One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians were great for what situations. He could always pick a band, and that was the thing that separated him from everybody else.

Other big band experience with Lionel Hampton and Clark Terry followed over the next year and by the end of 1981 Marsalis on alto saxophone had joined his brother Wynton in Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. created the concept of a Musicians’ Village in the city’s Upper Ninth Ward with the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music as the Village’s centerpiece. In June 2011 after working together for over 10 years in a band setting Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo released their first duo album titled Songs of Mirth and Melancholy on Branford's label Marsalis Music.

Branford Marsalis (born August 26 1960) is an American saxophonist composer and bandleader.