As long as the grass grows and the saxman blows, there will be those who insist on sorting even the most adventurous music into neat and compact categories. Fortunately, Branford Marsalis will always be around to shove his square pegs into their round little pigeonholes. Most recently, the heralded saxophonist teamed with Gangstarr's DJ Premier to create the Columbia debut album BUCKSHOT LEFONQUE, perhaps his most undefinable work yet. unless one considers virtuoso performances and sure-footed composition categories all their own.
With a hiatus from his duties as music director on The Tonight Show, Branford is set to take Buckshot LeFonque on the road for an extensive U.S. spring tour. The band has already performed two well-received showcases at New York's Supper Club last July, and L.A.'s House of Blues in October of 1994, so Buckshot LeFonque is ready to rock the house nationwide. Of course, that's something Branford has grown quite accustomed to over the years.
Though some have tried to place BUCKSHOT LEFONQUE somewhere between Jazz and Hip Hop, Marsalis himself rejects their efforts. "Since this album was released," he says, "I've read a lot of things about it. People talking about the album, trying to pin it down. categorize it. Some guy at my record company was listening to it and said, 'What is this record trying to say to me? Is it saying, I want to be jazz? Is it saying, I want to be hip-hop? Is it saying, I want to be R&B or pop ballads?' I said, "I think it wants to be music. Musicians like me who listen to and play all kinds of music have to resist the urge to ghetto-ize music. Music is music, and my mission is to try my best to de-ghetto-ize it, to try to take the best from all genres and synthesize them into something different. You play the music in your heart and that's what this is. De-ghetto music cannot be defined by the usual list of categories. It is its own thing. It's a Fonque thing. It defies the limitations placed on music, ignores the rules that say certain sounds appeal only to certain markets. It speaks to the soul."
With a name derived from the pseudonym used by Cannonball Adderly when he would moonlight on pop and R&B records in the 50's BUCKSHOT LEFONQUE blends rock, hip-hop, jazz, reggae, and African elements. Among the sterling guest artists joining Marsalis and DJ Premier is America's poet laureate Maya Angelou who reads her classic poem "I Know What the Caged Bird Sings" on a track of the same name. The record also features the final recorded performance of the late blues master Alber Collins. Other guest musicians include guitarists Nils Lofgren and Dave Barry, keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, pianist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Bob Hurst, and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts.
Says Marsalis of the project's genesis, "Premier and I worked together in 1990 on 'Mo' Better Blues' for Spike. I told him then we were going to do this project, and he said, 'Great'" The two began laying grooves down back in January of 1993, not following any prearranged plan. "We didn't have a direction," adds Marsalis. "I just let the music do its own thing, just like on every record I do."
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