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Wynton Marsalis’s Spaces, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York — ‘Lil Buck moved on a pillow of air’
With Spaces, Wynton Marsalis has created a jazz Carnival of the Animals. The trumpeter-composer conjures a snake from the slide of trombone, the shimmer of cymbal and the snare drum’s dry tick. Four trumpets, three trombones and five saxes render the clucking cacophony of barnyard chickens as well as their jerky gait. Frogs croak in and out of phase, like Steve Reich. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis’s ‘Spaces,’ a Kinetic Series of Zoological Portraits
The kazoos cropped up in the 10th and final movement of “Spaces,” an episodic suite by Wynton Marsalis that had its world premiere at the Rose Theater on Friday. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was swinging light and fast as it happened, bzz-bzz-bzz-bzz-bzz, in a busy rush. It was a cute and clever flourish, in a piece titled “Bees Bees Bees.” And it was also an act of evocation that reflected the larger theme of the suite. Keep reading »