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Marsalis: The Jazz Missionary
A decade ago, the doomsayers were proclaiming the death of jazz. In a music world saturated with rock cliches, in a marketplace newly dominated by musically unsophisticated teenagers, the cynics argued that jazz had no place. Keep reading »
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Marsalis and his trumpet get jazz fest rolling on intense note
Those who still doubt that trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has found a voice all his own probably were not at Grant Park on Thursday night, when Marsalis played a mesmerizing set for the opening of the Chicago Jazz Festival. Keep reading »
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Marsalis proves to be bigger hit before concert
We interrupt this review for a public service announcement: Wynton Marsalis isn’t such a stuffed shirt after all. He joshed playfully with a group of kids from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago at a reception before they went to his concert Monday night at Orchestra Hall. Keep reading »
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Devilishly Entertaining
Igor Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat” (“The Soldier’s Tale”) endures as one of the most haunting works in the 20th Century chamber repertory for at least two reasons. First, its startling dissonance and brittle instrumental writing sum up radical musical ideas that were emerging during the years of World War I (Stravinsky completed the piece in 1918). Second, its storyline—which traces the devil’s seductions and the consequences his victims must face—clearly holds universal appeal. Keep reading »
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Marsalis heats up night with one hot trumpet
LIKE JACK’S beanstalk, Wynton Marsalis is likely to grow a great deal on any given night. Gifted with a remarkable trumpet technique and a similarly startling musical imagination, Marsalis is, at age 22, already an important artist and one who should continue to develop foe some time to come. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis: At 20, a master of jazz style
It’s seldom that any jazz musician - let alone such a very young, not yet widely known player as trumpeter Wynton Marsalis - gets a page to himself in People magazine. But early this year that’s where Marsalis was, under the banner “Personalities to Watch.” Keep reading »