With lots of humor, blunt honesty, and creative wisdom, Marsalis provided a oneof-a-kind experience to the Jazz Ensemble musicians who took part in his Oct. 15 master class in Arthur Zankel Music Center, offered as part of the inaugural Pia ScalaZankel ’92 and Jimmy Zankel ’92 Residency in Performing Arts. “Now you know what to figure out, and you’re going to figure it out,” Marsalis assured his students. “It’s OK to get lost. If you’re really improvising with sound, you’ll get the lost vibe. Then you know you’re not in common form.”
LEARNING FROM A JAZZ MASTER Branford Marsalis provides insights, lessons, and a captivating performance with his quartet as part of the inaugural Pia Scala-Zankel ’92 and Jimmy Zankel ’92 Residency in Performing Arts. As revered instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and educator Branford Marsalis sat back in his front-row seat, ready to critique their chops, the first small group of Skidmore Jazz Ensemble students took their places at the front of the classroom and began playing Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train.”
Also as part of the residency, the threetime Grammy winner and Tony and Emmy Award nominee spoke about his life and career during a Q&A for students of music, media and film studies, documentary studies, and Black studies earlier in the day, and performed with the Branford Marsalis Quartet in Arthur Zankel Music Center’s Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall that evening — a special engagement that was part of President Marc Conner’s inauguration celebrations. In a nod to his master class students seated in the audience, Marsalis’s quartet played “Take the A Train” as their final number of the evening. During his morning Q&A in Filene Recital Hall, moderated by Senior Teaching Professor of Music Evan Mack, Marsalis was candid about a variety of topics: growing up in New Orleans as a son of pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis and taking up the saxophone at age 14 to impress girls; his
unconventional relationship with music and his constant endeavoring to explore new sounds; his work with artists such as Sting and the Grateful Dead; his appreciation of opera and classical music; his experiences in composing original music for the documentary “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre” and films such as Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; and some of the most important lessons he has learned from four decades performing in the international spotlight. Chief among those lessons, he says: “You have to know what you sound like. It’s about the sound that you generate. Playing the instrument is not the same as playing music.” Music major Adam Warner ’22 posed the question of whether it is better to be formally trained or to be on the ground, performing for audiences. “Both,” Marsalis said without hesitation. “I’m formally educated. There’s no such thing as knowing too much. It’s how you apply it. You do the formal stuff and then you go get beat up. Know what you sound like and endeavor to fix the problems.” When it comes down to it, Marsalis says, his career in music is all about the art and the love of performing. “This is it. It’s just the music. I love playing it. I enjoy this life. I enjoy being here with you all.” — Angela Valden
Marsalis listened closely for a few bars before waving them to a halt. “Horn players, do you know the bridge? OK, we’re going to learn it right now. Sing it in time. Ba da, ba da, ba da de da …” The students sang it back. Marsalis repeated it, and the students echoed him again. And again. “Now play it. If you miss the bridge, we’re stopping,” said the National Endowment for the Arts jazz master. “You’re not leaving the table until you finish everything on your plate, young man.”
Branford Marsalis in a master class with Skidmore students.
SKIDMORE COLLEGE 11
