Over the span of his decades long career, he has become a multi award-winning artist with three Grammy Awards, EMMY and Tony Award nominations, a citation by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master, and an avatar of contemporary artistic excellence.   

Branford’s screen credits as a composer include original music for: Rustin starring Colman Domingo, the History Channel’s documentary Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks starring Oprah Winfrey, and Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues. Since its release in November 2023, Rustin has garnered attention and praise, with critics calling the score scintillating, kinetic, vibrant, maintaining the “buoyancy of a man who refused to be kept down.” The critically acclaimed Ma Rainey is the Netflix film adaptation of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s play, produced by Denzel Washington. And in reviewing the score Vanity Fair proclaimed “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a story in which the music has to be authentic and the details need to be correct. It requires the musical oversight of someone who has this history in his blood. It requires Branford Marsalis.” While The Guardian noted “Marsalis’s work, both recreation and original composition, is as close to perfection as I could imagine.” He received a 2021 EMMY nomination for the original music he composed and produced for Tulsa Burning in the Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score) category. 

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. He recently arranged and orchestrated the music for a new Broadway production on Louis Armstrong, A Wonderful World, and critics have praised the music as hot, sublime, dazzling, rich and delicious. One critic noted, “with the great Branford Marsalis on board to ensure the orchestrations and arrangements have the proper swing and sting of authenticity, these classic tunes are given every bit of loving attention they deserve.” His previous Broadway efforts include music for the revivals of Children of a Lesser God and A Raisin in the Sun, as well as The Mountaintop, which starred Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. 

In addition to the stage and screen, Branford has also composed a classical suite commissioned by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, which premiered in March 2024.