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Wynton Marsalis’ spectacular ode to the urban jungle of New York
It’s been 21 years since Wynton Marsalis last brought the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra to Melbourne. The ensemble’s line-up has changed significantly since then but the JLCO’s unwavering focus on both the legacy and future of jazz remains unchanged. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis takes audience on a classic journey through jazz history
In 2016, when the New York Philharmonic Orchestra premiered Wynton Marsalis’s fourth symphony, The Jungle, the orchestra’s short rehearsal schedule, combined with the score’s length and intricacy, meant it performed only five of the six movements. Keep reading »
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Review: Swing Symphony (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Engaging head and heart is a laudable goal, frequently aimed for, less than frequently achieved, and to that end programming is something of a dark art. That old black magic, however, was definitely in the air at the Sydney Opera House as Chief Conductor David Robertson started his 2016 season with a heady brew concocted out of two perfectly complementary composers: Leonard Bernstein and Wynton Marsalis. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis raises the temperature with jazz on a hot summer’s night
The howling horns and visceral rhythms of Harlem’s Cotton Club got the audience’s blood pumping when one of the greatest figures in contemporary jazz, Wynton Marsalis, led his Lincoln Center band in series of concerts for Sydney Symphony Orchestra this week. On Wednesday, as a special one off, the 15-man band played two sets — one of Duke Ellington and the other music by George Gershwin. Keep reading »
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Swing Symphony review: The strings swing in Wynton Marsalis’ jazz history
Jazz, like all improvisational idioms, is a dialogue, and it is this element that Wynton Marsalis especially emphasises in his Swing Symphony – that and the rhythm implicit in the title. Marsalis’ third symphony is a seven-movement work for unamplified jazz band and orchestra, and the dialogue begins by having the 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra embedded in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the former’s horns a nugget of gold amid the strings. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis: A rhapsody of respect for greats of classical jazz
It has been about 30 years since precocious American trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, having won Grammys in jazz and classical music, divided the jazz world with his controversial opinions. He dismissed many of the innovative or experimental styles that had come into jazz in the 1970s and 80s, and emphasised what he saw as its essential elements: coherent improvisation, swing feel and the blues. Keep reading »