Great concert last night at the Mainstage at City Hall as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival featuring the Branford Marsalis Quartet and the Dave Holland Quintet. Not only are these two of the best musicians in contemporary jazz but these particular bands have been together for over a decade and each individual musician could do his own thing very easily. And some of them do but they come back to this band. Dave Holland led off with an hour long set. The star of his band is tenor sax player Chris Potter. Potter leads his own band called Chris Potter's Underground and they were also performing at the festival. Drummer Nate Smith is the only recent addition to the band. He normally plays drums with Potter's band. Trombonist Robin Eubanks is the older brother of guitarist Kevin Eubanks. Vibraphonist Steve Nelson has been around since the 70s playing in all kinds of bands. Holland knows his band well and made sure that they all got a chance to shine. I could see him smiling when guys were soloing. Potter and Eubanks work very well together I was very impressed with Smith's energy. I was not familiar with him but obviously as a bassist Holland understands the value of a great drummer. They gave a very solid performance and I would have liked them to play a longer set. But there was another band coming up.
And that band was led by sax player Branford Marsalis. Of course he's part of a famous musical family with his dad Ellis and brothers Wynton, Delfaeyo and Jason. His quartet has also worked regularly since 1998. The star of the show is pianist Joey Calderazzo. He has worked with Marsalis since replacing the late Kenny Kirkland in 1998. He also records as a solo artist for Marsalis Music. Bassist Eric Revis has also worked with Marsalis since 1998 and was trained by Ellis Marsalis while attending the University of New Orleans. Justin Faulkner filled in for regular drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts but it wasn't a step down. This kid can play. After the show, I suspect a lot of folks not familiar with Calderazzo will buy his CDs. I've been familiar with him for several years and Marsalis is indeed fortunate to have someone of his calibre in his regular band. Branford Marsalis has always been an expressive musician and the whole set meshed very well. And like Nate Smith, Justin Faulkner brought a lot of great energy. Chris Potter and Robin Eubanks came out for Marsalis' encore and it was great fun hearing the three trade solos. I think we all went home happy after watching two of the premier contemporary jazz bands. It didn't seem like a three hour show and that's a good thing.
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