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‘Congo Square’ a Jazz Suite of Epic Proportions
Jubilant, swinging, earthy, romantic, dissonant—“Congo Square,” the new jazz suite composed by Wynton Marsalis and 75-year-old Ghanaian percussionist Yacub Addy, is many things. Tidy, however, isn’t one of them. Keep reading »
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Congo Square Rising Up
Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center bring comfort and jazz to the city of New Orleans.
It’s been about nine months since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. Today, the area is slowly being rebuilt. Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis has led efforts to heal his native city but his journey there this past month was planned well before the unforeseen disaster. Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO) performed a series of free events for people of all ages, including concerts, master classes, clinics, and workshops during a weeklong residency, April 17-23. The events were co-sponsored by the state of Louisiana and the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans.
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“Marsalis on Music” reviewed on All About Jazz
Marsalis on Music, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ groundbreaking audio/visual music education project from 1995, was produced by Sony Classical Film & Video, debuted in the US on PBS, and subsequently translated and shown around the world. The Peabody Award-winning program provides an excellent introduction to classical and jazz music, all in a fun and identifiable way. The video version is available in libraries, schools and rental clubs everywhere.
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A Visitor From the West Takes Charge of the Band
Gerald Wilson, the trumpeter, composer, arranger and conductor, is 87. On Thursday at the Rose Theater, taking part in “Central Avenue Breakdown,” a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert centering on Los Angeles jazz, he hijacked the evening. It was not his band, and not his city, but he handled the 15-member Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra like a paper airplane.
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Los Angeles: Central Avenue Breakdown
A few years ago I was talking to veteran L.A. tenormen Teddy Edwards and Harold Land while preparing to host a “Jazz Talk” show at Lincoln Center. Teddy, the elder statesman, was referencing old time musicians who worked in the clubs along L.A.‘s Central Avenue and Harold mentioned that he had never heard of them. I chimed in that, of course, if Harold had not heard of these players than I certainly hadn’t. Teddy looked at us and smiled. “There’s no mystery here,” he said. “The reason why you haven’t heard about these musicians is because in the old days in the Central Avenue clubs there simply were no jazz writers.” Keep reading »
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Rambling Round Pittsburgh
The jazz legacy of Pittsburgh confounds easy generalization. There’s no shorthand summary for a city that produced the buoyant pianist Earl (Fatha) Hines as well as the steamrolling drummer Art Blakey and the urbane composer Billy Strayhorn. So Jazz at Lincoln Center wisely makes no claim to comprehensiveness in its Pittsburgh Festival, which takes up two of the three performance spaces at Frederick P. Rose Hall.
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All About Jazz reviews LCJO Chicago’s concert
The endless debate about Wynton Marsalis shows no sign of ever abating. Whether the Lincoln Center musical director/trumpeter is the greatest heir to the jazz tradition or a curmudgeonly and didactic reactionary who’s declared himself the final authority and what jazz is and, especially, isn’t, probably depends on your point of view. One thing, though, is certain: he and the 15-piece Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra put on a consistently good show.
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The band’s performance at Chicago’s Symphony Center was pretty typical of what they do: impeccably played, large-ensemble arrangements of the jazz-composer canon; smaller-group performances of the same; beautiful, crystal-clear horn voicings; a great drummer (currently Ali Jackson); a host of very good soloists, including Marsalis; and, yes, lots of spoken explanation from the musical director about the composers, the history of jazz, and why what the group is playing is good.
Marsalis is wordy, and in his teaching mode, he can be annoying. But he’s usually pretty affable and often droll; certainly he shows no sign on the bandstand of being any sort of martinet, despite the band’s whip-tight playing. -
Live at The House of Tribes reviewed on All About Jazz
Wynton Marsalis’ dominance seems at times so complete that it’s easy to either become suspicious of the musician represented by the vita sheet, or take it as a given that he’s the world’s greatest trumpet player, if not music-maker. Live at the House of Tribes offers little conclusive evidence for either position, but it certainly makes the case for a non-controversial middle ground.
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Hark! The Heralded Jazzmen Swing Some Familiar Melodies
Somewhere between ritual and remnant lies the jazz Christmas concert. As a manifestation of pure secular middle-class civility, it represents a vague and probably disappearing middle ground, even in Manhattan.
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Higher Ground CD reviewed by Washington Post
Hitting Katrina From Two Directions
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There are nearly 10 benefit albums with Hurricane Katrina on their minds, and doubtless more are coming. Bring ‘em on. In theory, at least, when it comes to raising relief funds through music, everyone wins.