Four MFs Playin’ Tunes cover

Four MFs Playin’ Tunes

Released

Saxophonist and composer Branford Marsalis has always been the more adventurous of the Marsalis family (his brother Wynton being the staunch traditionalist), and as is the case with all adventurous musicians, his experiments sometimes pan out and sometimes don’t. This saucily-titled quartet date finds him at the peak of his powers, playing straight-ahead jazz with a bit of a twist: there are two standards, but the rest of the album consists of original compositions by the band — some of which swing powerfully but feature slippery, sideways chord progressions (“The Mighty Sword”) while others are just plain quirky (“Brews”). Everything here is very much worth hearing.

Rick Anderson

Recommended by

Suggestions
LP5 cover

LP5

Autechre
Perception cover

Perception

Gwilym Simcock
Romance Among the Fishes cover

Romance Among the Fishes

Phil Robson, Tom Rainey, Drew Gress, Liam Noble
Towards Language cover

Towards Language

Arve Henriksen
Snakeoil cover

Snakeoil

Tim Berne
Four In One cover

Four In One

Heads of State
Anthony Braxton cover

Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton
Be Water cover

Be Water

Christian Sands
Pergolese cover

Pergolese

François Couturier, Anja Lechner, Maria Pia de Vito, Michele Rabbia
Illusions cover

Illusions

Arthur Blythe