Bloomington (album)

Last updated
Bloomington
Branford Marsalis Bloomington.jpg
Live album by
ReleasedMay 1993
RecordedSeptember 23, 1991
Genre Jazz
Length1:19:02
Label Sony Music
Producer Dr. George Butler (executive producer); Delfeayo Marsalis
Branford Marsalis chronology
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
(1992)
Bloomington
(1993)
Buckshot LeFonque
(1994)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Entertainment Weekly B+ [2]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [4]

Bloomington is a 1993 live jazz album by saxophonist Branford Marsalis, featuring Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums and Robert Hurst on bass. It was recorded at a concert in Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana (hence the title of the album) on September 23, 1991, while the trio was on tour. [5] The concert occurred one month before the release of Marsalis's album The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born , featuring the same lineup, and three of Bloomington's six tracks are taken from that album. Bloomington peaked at number 9 on the Top Jazz Albums chart. [1]

Contents

Branford Marsalis's younger brother Delfeayo, who co-produced the album, was effusive in praising it, calling it "the most incredible concert recorded in our generation." [5] Professional critics' views were mixed. In his AllMusic review, Scott Yanow calls the album "very long-winded and rather dull" and says that Marsalis "seems content to play the part of a chameleon, doing his impressions of late-period Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and (when he switches to soprano) Ornette Coleman." [1] The Los Angeles Times praised the recording, saying "the telling of what he finds is revealing and beautiful in ways only the best improvisational music can be." [3] Jazz historian David Hajdu called the recording "a career-positioning statement in matter-of-fact musical terms" and "insular music for the hard-bop elite" in a review for Entertainment Weekly [2]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Branford Marsalis, except where indicated

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Xavier's Lair" 15:14
2."Everything Happens to Me" Tom Adair, Matt Dennis 7:52
3."The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born" 19:24
4."Citizen Tain" 16:52
5."Friday the 13th" Thelonious Monk 11:17
6."Roused About" Robert Hurst 7:20

Personnel

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Yanow, Scott. "Bloomington". AllMusic. Retrieved 2014-10-20.
  2. 1 2 Hajdu, David (1993-06-04). "Bloomington". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2014-10-20.
  3. 1 2 Kohlhaase, Bill (1993-06-06). "Album Review: Branford Marsalis, Espressivo". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2014-10-20.
  4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 948. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
  5. 1 2 "Bloomington". BranfordMarsalis.com. Archived from the original on 13 September 2014.