Marsalis: blazing modern jazz
How is a truly great jazz combo created? You begin with a group of musicians out of the common run, who are guided by some dominant principle or personality and the resultant sound will be truly unique pleasing to the ear because it is musical to the soul because it is integral.
The Wynton Marsalis Jazz Quintet is just such a combo, dominated and inspired by the phenomenal trumpet playing and creative genius of its leader. Anyone who braved inclimate weather to catch the Marsalis Quintet in concert Monday night at El Camino College’s Marsee Auditorium was richly rewarded.
This is definitely a jazz ensemble that must be experienced live to be fully appreciated. The prize-winning records Marsalis has made are fine, but unless you see the quintet in person you will miss many of the sensational musical and technical things that are going on with this super-talented group.
Marsalis and his gifted sidemen — brother Branford Marsalis (tenor and soprano saxophone), Kenny Kirkland (piano), Jeffrey Watts (drums) — and Charnett Moffet (bass) — held the near-capacity audience spellbound for more than two hours of hard-driving, swinging, technically virtuosic, and uncompromising modem jazz.
A lot has been written about the blazing technique and versatility of Wynton’s trumpet playing — about his highly successful forays into the classical repertoire etc. everything you’ve read is true. His virtuosity is often fabulous. And he can sing and he can punch.
With his extensive classical background, Wynton brings more technical perfection to his performances than any jazz trumpet player I’ve ever heard. And that includes his idols: Louis Armstrong, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Don Cherry, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw and even such legendary firebrands as Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie.
Wynton’s range and agility are greater than those of the earlier masters. He can move with facility through three octaves on his horn and his intonation everywhere in the register is controlled.
Perhaps because of his classical training his tone deliberately has less vibrato being lighter rounder and airier than an Eldridge or a Hubbard, for example.
The 23-year-old trumpet sensation demonstrated that he is capable of brilliantly executed and inventive solo flights on the quintet’s opening number — Gillespie’s old bebop tune “Emanon” (no name spelled backwards). His straight-ahead extended improvisations here were on the same level with a Gillespie or a Howard McGhee.
Switching to a slower Latin-flavored tune like “Sister Cheryl”, Wynton’s tone became more veiled and haunting, yet light and highly personal. His longer solo passages had continuity while projecting plenty of melodic and rhythmic interest.
The trumpeter muted his horn for “Lazy Afternoon”, where his playing took on the gentle transparency and wit of a Miles Davis. In contrast, his solo on “Just You, Just Me” returned to a lead jazz voice rooted in the past: masculine and lusty. Here he constructed long phrases in which staccato multi-note passages were balanced against shorter statements.
“Father Time”, a Marsalis original opened the second half with the entire quintet swinging wildly in a dramatic demonstration of free, expressive jazz, Wynton’s solo here displayed his mastery of rhythm, meter, space and time.
Thelonious Monk’s “Think of One” the title track on Marsalis’ Grammy winning album found the fiery trumpeter in an up-front mood with his big solo chance more hoarsely intoned and dramatically placed.
The neatly dressed trumpet star — he wore a conservative but stylish gray suit and tie — muted his horn once again for a tasteful melodic and mellow solo on Mel Torme’s seasonal “Christmas Song” But all hell broke loose when Marsalis and the quintet unleashed their full power on the trumpeter’s own “Knozz-Moe-King”, a fantastically exciting piece that seemed to extend the range of every musician involved Wynton’s speed of execution high-note work and pyrotechnical delivery was simply breathtaking.
The rhythmic backing m the quintet from drummer Watts and bassist Moffet was incredibly strong and supportive. Watts is the quintessential ensemble percussionist.
Saxophonist Branford Marsalis and pianist Kirkland were given equal time with the leader to stretch out for long solos in nearly all the selections. Like their celebrated leader, their playing represented virtuosity, harmonic maturity, delicacy and maturity. But these qualities are not artificial acquisitions with the Marsalis brothers and Kirkland (whose keyboard work shows the influence of Bud Powell and Cecil Taylor) — they are integral in their playing.
The solos of each of these gifted jazzmen displayed a gradual relaxed building and a developing of continuity and structure that was unique. Solidly entrenched in the jazz tradition, they based their improvisations on the theme of each tune. But behind it all were their fluent imaginations which could keep their longest solos interesting even when they were relying on more conventional harmonic variations alone.
by Ray Bowman
Source: News-Pilot