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  • A lesson in loving jazz

    Posted on March 15th, 2007 in Review | 3

    School was in session at Massey Hall last night, when the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra rolled into town.
    Billed as The Songs We Love, the show consisted of tunes that anchor the Great American Songbook, such as “Tea for Two” and “My Favourite Things.”
    “These are all songs that you know ... we’re going to play them so well up here, we’re going to make you love them again,” declared Wynton Marsalis as the band launched into “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

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  • WYNTON MARSALIS: “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary”

    Posted on March 5th, 2007 in Review

    From his landmark album “Black Codes (From the Underground)” through his Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio “Blood on the Fields,” the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has always found avenues for social critique. But his new quintet album delivers a fresh jolt to the system, by blowing apart the refuge of allegory. Oh, and he raps. But we’ll get to that.   Keep reading »

  • Marsalis blasts political and societal inequities

    Posted on March 4th, 2007 in Review

    For those who think of Wynton Marsalis as a purveyor of gauzy romantic ballads and composer of epic symphonic works, the trumpeter has a surprise in store. “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary,” to be released Tuesday on Blue Note Records, ranks as Marsalis’ most explicitly political statement to date, even as it draws on themes from earlier recordings.   Keep reading »

  • Marsalis wields sharp blade in ‘Plantation’

    Posted on March 4th, 2007 in Review | 12

    As the most high-profile jazz artist and advocate of the past 25 years, Wynton Marsalis has become more widely quoted than any other jazz performer of his generation. Even so, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and trumpeter sounded shocked when recently asked about the distinctive drum sound on “Doin’ (Y)Our Thing,” a standout song on “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary,” his new album.

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  • The Crimson: “From The Plantation To The Penitentiary”

    Posted on March 1st, 2007 in Review

    “I ain’t your bitch, I ain’t your ho,” cries out vocalist Jennifer Sanon in a style reminiscent of Billie Holliday. The sentiment defines “Love and Broken Hearts,” an attack on hip-hop culture from trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ new release, “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary.” Sanon grieves the decline of the love song and the rise of “modern day minstrels” with “songless tunes,” who emphasize sex over romance.   Keep reading »

  • Making Degas and Picasso Into Jazz Stars

    Posted on February 26th, 2007 in Review | 4

    Music is like a painting that exists in time; painting is like music that exists in space. Bringing them together was the worthy goal of “Jazz and Art,” a weekend concert series inspired by the collection at the Modern Museum of Art and presented this weekend at the Rose Theater by Jazz at Lincoln Center. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was heard under the direction of multireed player — here called “guest conductor” — Ted Nash, who normally plays alto saxophone and flute with the band.

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  • CSO thunders gloriously with Marsalis’ `All Rise’

    Posted on January 20th, 2007 in Review

    Call it a tonic for troubled times.
    Wynton Marsalis’ “All Rise”—an epic work that addresses fundamental questions of faith, crisis and deliverance—does not go gently into the night.

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  • Just a Couple of Guys Dressed in the Blues

    Posted on January 15th, 2007 in Review | 8

    Willie Nelson was halfway through a flinty and casually gripping guitar solo on “Rainy Day Blues” when everything clicked into place. It was his fifth song at the Allen Room on Friday night, and the bright young rhythm section onstage was finally locking in. At Mr. Nelson’s right elbow Wynton Marsalis shot the saxophonist Walter Blanding Jr. a knowing glance, one eyebrow appreciatively raised. After a somewhat tentative start, the concert hit its groove.

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  • “What is an arranger” reviewed by the New York Times

    Posted on December 1st, 2006 in Review

    When Wynton Marsalis goes onstage tomorrow in an outlandish outfit — say, a pink shirt, yellow pants and a purple tie — he’ll be making a statement. Not a fashion statement, but a statement about arrangement.

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  • Beloved Styles, Crossing and Colliding

    Posted on November 18th, 2006 in Review

    For months the American Composers Orchestra has been touting an adventurous collaborative program with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. But as the concert on Thursday night at the Rose Theater showed, bold collaborations are sometimes easier to plan than to pull off.

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