Branford Marsalis talks about music like a language. So, when he was offered an opportunity to arrange the music for an upcoming Broadway musical about Louis Armstrong, his first thoughts were in linguistic terms.
“One of the producers reached out to me,” said Marsalis, artist-in-residence at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) since 2005. “She showed me a video and asked me what I thought was wrong. It was absent the idiomatic understanding of jazz.”
If anyone could hear that, it would be Marsalis – a saxophonist, band leader and three-time Grammy winner who has performed or recorded with . . . well, it seems like everyone. An incomplete list includes Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Sting, the Grateful Dead, New York Philharmonic, Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck, Dizzy Gillespie, James Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Youssou N’Dour, Ivan Neville, Sonny Rollins, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, etc.
Marsalis explains that he aims to get beyond a literal interpretation of the music.
“We study grammar, but we don’t study idiomatic expression,” Marsalis said. “When learning a language, your accent may not be bad, but you don’t speak the language of the people. Just because you can play music correctly doesn’t mean its emotionally right.”
Marsalis has contributed music to many movies over the decades including at least three Spike Lee films, “Throw Momma from the Train,” “Sneakers, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and a Netflix movie about Bayard Rustin. He was nominated for an Emmy award for his score for the documentary “Tulsa Burning.”
He is, however, relatively new to music for the stage, having written only “incidental” music (i.e., music during set changes) for “Fences,” “Children of a Lesser God” and “A Raisin in the Sun.”
For the musical, titled “A Wonderful World,” Marsalis arranged and orchestrated 30 Louis Armstrong songs for a ten-piece ensemble. Not only did Marsalis have to make sure the music delivered an emotional punch, he had to do it in a short period of time.
“Usually, it takes years to put on a musical,” Marsalis said. He was invited to work on the musical in June and it opens in November.
“To get a production up and running in that short a time is crazy hard.”
For those unfamiliar, Louis Armstrong (1901 – 1971) was a jazz trumpeter, vocalist and bandleader raised in New Orleans (like Marsalis). He came to prominence in the 1920s and by the 1950s was known nationally for live performances, radio, TV and film. Among his best-known songs are “What A Wonderful World,” “Hello, Dolly” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
Previews for “A Wonderful World” started on Oct. 16 at Studio 54 in New York City.
