Drummer Justin Faulkner performs with the BMQ for the first time as a sub
Drummer Justin Faulkner subbed for the Branford Marsalis Quartet’s longtime drummer, Jeff “Tain” Watts, on a one-off gig in 2007 when he was only sixteen years old. When Watts left the quartet in early 2009, after twenty-five remarkable years, he left a hole that not many artists could fill. Faulkner was invited to step in. He was eighteen years old.
Branford is appointed to the faculty of North Carolina Central University
Branford Marsalis begins as an artist-in-residence at North Carolina Central University where, as part of his position, he teaches students, presents lectures, and coaches and performs with the jazz ensembles.
Branford Marsalis Quartet releases Braggtown
Over the course of its life – and most particularly on its previous Marsalis Music discs – the Branford Marsalis Quartet has revealed an ability to express every kind of emotion, including an informed sense of history (on the label-launching Footsteps of Our Fathers in 2002 and the 2004 DVD Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ Live in Amsterdam), a sensitivity to other artistic disciplines (Romare Bearden Revealed from 2003) and a profound sense of intimacy that stretched the concept of a “ballads album” (2004’s Eternal). In September 2006, the Quartet’s released Braggtown, which addresses all of these areas and more.
Branford Marsalis Residency at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands
Branford Marsalis is the Artist In Residence at the 2006 North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Over the course of three days (July 14-16), Branford performs classically with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on July 14, presents Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" with his own quartet on July 15, and performs with the Branford Marsalis Trio with Roy Haynes on July 16.
Branford Marsalis and dad, Ellis Marsalis, join Habitat to announce Musicians’ Village
Habitat for Humanity and New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, worked with Harry Connick Jr., and Branford Marsalis, honorary chairs of the organization’s hurricane rebuilding program, Operation Home Delivery. They announced plans on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005 for a “Musicians’ Village” in the Crescent City. It was announced that The Musicians’ Village, conceived by Connick and Marsalis, will consist of Habitat-constructed homes for displaced New Orleans musicians. Its centerpiece is the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, dedicated to the education and development of homeowners and others who will live nearby.
A Duo Occasion is released
Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis release the DVD Harry and Branford: A Duo Occasion. Filmed during the duo's world premiere performances of Occasion, this Marsalis Music release hit stores on November 14 in Europe and November 22 in the US.
New Orleans’ sons Harry Connick Jr., Branford Marsalis helping Habitat
New Orleans native and singer Harry Connick, Jr. agrees to be honorary chair of Habitat for Humanity’s “Operation Home Delivery,” a long-term rebuilding plan for families victimized by Hurricane Katrina in the Big Easy and along the Gulf Coast. Branford Marsalis, a Grammy Award-winning jazz saxophonist and fellow New Orleans native, also joined the team and agreed to be honorary chair of the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity efforts. The two have been friends since childhood, and Connick was a student of the Marsalis patriarch, Ellis Marsalis.