Branford Marsalis’ Many Faces

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis showed up in a number of different musical guises at the Roxy on Tuesday night. That’s not particularly surprising, given the personas he’s already revealed in his career--from leading a television band (on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show”) to founding a pop-jazz crossover band (Buckshot LeFonque), from classical outings (his CDs “Romances for Saxophone” and “Creation”) to periodic straight-ahead, uncluttered jazz performances and recordings.

His Roxy program fortunately emphasized the latter, although even in the jazz category, Marsalis offered several distinctly different musical identities.

In the first two pieces--his own “In the Crease” and “MuphkinMan” by drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts--the accessible Marsalis was front and center, punching out R&B-driven; lines over supercharged funk rhythms from Watts and bassist Eric Revus. A bit later, in the poignant “A Thousand Autumns,” a more pensive Marsalis put in an appearance, his tone now sweetened, his improvisation arcing gently through the floating harmonies of pianist Joey Calderazzo.

Moving on, Marsalis pulled out all the stops in a wildfire set of choruses triggered by Ornette Coleman’s “Giggin’.” Climaxing his set before a capacity and ebulliently enthusiastic crowd, he offered an intense re-creation of segments from John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.”

That’s an impressively varied plate of music to include in a 90-minute set. But Marsalis brought it off, for the most part, with considerable success. Although the opening tunes suggested he might be paying too much attention to the marketing responsibilities of his new role as head of his own record company, the second half of the set made no concessions at all to commerciality. In several rocketing up-tempo solos, Marsalis was a virtuosic technician, ripping notes out of his horn with blinding speed while maintaining a remarkable sense of clarity and focus. As in numerous previous appearances, he made it clear that he is not a player who plays notes--even very fast notes--without a purpose.

Marsalis was well served by the other players, whose easy musical empathy with one another evidenced their continuing work together as members of his regular quartet. If there were times when Watts seemed a bit larger than life, if Calderazzo now and then chose flamboyance over focus, they more than countered for their occasional excesses by generally providing Marsalis with a stimulating combination of creative challenge and solid musical support.