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Jazz Master’s Signature, Written in Sax and Brass
Benny Carter spread his aesthetic throughout jazz from the 1920s to the 1960s, and he did it in a number of ways. Jazz exists first in the public imagination through its soloist stars, and from the mid-’20s onward Carter was a great improviser — first on alto saxophone, then on trumpet — though he didn’t satisfy anyone’s picture of a jazz genius as a troubled, mercurial man-child; he was private and professional. Keep reading »
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Wynton playing at Barbican Hall
I saw the Duke Ellington Orchestra once, when Duke was dying, and his leading soloists were winding down their musical lives. But it still sounded like a group of inspired chancers who liked mixing order and happenstance.
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‘Congo Square’ a dialogue of eras
When Wynton Marsalis rocketed to stardom in the 1980s, he seemed poised to enjoy a long career as a hyper-virtuoso trumpeter.
Though Marsalis remains a top-flight soloist, it’s his work as composer of epic scores that more deeply defines his art. Clearly, no one else in recent jazz history has produced a comparable list of vast compositions, including the thunderous “All Rise” (performed earlier this year by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), the incantatory “In This House, On This Morning” (a jazz evocation of a gospel church service) and the incendiary “Blood on the Fields” (the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize in music, in 1997).
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A dazzling trip to Crescent City’s Congo Square
After helping elevate the jazz genre to an even more mainstream platform throughout the 1980s, Wynton Marsalis has embarked upon a number of compelling paths. Yet the famed trumpeter/composer/conductor is currently in the midst of an incredibly ambitious streak thanks to his new work Congo Square, which he’s been staging all across the country backed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, along with drum master Yacub Addy and his eight piece Odadaa! Troupe. Keep reading »
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Marsalis delivers a big-bang world-beat on Clevaland’s `Congo Square’
Worlds collided to wonderful effect when trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and percussionist Yacub Addy’s Odadaa! ensemble shared the stage Monday evening at Playhouse Square’s Allen Theatre.
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Say Amen, Everybody, 15 Years Down the Line
When Wynton Marsalis unveiled his sanctified long-form composition “In This House, on This Morning” 15 years ago, it marked a breakthrough for him as well as for Jazz at Lincoln Center, where he had recently begun his tenure as artistic director. So it might be tempting to view the piece’s revival this week as an act of misty nostalgia, the equivalent of dusting off a scrapbook, or a treasured hymnal, and gingerly turning pages.
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A Record Label’s Legacy Is Celebrated and Reimagined
The legacy of Blue Note Records cuts a wide swath through music history, from the boogie-woogie bustle of Meade Lux Lewis to the folk-stirred pop of Norah Jones. But the label’s core identity rests on a remarkable body of recordings made in the 1950s and ’60s. It’s only natural that “Legends of Blue Note,” a concert presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center on Thursday night, would focus chiefly on that era, if only as a ratification of its enduring appeal.
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From Marsalis, a Master Class in ‘That Swing’ and an Ellington Exhortation
It was pressure enough when the Springbrook High School jazz ensemble was asked to play the Duke Ellington standard “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” for perhaps the most prominent Ellington fan in contemporary jazz, Wynton Marsalis, who visited the Silver Spring school last week. Keep reading »
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A legend offers lessons in jazz and life
For 90 minutes, Marsalis, a Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning classical and jazz trumpet player, taught the students on stage and entertained the 100 people in the audience, including band members from Springbrook and Briggs Chaney and White Oak middle schools. Keep reading »
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Looking Home to The Crescent City
Wynton Marsalis is rarely predictable. When it was announced that his concert on Tuesday would feature the same edition of the Marsalis Sextet that’s on his new album, “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary,” as well as the singer Jennifer Sanon, who is extensively featured on the album, it was a logical conclusion that Mr. Marsalis would be performing music from the new release.
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