More to Live For Featuring Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo

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More to Live For Featuring Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo

MORE TO LIVE FOR (Director: Noah Hutton) is the story of three lives, all shaken by cancer and dependent upon the one vital bone marrow match that could save them. These individuals are similar only in their fate and prolific accomplishments: Michael Brecker-15-time Grammy winner, one of the greatest tenor saxophonists of all time; James Chippendale entertainment executive and founder of love hope strength foundation, the largest music centric cancer charity in the world and Seun Adebiyi, a young Nigerian training to become the first ever Nigerian winter Olympic athlete in any sport.

Their unrelated paths become connected in a desperate fight for survival and a singular mission: to bring awareness about bone marrow donation to the millions of people who could save a life today. A film of tragedy and loss, strength and hope. "More to Live For" presents the stories of three individuals facing life and death, and their commitment to making a difference. These deeply personal accounts of confronting illness will inspire hope and action, leaving the viewer empowered to become part of the cure.

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Join Jefferson Center, Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo for an exceptional event that celebrates the inspiring life of jazz great Michael Brecker and features the Virginia film premiere of More To Live For, produced by Brecker’s widow, Susan Brecker, and directed by Noah Hutton.

More To Live For chronicles the lives of Brecker and two other men with leukemia. The film has literally saved lives and audience members inspired to make a difference may have cheek swabs performed and be added to the International Bone Marrow Registry. The evening culminates with saxophonist Branford Marsalis and pianist Joey Calderazzo, both close friends of Brecker, paying tribute to Brecker in perhaps the most passionate and profound language—that of awe-inspiring jazz.

Three-time Grammy Award winner Branford Marsalis, one of the most revered saxophonists of his time, has continued to exercise and expand his skills as an instrumentalist, a composer, and the head of his label Marsalis Music. A longstanding member of the Brandford Marsalis Quartet, jazz pianist Joey Calderazzo has built a reputation as a definitive accompanist, composer, and performer with a sustained trajectory of growing command and maturity. Together, the duo make an inspired pairing that allows each musician to challenge and support the other in an uncompromisingly creative landscape.

The goal of the duo for Marsalis is musicality rather than technicality. “Playing duos is not a ‘you know the chords, I know the chords, let’s go’ situation...,” he emphasizes. “I need a constant level of engagement.... You have to listen to each other or it doesn’t work.”

Calderazzo concurs. “I like the idea of improvising together, instead of ‘backing’ a soloist... I can throw anything at Branford, and his ears are so good that he’ll always figure out something to play.  And the variety of ways that he can play makes the duo really interesting.... The idea is to capture a spirit, a vibe, to improvise completely instead of just playing things that you know you can play.” 

"Michael Brecker's tragic death in January 2007, at the age of fifty-seven, robbed the world of perhaps the most influential saxophonist to emerge since the equally untimely passing of John Coltrane." – John Kelman, All About Jazz

Visit www.moretoliveforfilm.com for more information about the More To Live For documentary.

Visit lovehopestrength.org for more information about the worlds leading rock & roll cancer foundation.

Visit http://www.branfordmarsalis.com/branford/intro.cfm for more details on Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo.