Jazz
The Branford Marsalis Quartet and Dianne Reeves release «Dedicated to You» on 18 September via Blue Note, a record marking the centenary of John Coltrane’s birth. The title track is the second preview, following «They Say It’s Wonderful», which came out on 21 July alongside the record’s announcement.
«It seemed like a great idea, but I wanted to take the road less travelled,» Marsalis says of the project. On choosing the singer, he says: «There’s a magic sound within what we call the thing, and Dianne has it.»
The record’s core is the six standards from «John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman», released by Impulse! in 1963: «They Say It’s Wonderful», «Dedicated to You», «My One and Only Love», «Lush Life», «You Are Too Beautiful» and «Autumn Serenade». Around them are instrumental pieces from the saxophonist’s repertoire — «Big Nick», «26-2» and «Central Park West» — and two extra tracks, «Say It (Over and Over Again)» and «Nancy (With the Laughing Face)». Playing on it is Marsalis’s regular quartet: Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on double bass and Justin Faulkner on drums.
Coltrane was born on 23 September 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina, and died on 17 July 1967, aged forty. The record with Johnny Hartman is the only one he recorded as a leader with a singer.
Marsalis has led his quartet since 1986. Before that he’d passed through Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis’s band, played with Sting between 1985 and 1999, and led the house band on Jay Leno’s show between 1992 and 1995. Reeves debuted on Blue Note in 1987 with a record produced by her cousin George Duke that spent eleven weeks at number one on the contemporary jazz chart. She’s won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album five times, more than any other performer in that category.
The tour brings them to the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona on 3 November.
Text by Aina Torrents