An Evening With Branford Marsalis

Thursday, October 5, 7:30 p.m.

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The UMass Fine Arts Center is proud in 2023-2024 to continue nearly five decades of tradition, bringing the best performers in jazz to western Massachusetts. We have yet another stellar jazz series in store for you. And we’re kicking it off in incredible style as we welcome to the UMass Amherst campus one of the most acclaimed and influential figures in all of contemporary music, Branford Marsalis.

Saxophonist and bandleader Marsalis is an NEA Jazz Master, three-time Grammy Award winner, and Emmy and Tony award nominee who is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead. But the core of his musical universe remains the Branford Marsalis Quartet. After more than three decades of existence with minimal personnel changes, this celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a kaleidoscopic range of both original compositions and jazz and popular classics.

"Branford Marsalis’ quartet has been a model of daring, unapologetic artistry for the past three decades.” — Jazziz