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Jazz musician Branford Marsalis has founded Marsalis Music, a new jazz record label that is affiliated with Rounder Records. A familiar name in the label's catalog is Marsalis' old friend Harry Connick, Jr. The first two new artists to be signed by Marsalis Music are Doug Wamble, who released \"Country Libations,\" and Miguel Zenon, who released \"Ceremonial.\" One of the most intriguing aspects of Marsalis' plans for the label involves the Marsalis Jams program. The idea is to bring leading jazz ensembles, student musicians, and young audiences together on college and university campuses in two-part concerts that allow the featured bands to present their own music before jamming with the school's music students.

[Doug Wamble] brought his quartet to Confederation Park last night, and they treated the audience to a show that was indisputably jazz, but with liberal helpings of Stevie Wonder, John Lennon, and anyone else who piqued Wamble's wide-ranging musical interest. Saxophonist Branford Mar-salis plucked Wamble out of obscurity two years ago, releasing Wamble's debut album Country Libations for his fledgling label, Marsalis Music. Since then, the band's quirky mix of styles has caught the attention of audiences and critics, who have pegged Wamble as a bona fide rising star.

The second album from guitarist/vocalist [DOUG WAMBLE] heralds the arrival of a major talent. Playing with the quartet he's barnstormed the country with for the better part of two years, Wamble blends blues, gospel and post-bop jazz, creating a moving, personal statement. Wamble's vocal phrasing on the lead track, a lament for peace titled \"If I Live to See the Day,\" calls to mind the limber singing of Kurt Elling. But then, on the follow-up, Wamble changes pace and nails the sad heart of Peter Gabriel's \"Washing of the Water.\" Elsewhere, there's the swinging \"One- Ninin' \" from pianist Roy Dunlap and a scorching, one-shot sax solo from producer Branford Marsalis on the traditional \"Rockin' Jerusalem.\" But every cut has something to offer. One of the year's best.

Memphis-born guitarist [Doug Wamble] has honed his chops with the likes of both new traditionalist Wynton Marsalis and avant garde composer John Zorn. But Wamble is far different than the typical young player who immerses himself in a thriving jazz scene (in his case, New York and Boston). Wamble emerged as a player with tremendous chops who uses technique to further his style, as opposed to the legions of players whose rely exclusively on blinding technique. Wamble's style - user-friendly jazz that's deceptively funky and loose - comes off like a cross between Mose Allison and Gil Scott Heron with a bit of Dr. John's gris-gris thrown in.

These theories sprang to mind as master saxophonist Branford Marsalis, another N'Awlins man, paraded the latest signings of his indie record label, Marsalis Music. The personable [Harry Connick Jr] is a prize capture, but there's a catch. His main label, Sony, is happy for him to play piano on Marsalis discs, but not to sing. So when Harry met Branford last night, after a crowd-pleasing festival set by [Doug Wamble]'s quartet, they made instrumental music only.

He and a jazz band will perform his work \"Yoknapatawpha,\" based on the literary works of [William Faulkner]. [Doug Wamble] uses instrumental pieces to create impressions of Faulkner's landscapes and lyrical sections to give voice to characters from his stories. The work is a deeply textured combination of jazz, blues and traditional American music written for an octet of guitar, bass, piano, drums and horns. The discussion will be at noon Friday, June 22, in Rines Auditorium at the main branch. Reading suggestions include Faulkner's \"A Rose for Emily\" and \"Light in August,\" both of which inspired parts of Wamble's jazz composition. * \"The Handsomest,\" [Alison Chase]'s piece combining dance with videography, music and photography, 7 p.m. at Merrill Auditorium. Developed over the past three years, the work was inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez' short story, \"The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,\" and features an original score by Grammy Award-winning Maine composer Paul Sullivan. The performance is co-presented by Portland Ovations. Tickets: $32-$52; call PortTix at 842-0800; or visit portlandovations.org or tickets.porttix.com.

\"It probably does both,\" says the 32-year-old guitarist and vocalist, who last week was touring a handful of red states to promote his exceptional new CD, \"Bluestate,\" his second for Cambridge-based Marsalis Music. Tomorrow night, [Doug Wamble] will bring his mix of pre- and post-bebop jazz, country blues, R&B, and gospel to the Marblehead summer jazz festival. \"You have the first tune,\" Wamble says from his Kansas City hotel room, \"which is like this incredibly complex, difficult, unusual form with all these hard chords and all this stuff that's very difficult. And then we play a song by Peter Gabriel sort of in the style of Keith Jarrett's '70s quartet. And then right after that we play this super-hard-swinging blues instrumental tune that the melody was sort of ripped off a Bartok clarinet piece. Followed by this weird Turkish melody thing with slide guitar, followed by a gospel tune from Mahalia Jackson that goes into a Coltrane twelve- bar blues.\"

\"I had met Wynton a couple of times, and we had been in touch a little bit,\" [Doug Wamble] says. \"He was always real encouraging of me.\" Wamble wound up meeting Wynton Marsalis in Chicago during the \"Blood on the Fields\" tour. All the while, Wamble had maintained a casual relationship with Wynton's brother Branford. When Branford Marsalis said he was starting his own record label, Wamble jumped at the opportunity. \"I sent him some music, and he sent me an e-mail about a month later that said, `I love it. Let's do a record.' \" Wamble assembled the band he'd been playing with under the name Doug Wamble's Country Libations at the New York club Tonic. \"Basically, it's just all the music that I love,\" he says. \"One thing about the band is that the music couldn't be played by anyone who isn't a jazz musician. If you look at even the sort of quote- unquote `countriest' tune on the record, which is the one that my mother wrote, number three (`Baby, If You're Lyin'), that groove is completely ripped off from a Wynton record.\"

[...] the couple paid just $180,000 for the apartment, which was so spacious they never even asked about the actual square footage. The 1929 apartment building, a seven-story red-brick structure, is a relic of the days when housing for the city's middle class was chockablock with amenities, among them parquet floors, 12-foot ceilings and seemingly endless hallways. [...] this particular apartment, furnished with generations' worth of memorabilia and decorative items amassed from around the globe, is a reflection of a couple with broad interests, rich family history and quirky tastes.

Bill Charlap/Sandy Stewart - Love Is Here To Stay (Blue Note 60341) pounds 12.99 HHHH Cross the pond and it's all happening there too. This time the ages are reversed, the young pianist Bill Charlap engaged upon a labour of love with his mum, singer Sandy Stewart. Doug Wamble - Bluestate (Marsalis Music 11661 3311 2) pounds 13.99 HHHH Papua New Guinea Stringbands with Bob Brozman - Songs Of The Volcano (Riverboat TUGCD1040) pounds 13.99 HHHH Also combining a CD and DVD is inexhaustible musical traveller Bob Brozman, master of the National Steel guitar and in sharing the music of other cultures.