Justin Faulkner

I knew this wouldn’t take long. Youtube has video of Branford Marsalis with his new drummer, Justin Faulkner (who is one of five young drummers profiled by the estimable Ben Ratliff this weekend in the New York Times). (Here’s a review of the gig in the Youtube video.) The whole band sounds really good here — Branford with that cute Sonny Rollins thing at 0:20-0:22 and a good-natured, tremendously lyrical solo in general, Joey Calderazzo showing how much taste and depth he’s (*cough* finally *cough*) acquired.

Branford Marsalis has a new drummer, after playing with the mighty Jeff “Tain” Watts at every opportunity since 1982. He’s Justin Faulkner, he’s 18, and nobody had ever heard of him before he started making gigs with Bran a few weeks ago. I’ve checked out what little Faulkner there is on Youtube. He sounds very green, but unrelenting. Branford likes unrelenting, which is why he played with the mighty Jeff “Tain” Watts at every opportunity since 1982. Presumably he has faith in Faulkner to learn the rest. I was thinking of skipping Branford’s Montreal date this summer. That’s over. I’ll be there.