respected musicians. Banjoist Bela Fleck, for example, noted Marsalis’ “brilliant ideas that sound as if he’s played them his whole life, but are really coming off the top of his head.”

Although trumpeter Wynton is the most famous member of the family, his father, Ellis, is also a respected play. Brother Delfeayo Marasalis is a trombone player and producer. Wynton is a teacher and music educator, in addition to a composer and player. Anybody that’s ever seen him perform live has experienced his teaching skills — he loves to talk jazz history. He is also Artistic Director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. Over the years, he’s won nine Grammys – in both jazz and classical music. In fact, one of his recordings was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, the first of its kind. Now, Jason is making a bold entry into this amazing family tradition.

Editors’ Picks: November 2014

by Bobby Reed
Downbeat
November 1, 2014

As the album title The 21st Century Trad Band suggests, Jason Marsalis’ quartet mixes modern-day sounds with traditional ones. The title track includes a quote from the most traditional of tunes, “When The Saints Go Marching In,” while the song “BP Shakedown” begins with a recording of Rep. Joe Barton’s comments on the federal government’s response to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Marsalis, who topped the category Rising Star–Vibraphone in the 2013 DownBeat Critics Poll, has surrounded himself with fantastic musicians: pianist Austin Johnson, bassist Will Goble and drummer David Potter. Some of the album’s tracks feature the so-called Discipline Ensemble—Marsalis on marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone and xylophone—but this is truly a band effort. The quartet has fashioned a strong album with an appeal that extends beyond the thrill of hearing a master of the mallets at work. One section of “Ratio Man” shows just how killer this band can be as a trio (when Marsalis isn’t playing). Marsalis’ tune “Nights In Brooklyn,” which has the feel of a film-noir soundtrack, features Potter’s supple brushwork and Johnson’s gorgeous piano lines. This album showcases Marsalis’ command of the vibraphone’s melodic and percussive qualities, as well as the leader’s eagerness to share the spotlight with his fine collaborators.

New Jazz This Week: Marianne Trudel, Eva Kruse, Trio of Justice and More

by Dave Sumner
Wondering Sound
October 29, 2014

For the second week in a row, some late Best of 2014 contenders state their claim. Two qualities reflect most of this week’s list of recommendations: strong musicianship and fun fun music. You just can’t overvalue the potency of serious music that’s also a blast to kick back and listen to. Let’s begin…

Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet, The 21st Century Trad Band: Nice follow-up to last year’s winning release In a World of Mallets. Marsalis incubates a welcoming rush of warmth in his music, regardless of whether it’s a bop, a blues, or some modern construct that doesn’t sound beholden to any one influence. His use of xylophone, vibes, marimba, glockenspiel and tubular bells further diversifies his sound, and bringing back regulars Will Goble on bass, Austin Johnson on piano and David Potter on drums further cements the strength of their conversation. Very cool that he does a cover of fellow New Orleans musician, Cliff Hines’ “Interzone.”

Jason Marsalis (@JasonMarsalis) Vibes Quartet ‘The 21st Century Trad Band’ Album Out Now + LIVE on Tour!

by RJ Frometa
Vents
October 28, 2014

Jason Marsalis, the youngest of New Orleans’ Marsalis jazz dynasty, has released his second Vibes Quartet offering, The 21st Century Trad Band, today via Basin Street Records! The follow-up to 2013’s In A World Of Mallets, which hit #1 on the JazzWeek radio charts, The 21st Century Trad Band puts a spotlight on the growing synergy between the young & talented musicians consisting of Jason himself, Will Goble on bass, Austin Johnson on piano & David Potter on drums. For a taste of what to expect from the album, the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet previously unveiled cuts “The 21st Century Trad Band” & “Ratio Man.”

With songs on the album like “Offbeat Personality” Marsalis takes us on a journey through a complex arrangement combining hard-swinging sections with more melodic interludes, unexpected turn-arounds, and an introspective outro. While songs like “The Man With Two Left Feet” and the titular track play with the trad jazz idiom in a contemporary modality. What’s clear throughout the album is the developed control the band has cultivated through further years of playing together; the unspoken communication is evident.

As with previous albums, Marsalis continues his “Discipline” series accompanying himself on a variety of mallet-based instruments including Marimba, Glockenspiel, Tubular Bells, Vibraphone, and Xylophone, further establishing his voice as a mallet-player with the off-kilter blues of “Discipline Meets the Offbeat One” and several interludes with unusual rhythmic patterns and meters.

In addition to including original compositions from his band mates, Marsalis has taken a step further in encouraging the vanguard of the next generation of jazz by including compositions of the young New Orleans musicians Cliff Hines (“Interzone”) and Jasen Weaver (“Blues for Now”), both graduates of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

The shear amount of music, seamless interludes, and a track reflecting on the BP Oil Spill, “BP Shakedown” are testaments to Marsalis’ serious nature towards his work. But just as he touched on playful, uncharted territory with In A World of Mallets’ “Ballet Class” he explores a film noire theme with “Nights in Brooklyn.”

Banjoist Bela Fleck has praised Marsalis for “brilliant ideas that sound as if he’s played them his whole life, but are really coming off the top of his head.” The NEA Jazzmaster stated himself that his last record was “the beginning of a new chapter.” It’s clear The 21st Century Trad Band is a continuation of that chapter, and it’s full of those “brilliant ideas” for which the bandleader has become known.