Branford Marsalis Quartet Eternal

The music of melancholy is the toughest of all music to convey. It requires a mainline tap into the human condition and doesn't just yield up for anyone. It requires an intimate closeness with the very sadness that the musician is releasing by way of the chosen instrument. An intimate understanding of the emotions is a core component of the music found on Eternal.

Branford's instrument is the saxophone which is one of the more suited to elicit the mournful feelings found on Branford Marsalis Quartet's latest, eternal. Nuances that are essential to this recording of originals and covers open up like a flower and envelop the listener in a gauze of melancholy. But there is beauty and closeness in that mournfulness.

To hear Calderazzo's hesitating piano in "Dinner For One Please, James" is to invite him into your soul while Marsalis' sax draws you into it as a comfort. Revis' bass and Watt's spare drums ticks the moments away in necessary softness.

This album of ballads is comprised of originals from each member of the quartet and is capped by a hauntingly beautiful 17+ minute composition from Branford himself called "Eternal." The rest of Eternal is filled with exquisite covers like Rezso Seress, Laszlo Javor and Sam Lewis' "Gloomy Sunday", a song so sad that it encapsulated the end of one of the composers as well as being a voice of understanding for so many.

"Reika's Loss", the contribution of BMQ's drummer, Jeff Watts, is a well constructed piece that fits into the tone of eternal as does the feeling of Revis' "Muldoon". Calderazzo's 9-minute "The Lonely Swan" uses Marsalis' sax to play with his own piano intonations to satisfying effect.

Branford Marsalis' "Eternal" finishes the album with a captivating performance that demands reclining or lying in bed, drinking in the emotions of blues. We haven't heard an album of this depth for a while and so it comes to us in respect. It does well for us to treat the album with respect as it has the ability to reach in us and extract emotion from our hearts. If you have forgotten how sublime music of melancholy can be then Eternal will re-awaken it for you. If you haven't been introduced, Eternal will do the honours.

If melancholy suits your soul, the Branford Marsalis Quartet has the stuff for a Gloomy Sunday in a beautifully eloquent way.