After Imitating Masters, Saxman Finds Own Voice

Among the young lions that have roared onto the jazz scene during the last couple years, Branford Marsalis is the best-known of the saxophone prodigies. After years of paying homage to the masters, Marsalis emerged in the last two years with a strong, original voice, a collage from his learning years.

On the eve of the opening of his current tour last week, Marsalis was rushing to finish his score for an HBO movie, “Without a Pass,” scheduled to air in December. As assorted electronic effects waxed and waned in the background, Marsalis, who plays Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay at 7 p.m. Sunday, managed distracted and curt responses to questions about him and his music.

At 31, the saxman is a seasoned pro with six albums as a leader under his belt and dozens more with other artists.

His seventh solo recording, “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born,” is due Oct. 1 and is described in liner notes by Marsalis’ younger brother and producer, Delfeayo, as “his most cumulative statement to date, each composition providing a different perspective of American society in 1991.”

Branford Marsalis wrote six of the eight songs, and his bassist, Robert Hurst, wrote two. The album features guest appearances by Marsalis’ younger brother, Wynton, the trumpeter, and gifted young British saxophonist Courtney Pine.

Despite the liner notes, Branford Marsalis couldn’t really put his finger on how the new recording gives his musical “perspectives” on American society.

“All of our songs have musical themes. Social themes? We don’t use words, so people can’t figure those things out,” he said. “All musicians and artists are social critics. I think that our music somehow reflects how we see society. But what people get is more a sense of beauty, logic and order.”

A few years ago, young Turks such as the Marsalises were sometimes dismissed by seasoned jazz legends as more smoke than fire, but Branford Marsalis has since gained their genuine respect. He played on saxman Sonny Rollins’ 1990 release, “Falling in Love With Jazz,” and, although he doesn’t yet possess Rollins’ maturity or full-bodied original voice, Rollins was impressed.

“I think he’s a fine saxophonist, one of my favorites,” Rollins said. “I first hooked up with him when I began hearing that he was talking about me quite a lot in interviews and articles. So I got the idea that he appreciated my endeavors of years past, and that initiated the idea of us doing a concert together in 1989.”

In fact, Rollins is only one of several saxophonists Marsalis freely acknowledges imitating during his formative years. Others include Cannonball Adderley, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman, Ben Webster and John Coltrane.

Marsalis has turned his education into a sort of public case study. His 1988 recording “Random Abstract,” for example, includes cuts on which he emulated Shorter, Coltrane, Coleman and Webster, taking possession of their techniques, moods and tones he wanted for his own sound.

Subsequent recordings document Marsalis’ diligent and often fruitful search for an original voice: the 1989 “Trio Jeepy,” a double album of extended improvisations teaming Marsalis and his longtime drummer Jeff (Tain) Watts with veteran bassist Milt Hinton; “Crazy People Music,” released earlier this year, featuring Marsalis, Watts, Hurst and saxophonist Kenny Kirkland, and the pending new album, by this same band minus Kirkland, the same threesome that will appear at Humphrey’s.

What has emerged as his “voice” has to do not so much with his tone--which is thin compared with players like Rollins--but with musical ideas, the melodies he writes and improvises, the harmonic structures he hangs them on. It’s as if Marsalis has dissected the history of jazz saxophone and reassembled the pieces he likes into a fresh, appealing whole.

Marsalis grew up in New Orleans, the son of Ellis Marsalis, a jazz pianist and educator. He began playing piano at 4, clarinet a few years later, and graduated to alto saxophone at 15. He dedicated himself to the tenor sax in the early 1980s (he still plays some soprano) during his stint with the late drummer Art Blakey’s band. Marsalis has said that he was drawn to the tenor’s human-like qualities.

During the early 1980s, Marsalis was a member of Wynton’s band, but he went on his own in 1984 with a solo album, “Scene in the City.”

Asked what he thinks of his earlier recordings, whether he can detect his own maturation, Marsalis replied, “I don’t listen to ‘em, so I wouldn’t know.” A few moments later, though, he let on that, until his last album, he considered some of his finest playing to be the soprano sax he contributed to the 1984 Miles Davis album “Decoy.”

In short answers to other questions, Marsalis divulged that he doesn’t know when or what he will record next, that he can’t predict when he will turn up in another movie role (his last was a part in 1987’s “Throw Momma From the Train,” and that he doesn’t see making an album with Wynton in the near future . . . “but you never know.”

Marsalis’ ability to command a venue as large as Humphrey’s (1,200 seats) with a small group playing unadulterated, straight-ahead jazz is testimony to Marsalis’ celebrity, a result both of his legitimate talent and the exposure he has gained through his long association with rock star Sting.

Marsalis’ debut at Humphrey’s is not expected to sell out (promoter Kenny Weissberg predicted attendance of 1,000), but that is a marked improvement over one-night, two-show booking in 1984 that was canceled because ticket sales totaled less than 20.

In other cities, the saxophonist has displayed far greater star appeal. Last fall, for example, he lured 6,000 fans over three nights of shows in Los Angeles. And, three weeks ago in Buenos Aires, he filled 3,200 seats--two nights in a row.

Marsalis is wearing his celebrity well. As his following has grown, he has developed a taste for designer threads.

“I’m kind of a clothes junkie,” admitted Marsalis, who wears classy clothes on stage but dresses like an everyday jock, high-top leather basketball shoes, shorts and T-shirts when he’s just hanging out.

“But not like my brother (Wynton). I’m like a designer hippie.”

Always a scavenger for any strain of music that might hold an idea or two he can utilize, Marsalis said his latest fascination is opera, which he began listening to while writing the music for the upcoming album. “Whether it had an impact, I don’t know,” he said.

Tickets for Marsalis’ 7 p.m. show at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay on Shelter Island are $20, available from TicketMaster or Humphrey’s.