What a crazy day it was this year!

My day started innocently enough; I had a studio booking from a Detroit classical radio station for a TBD guest; well, day of show, they confirm the booking and BRANFORD MARSALIS is the freakin' guest!

I almost flipped out on the phone ("No way! Are you serious?") but I had little time for that. I had no idea Branford was in town doing a four day stint at Yoshi's, so I didn't even know he was here! But I digress....

I have to tell you, that as a young drummer in his first year of the high school jazz band, I was looking for some reference; this was around 1990 or 91, and I owned no jazz albums. I saw the movie "Bring On The Night" documenting Sting's first solo effort post-Police, and Branford pretty much steals the movie. He's probably just in his early 20s in the movie, and he just seemed like the coolest jazz cat - like I even knew what that was. But still, his personalty shines through the film as a slightly amused, serious artist/musician, who is suddenly thrust into the pop world - as well as his pianist, Kenny Kirkland (RIP).
So, on the strength of that movie, some friends and I took dates to Zellerbach Hall to see Branford's quartet open for Sonny Rollins. It was everything I didn't know jazz could be (see earlier post regarding "Crazy People Music"), and their performance was so tight, and so fresh, that when "old fogie" Sonny Rollins came on playing his signature tunes, very straight ahead, we actually got bored and walked out! On Sonny Rollins! Oh, the impetuousness of our youth. I would have been embarrassed for me now.

Fast forward back to last week, where I actually got to shake the man's hand and relay that story. I spoke at some length wth his tour manager about directions to the studio - "How will I recognize you when we get there?" he asks. "I'm wearing a bright yellow Oakland A's shirt" I say - and in the background I hear "BOOOO!" Well, when the car pulled up, Branford got out of the driver's seat, boo'd me again, and then shook my hand - "Nice to meet you". They went and parked, and boy was I excited at how early he was - guests usualy never show up that early! So then, walking from the lot to the studio, I told him a bit about myself, and the above story of that great concert back in '91. After I told him about walking out on Sonny Rollins, he just smiled a little and said, "Well, I'm just glad you stayed for us," sheepishly even. Talking about Crazy People Music, he hummed a few melody notes from "Spartacus" to which I recognized and finished the line for him, acknowledging the tune he was humming - to which he paused, then said "Oh yeah, that IS how the solo starts, huh..." (thats right! I ain't just any ole jazz groupie!)  ... but I digress again.

Now, the interview almost didn't happen due to technically diffulties in Detroit. I was sweating bullets. But fortunately, I had the smarts to ask for his autograph and picture-taken first, while he was in a good mood still. (After the interview was delayed by 30 minutes, we almost lost him, but anyway....) I wish I had any number of his cds from home to sign, but instead I had to run to Amoeba to pick something up (which I didn't own already) to get his autograph.

The funniest thing about the waiting time though was talking baseball. He is a die-hard Mets fan, and we talked very briefly about Zito leaving, the rumors of Beane wanting Lastings Milledge ("Yeah right, good luck!" he says), and general off-season banter - SOO cool. My advice to anyone who has the good fortune of meeting Branford - get him talking baseball, he knows his baseball sh*t as well as he knows his jazz history.

But so ANYway, the craziest of all is that I slyly said something about "I wish I knew you were in town, I would have bought tickets" and he responded right away, saying "Oh I'm sure we can work something out".  Now, I had already checked - both Wednesday and Thursday night shows were sold out! But he managed to guestlist me and my fiancee, as well as my engineer and his girl, to the 10pm and 8pm shows respectively. What was more amazing, is that he had already left before doing so! He said his tour manager would hook us up, but we never saw him after he left for food earlier. So, when they drove off together after the program, I thought, "Oh well, at least I tried." But damn if his tour manager didn't call me an hour later and get our names on the list. We had a fantastic time at the show, which was packed. He played a lot of ballads, but hell - it was Valentines Day. He even invited some local cats up to perform with him, some of which blew AMAZINGLY.... this tall skinny kid on alto absolutely fired the audience up! Even the bassist was yelling from behind, "Go 'head man, GO AHEAD!"

So all in all, a VERY memorable Valentines Day. Ya know, in retrospect, I realized that it's one thing when you meet one of your idols and, you know, maybe they blow you off, or act like a jerk, or just "too cool for school" kinda thing. But the Branford I met had me absolutely starstruck - I can't tell you the last time I've seen Bring On The Night, but I can tell you that he was the exact same person I remember from that movie. A straight-shooter, no-bulls**t, incredibly talented and knowledgeable individual, who treated me like anybody else - I felt like he was just like any other musician I've gigged with, we talked about whatever, and he was so friendly. You know, those East Coast types usually have a reputation for being hard-assed; but I think his New Orleans roots must counter-balance that. But I digress. For a third time.

Actually, I'll just end my digressing here, and show you my new favorite pic:


THE END