What at first struck me about Marcus Strickland was his surname. As a German Strickland sounds very German to me and it could easily be the name of a store selling knitware and wool. Strick means knitware and the verb stricken means to knit, das Land is the same as the English noun land. Well, so much for the names…luckily Marcus music doesn’t sound German at all.
Marcus is a soprano and tenor saxophone player in his mid-twenties and Brotherhood his already his second album (his debut album was At Last). Like its predecessor it’s recorded in the quartet setting with Robert Glasper (piano), Brandon Owens (bass) and E.J. Strickland (drums, and Marcus’ twin brother by the way). Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt joins the quartet for two tracks. With all nine tunes being original compositions (eight were written by Marcus and Unsung Hero by E.J. Strickland) we really have a talented no-nonsense jazz band here who are serious about their music. Nevertheless, they know they are playing for their listeners as much as they play for themselves and the love of jazz music as an art form. “I think that my group reaches the audience because, although the music we play presents challenge, we are still able to have fun displaying our personality,” Marcus says. “Correctly playing a complicated form of music isn’t enough to demand attention from a listener. It’s the enthusiasm of taking chances, the expression that perks up the listener’s ear.”
The overall sound of the Markus Strickland Quartet is warm and organic and I especially like the idea of Robert Glasper switching to electric piano on some songs. The result on songs like Splendour is, er, splendid adding some soul into the jazz. In fact, I’m sure fans of the jazz instrumentals of Fertile Ground or the early Roberta Flack will love this song, the introspective Amen or the ballad Excerpts.
Marcus Strickland and his fellow musicians are very versatile and of course they can also impress on more traditional jazz songs like the swinging Saouse, the hard bop Values & Predators or Epiphany. It’s hard to pick a favourite song from Brotherhood. They are all well-composed and maybe even better interpreted leaving me somehow astonished that this is only the second album of Marcus Strickland and his quartet with all being in their early/mid-twenties.
All in all Brotherhood is a real treasure worth hunting for even three years after its original release because it has that timless quality.

Tracklisting of Brotherhood: 1. Brotherhood/ 2. Values & Imperatives/ 3. Splendour/ 4. Amen/ 5. Predator/ 6. Epiphany/ 7. Excerpt/ 8. Saouse/ 9. The Unsung Hero | released 2003 Marcus Strickland

For more infos visit cdbaby.com and marcusstrickland.com.

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