Contemporary Jazz

Branford Marsalis's aptly titled Contemporary Jazz is a survey of jazz happening as the 21st century rounds the bend of its first year. The mostly bop and postbop music is certainly rooted in jazz's known traditions, but Marsalis's quartet isn't burdened by the past (as the raucous cover of "Cheek to Cheek" attests). Marsalis starts the album with the accessible but shifty "In the Crease" and moves from there to the elegiac "Requiem," which smolders with dark fire. Things really take off at the album's centerpiece, "Elysium." Here, the band--pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts--test their mettle as they break free and stretch out, turning rhythms and melodies inside out over the song's 16 minutes. Perhaps the most interesting of the tracks is Tain's "Countronious Rex," where the quartet seamlessly shifts between gospel, blues, and jazz with offhand grace. Giving a fine overview of jazz and its many forms, Marsalis and company succeed in creating a vivid musical compendium. And they do it with a flair that, like Marsalis's playing, is searching and articulate. --Tad Hendrickson