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Marsalis has a kick with kids
Sophisticated jazz isn’t for adults only, as Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra clearly established over the weekend at Symphony Center. The occasion of Marsalis, the leading jazz musician of his generation, sharing the stage with at least 30 kids from the audience—and trying to teach them the basics of improvisation—had to be seen to be believed. Keep reading »
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A Dixie feast
A hot New Orleans breeze blew into Symphony Center over the weekend, inspiring more than a few Chicagoans to stand up and holler as if they were on Bourbon Street rather than Michigan Avenue. Keep reading »
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Don’t you have it even more sublime?
Berlin / New York? We educated citizens learn early on how to behave appropriately when it comes to cultural experiences. When, how and how we have to applaud and cough, in the so-called classic we never clap between sentences. The work is only completed when the conductor lowers the baton and turns to the auditorium. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis, Skain’s Domain - Review
At this point in time, Wynton Marsalis is a work in progress, a brilliant trumpeter who throughout his still-developing career has seemed to find controversy at every turn. When he first hit the national scene in 1980 with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the 18-year old was considered a phenomenon. Two years later he had gone out on his own and in 1983 he won Grammys in both jazz and classical music. The general news media was soon portraying Marsalis as the symbol of jazz, an up-and-coming master of the future. However others in the jazz world correctly pointed out that at the time the trumpeter lacked an original sound of his own, being too close to comfort to Miles Davis of the mid-1960’s. In addition, some of his statements in interviews seemed a bit arrogant, dismissing much of the music of the 1970’s, post-1965 avant-garde and fusion. Since then the pro and anti-Marsalis camps have only grown in intensity as he has continued to grow in stature, in recent times with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and with his Pulitzer Prize winning epic work Blood On The Fields. Keep reading »
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Marsalis Shows China That Jazz Isn’t Just a Word
In their first 48 hours of music making here, Wynton Marsalis and his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra put on two smooth performances before well-dressed audiences, two educational events for Chinese jazz colleagues and schoolchildren, and two smoking jam sessions with local musicians for a small, ravenous circle of fans. Keep reading »
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Marsalis’s Stylishly Solid Septet, Feeling Right at Home
When the Wynton Marsalis Septet played the theme of Thelonious Monk’s ‘‘Hackensack’’ on Tuesday night at the Village Vanguard, every quarter of the four-horn front line carried a controlled, distinct weight. Each musician projected a particular volume and tone, and the sum was a fine, calibrated mix. You could hear it all and marvel at the craft in it. Keep reading »
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Marsalis’ Epic “All Rise” Reaches High
NEW YORK — It isn’t often that the combined forces of a symphony orchestra, large jazz ensemble and 60-voice choir share a stage. But considering the stylistic range and expressive breadth of the music at hand, perhaps the sheer number of musicians jammed into Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center should not have been surprising. Keep reading »
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Marsalis’s Daring Symphonic Step
Wynton Marsalis’s tap didn’t turn off in 1999. Eight new discs bear his name, ranging from new extended jazz works to rearranged Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk; he has a seven-CD boxed set of live material; six months of the year were spent touring worldwide and playing the music of Duke Ellington. Keep reading »
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Just the Best In Ellington’s Sacred Works
The church of Duke Ellington admitted many denominations: gospel, opera, tap and interpretive dance, European orchestral music and hot, small-group percussiveness. His three Sacred Concerts, given their premieres in 1965, 1968 and 1973, weren’t jazz Masses: he insisted on a difference between talking to God and, as he described his own efforts, ‘‘people talking to people about God.’’ So he took his jazz conception, complete with elements of a nightclub show, into cathedrals. Keep reading »
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Jammin’ with the CSO
From the moment Daniel Barenboim stepped up to the podium, it was clear that musical conventions were about to be incinerated. Rather than pick up his baton and signal a downbeat for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as he does each week in Symphony Center, the maestro turned around, faced the audience and began to speak directly to the crowd. Keep reading »