Branford Marsalis plays Ottawa
Branford and co. open the Ottawa Jazz Festival
Branford Marsalis may be the perfect opening act for a midsize jazz festival - a hunch he confirmed in a tight set last night.
There may be no more appropriate act to open a midsize jazz festival than Branford Marsalis.
Middle-child jazz fest lineups, while impressive, aren't dense enough to recover from such accidental opening-act crimes as excess showmanship, musical insularity, or somebody having an off night.
Whether he is conscious of it or not, the first-man-in-festival-orbit must set just the right tone, making the audience aware that this is a week not be taken lightly but neither one that promises vast eclecticism.
Thus Marsalis, with his remarkable ability to dance atop jazz's tipping point without ever plunging over into its freest air, played with just the right tasteful flourish to officially declare the main stage program of this year's TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival open.
Marsalis' hour and a half set was a tidy representation of most of what he is known for: some hard bop, the odd bit of soul, a reverence for the old masters, and fine forays into classical.
Most of the evening was comprised of band-penned compositions, bebop riffs by bassist Eric Rivas and Marsalis-family drummer-of-choice Jeff "Tain" Watts, both of whom soloed energetically throughout the night. Watts played especially hard, raising everything he touched with his heavy sticks to the highest energy quotients.
The rest of the time, Marsalis warmed the sixteen degree evening with the even tempered sound of his soprano, the spirit of old New Orleans seeping through its pores even in a piece by Purcell. He saluted Sonny Rollins with a cheeky version of "Cheek To Cheek," and alternated happy, hurried tenor steps and lulling soprano exercises to the night's showiest numbers, the double whammy of the Tain-composed "Mr J.J.," through which he played with his trademark gentlemanly fire, and Revis' "And Then He Was Gone," the band's most cohesive number.
All in all, Marsalis and company set out a nice welcome mat to the Fest, one designed with a driving decorum that provided just the perfect accent.
Preceding Marsalis in the tricky 6:30 spot was a remarkable new local act, the tango practitioners Norteno.
This Ottawa-Gatineau quintet presented a Piazolla-padded performance, pregnant with South American melancholy, edgy string work, and bandoneon-driven grandiosity.
Despite Piazolla's famous contention that the tango should be played with "rage, always rage," the band brought a distinctly Canadian temperance to it - and yet, all things Piazolla were still there: the romance, the reverie, the sad and resonant good taste.
With the introduction of Norteno, Ottawa has a new musical facet, one we'll be seeing, I'm sure, at occasions such as the Governor General's annual garden party and other public celebrations of note
