A young drummer sparks the Branford Marsalis Quartet

Branford Marsalis wouldn't choose just any old drummer to fill in for his longtime comrade Jeff "Tain" Watts. No, he selected a turbo-driven windmill named Justin Faulkner, and the recently turned 18-year-old stole the show from his accomplished bandmates Saturday night at the Gusman Center in downtown Miami.

A packed house roared its approval after each dynamic solo, even hooting wildly when the exciting young Philly drummer was augmenting solos by pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and saxophonist Marsalis; while the other musicians elicited sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes obligatory applause, there was no mistaking the exuberance this crowd felt for the battering batterista. "You don't have to live with him," Marsalis groused, as he jokingly implored the audience to tone down its appreciation for the sure-to-be-swell-headed Faulkner.

The quartet drew heavily from its excellent new recording, Metamorphosen (Marsalis Music), opening with its first two cuts. The pulse-quickening Watts composition "The Return of the Jitney Man" — which kicks off both Metamorphosen and Watts' recent self-titled release for Dark Key Music — provides a showcase for Marsalis' swift bop riffs on tenor and Calderazzo's equally fast-stepping runs. The foursome then downshifted into Calderazzo's lovely ballad "The Blossom of Parting," as Marsalis switched to soprano, getting a sweet, sentimental clarinet-like sound on the straight horn. As on the recording, the tune features a lengthy sax and drums duet. Faulkner truly made the most of the moment, his limbs blurring as he drummed up a hurricane-force reaction to Marsalis' masterful blowing, which was never overwhelmed or obscured by the percussive onslaught. Undoubtedly flashy, Faulkner never showboated at the expense of any song or bandmate.

The quartet also nodded to Thelonious Monk, an obvious influence on its rhythmic and harmonic approach, with a superb read of the bop icon's "Think of One," and revisited Marsalis' own "In the Crease," a burner from the early days of the quartet, which has now been together for 10 years. Returning to Metamorphosen, the group offered Marsalis' slippery "Jabberwocky," as the leader took his alto sax for a rare spin; another tearstained Calderazzo reflection in "The Last Goodbye"; Watts' intriguing "Samo," which cooked on a higher flame than on the recording; and Revis' beautifully toned solo showcase "And Then, He Was Gone." Unfortunately, several ADD-afflicted audience members took the last title literally and made a mass exodus to the bathroom or bar; perhaps goosed by Faulkner's spark-throwing displays, Revis also unleashed a few fleet-fingered (and somewhat superfluous) flurries that, predictably, brought wild applause.

In Faulkner, Marsalis has snared a young lion by the tail and seems to be enjoying the drummer's uncaged ferocity — not to mention the gape-mouthed, goggle-eyed reaction of audiences on both coasts. Make no mistake: Watts is indeed the percussive pivot on which this band turns, and he drives his bandmates as well as complements them with restraint and sublty and color, as is brilliantly evident on Metamorphosen. Still, there's something about hearing a young, unknown musician out to make his bones that brings another dimension of crackling electricity to this band.