An Evening with Branford Marsalis
An Evening with Branford Marsalis
8:00 pm Thursday, April 7 Ellis Family Fine Arts Center
Tickets on sale now! Download seating chart.
VIP Seating: $40 sold out Adult: $30 Student (K-college with valid ID): $20
Purchase tickets at the Gordon Parks Museum or call (800) 874-3722 ext. 5850.
Fort Scott, Kan.-NEA Jazz Master, renowned Grammy Award®‐winning saxophonist and Tony Award® nominee Branford Marsalis will come to the Ellis Family Fine Arts Center on the campus of Fort Scott Community College for “An Evening with Branford Marsalis” on Thursday, April 7, at 8:00 pm. The performance is brought to the Ellis Center with funding provided in part by the Key Charitable Trust and the Bourbon County Arts Council. Marsalis, who grew up in the rich environment of New Orleans, is the eldest son in a family that also includes his father, pianist Ellis Marsalis, and his brother, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Branford has taken his own musical path, venturing into classical music, writing stage and film music, collaborating with rockers Sting and the Grateful Dead, and even leading the band on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Branford Marsalis has stayed the course. From his early acclaim as a saxophonist bringing new energy and new audiences to the jazz art, he has refined and expanded his talents and his horizons as a musician, composer, bandleader and educator – a 21st Century mainstay of artistic excellence.
The Branford Marsalis Quartet has long been recognized as the standard to which other ensembles of its kind must be measured. Its most recent recording, Four MFs Playin’ Tunes, was named Best Instrumental Jazz Album in 2012 by iTunes. Branford has not confined his music to the quartet context. In addition to guest turns with a legion of giants including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock and Sonny Rollins, he has excelled in duets with several major pianists, including his boyhood friend Harry Connick, Jr. and the longtime pianist in his quartet, Joey Calderazzo. Broadway has also welcomed Branford’s contributions. His initial effort, original music for a revival of August Wilson’s Fences, garnered a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play and a Tony nomination for Best Original Score Written for the Theater. Branford also provided music for The Mountaintop, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, and served as musical curator for the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun. Branford’s screen credits include the original music for Mo’ Better Blues and acting roles in School Daze and Throw Momma from the Train. Together with Harry Connick, Jr. and New Orleans Habitat for Humanity, Branford conceived and helped to realize The Musicians’ Village, a community in the Upper Ninth Ward that provides homes to the displaced families of musicians and other local residents. At the heart of The Musicians’ Village stands the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, a community center dedicated to preserving the rich New Orleans musical legacy containing state-of-the art spaces for performance, instruction and recording. Some might gauge Branford Marsalis’s success by his numerous awards, including three Grammys and (together with his father and brothers) his citation as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. To Branford, however, these are only way stations along what continues to be one of the most fascinating and rewarding journeys in the world of music. Tickets for An Evening with Branford Marsalis are $30 adults and $20 for students (k-college with a valid ID). VIP seating tickets are $40 each. Tickets will go on sale starting Monday, February 1. For more information or to purchase tickets by phone call 223-2700, ext. 5850, or email jillw@fortscott.edu.