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Swing-Era Orchestrations Handled With Assurance
So much is changing so rapidly in the institutional jazz world that Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Golden Pen,” Saturday’s concert of swing-era arrangements, sounded like a fairly normal programming ploy. Five years ago, the idea to display a series of often-brilliant arrangements might have seemed radical; it is now rare but accepted practice, and the pleasure gained is less from novelty and more from the sensuousness of the music itself. Keep reading »
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The Pied Piper of Jazz
The Pied Piper of Jazz : You can call Wynton Marsalis an accomplished musician, a great teacher or a respected bandleader, but his friends just call him Hoghead. Keep reading »
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The Battle of the Bands, Part Two
Silence played a big part in the Battle of the Bands, a showdown between the jazz orchestras of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center on Friday night at Avery Fisher Hall. The concert, in its second year as part of the JVC Jazz Festival, featured two orchestras at their peak. Keep reading »
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Stop Nitpicking a Genius
IN THE OLD MASONIC HALL BEING USED AS A RECORDING STUDIO, WYNTON Marsalis tells the band to take a 10-minute break, steps down from the podium, comes over and gives me a hug. We sit down in the old theater seats. Keep reading »
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Bill Cosby Leads Benefit For Jazz at Lincoln Center
One thing Lincoln Center’s benefit for its jazz program at Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday night proved was that Bill Cosby, the night’s M. C., wasn’t to be challenged. Keep reading »
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My home is the road
Take your time.” That’s what Wynton Marsalis always says to the musicians on his bandstand. At a New York City recording session) for his acclaimed big-band suite, _Blood On The Fields_, he reminds vocal soloist Miles Griffith to do just that during the work’s moving climax. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis Takes a Long Look at Slavery
Wynton Marsalis’s skills have grown as fast as his ambition, and he is the most ambitious younger composer in jazz. On Friday night at Alice Tully Hall, he led the world premiere of his first work for big band, “Blood on the Fields,” a large composition—nearly three hours of music—about a vast topic, slavery. The piece was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center, of which Mr. Marsalis is the artistic director. Keep reading »
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Wholly Wonderful (If Not Whole) Jazz
JAZZ AT Lincoln Center, the most ambitious American attempt yet to give jazz an institutional base comparable to a major opera company or symphony orchestra, has been the center of controversy ever since it was launched in 1991. Keep reading »
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Lincoln Jazz: Ellington en Masse
As the artistic airector of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis had the privilege of introducing the ensemble at Wolf Trap Sunday night. As fourth trumpet in the band, he was often heard from as well, adding plunger-tones to “Black and Tan Fantasy” and some of the more colorful orchestrations before uncorking a vivid, open-toned reading of “Portrait of Louis Armstrong.” Keep reading »
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The Young Lions’ Roar : Wynton Marsalis and the ‘Neoclassical’ Lincoln Center Orchestra
Halfway through condemning the electronic jazz-funk Miles Davis played in his later years, Wynton Marsalis stops himself. “Don’t print that, all right?” the trumpeter says suddenly. “When (Miles) was alive, I made it clear what I felt about what he was doing, and now that he’s dead I don’t feel I have to say any more about it. Keep reading »
