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American Majesty
It’s an attractive idea. There in the great fastness of American music, in the still, tranquil centre, stands not a singer or a rapper or a guitarist but a trumpet player. He has a lot on his mind. Great issues such as integration, education and development crowd in on him. Keep reading »
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Jazz at the White House (Home of a Serious Fan)
It had to happen, and when it did, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. After President Clinton gave his final remarks tonight at the White House jazz festival, the saxophonist Illinois Jacquet handed him a saxophone, and off the band went into Miles Davis’s blues waltz, “All Blues.” Happy to say, the President (who in his early career as a saxophonist had committed Mr. Jacquet’s landmark improvisation on “Flying Home” to memory), didn’t equivocate, change his mind or buckle to pressure, though he did look a bit uncomfortable. Keep reading »
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A Red, White and Blues Evening at the White House
Her’s was the opening salvo Friday evening at the White House in a heady two-hour mix of entertainment and artistry. It was one of those magic evenings when the blues in the night met the green of the lawn—specifically the South Lawn, where a large area was covered with a canopy, under which 30 artists tried to encapsulate much of the music’s history. Keep reading »
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Joyfull Jammings at The Blue House
At night’s end, the First Saxophonist contributed a cool solo to what could be a signature tune for a president—“Every Day I Have the Blues.” Luckily, it’s already the signature tune of jazz vocalist Joe Williams, and while a poll-conscious Bill Clinton clearly might empathize with lyrics like “nobody seems to love me,” his presence last night on a stage with several dozen jazz greats was not weary confession but jubilant confirmation of his regard for the form. Keep reading »
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Masters of Improvisation Marsalis, Mulligan Kick off Festival
Trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis set the tone for the evening with a version of “The Star Spangled Banner” that was steeped in New Orleans parade tradition. Keep reading »
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Jazz at the White House
To judge by the historic television program to be broadcast Sunday, America’s recently rekindled love affair with its own music, jazz, is going strong. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis: Adding It All To Jazz
WHEN THE Wynton Marsalis Septet visited Wolf Trap last August, the 31-year-old bandleader was easy to spot even from the lawn in his dazzling all-white suit. His trumpet was also easy to pick out with its diamond-sharp statements of melodic themes. It soon became clear, however, that his less-famous bandmates were essential to the exhilarating group improvisations, as they traded phrases with Marsalis as equals. Keep reading »
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Don’t play Duke Ellington like Haydn Trumpet Concerto, says Wynton Marsalis
As the first musician ever to have been signed simultaneously to the jazz and classical divisions of Columbia Records, Wynton Marsalis is intimately familiar with the differences and similarities between the two worlds. We spoke to him over the phone, during a tour stop in Boston, and asked what he thought about treating jazz like classical music. Keep reading »
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Young man with a horn
A couple of months ago I got a phone call from a writer working on an article about Jazz at Lincoln Center. The program, announced in the spring of 1991, has gotten a lot of media attention. It’s undeniable that Lincoln Center’s giving jazz a regular home has “legitimized” it in the eyes of some cultural elites, including foundations and philanthropists, here in the land of its birth-one of the last places the music has won that respect. Keep reading »
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Marsalis’s Wit and Anger Evoke Visions of America
“Jazz (Six Syncopated Movements)” is, true to the New York City Ballet’s habit, a new work for the company that is named after its score. The music is by Wynton Marsalis, one of contemporary jazz’s most popular musicians, and it was written for Peter Martins, one of today’s most prominent neo-classical choreographers. Keep reading »
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