Please Rewind Talent Wall

Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis comes to the screen with a musician’s sense of timing. Born in New Orleans on August 26, 1960, he grew up in a musical family: his father, Ellis Marsalis Jr., was a pianist and music professor, while his brothers Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason also became jazz musicians. Branford’s own path has moved through jazz, rock, classical music, television, theatre and film without losing the saxophone at its centre. After studying at Southern University and Berklee College of Music, Marsalis toured with Art Blakey and played alongside Wynton in the Jazz Messengers and Wynton’s first quintet. Guest appearances with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie followed, as did a long-running collaboration with Sting that began with The Dream of the Blue Turtles. In 1986, Marsalis formed the Branford Marsalis Quartet, whose 1992 album I Heard You Twice the First Time won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album, Individual or Group. His clearest acting showcase came in Spike Lee’s School Daze in 1988. Marsalis co-starred in the film and supplied several horn interludes, making his musical identity part of his screen presence rather than something kept outside the frame. The following year, he played a brief version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” over the opening logos of Lee’s Do the Right Thing. Marsalis became bandleader on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1992, bringing the members of his quartet into the programme’s house band. He later formed Buckshot LeFonque, combining jazz with elements of rock and hip-hop, and founded the Marsalis Music label in 2002. His range has also extended to orchestral performance and theatre composition, including music for the 2010 Broadway revival of August Wilson’s Fences. Acting is only one part of Marsalis’s career, but his screen work reflects the same qualities found across it: an alert presence, a dry sense of timing and an instinct for letting music do some of the talking.