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(Most of) The Marsalis Family in Concert
There’s no generation gap in the musical taste of the Marsalis family of New Orleans. From the 55-year-old patriarch and pianist, Ellis Marsalis, down to the 13-year-old drummer Jason, the hard-bop of the late 1950’s and 60’s is the pinnacle of jazz, and they have led a revival of the style among young musicians. Keep reading »
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Some Respect for Jackie McLean
A tribute to the alto saxophonist Jackie McLean on Saturday night at Alice Tully Hall really began two songs in, with the arrival of the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Keep reading »
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Reviving the Sound and Feel Of Jelly Roll Morton’s Jazz
Jelly Roll Morton’s music from the 1920’s and 30’s sounded anything but antiquated at ‘‘Mr. Jelly Lord,’’ the classical jazz concert that re-created Morton’s music for solo piano, duos, trios and a seven-piece band on Monday night at Alice Tully Hall. Keep reading »
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Review/Jazz; The New Orleans in Wynton Marsalis
His first note of the evening was a plunger-muted growl, and throughout the concert’s two sets he used the smears and rasps of early jazz along with the pure-toned, agile melodic style he is known for. Mr. Marsalis, a scholar of jazz-trumpet styles, has clearly been reinvestigating the work of Bubber Miley, who growled bluesy solos for the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the 1920’s. Keep reading »
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Signs of Intelligent Life in Music Television
One evening this month as I was riffling through television by remote control, I happened to spot the stern, cherubic face of Wynton Marsalis. The young jazz trumpeter was the guest on a program called ‘‘New Visions,’’ a weekly two-hour series that airs on Sundays at 10 P.M. on the 24-hour cable music channel, VH-1. Keep reading »
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Pop Classics for Horn
Jazz musicians rarely get credit for keeping Tin Pan Alley standards current through the rock era. Yet they continue to honor that repertory, both by reclaiming pop melodies with eloquent phrasing and by evading them to reveal ingenious harmonic structures. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis Plays Cornet Showpieces
Wynton Marsalis’s latest demonstration of classical virtuosity is a revival of showpieces written by, and for, the cornetists who led bands at the turn of the century. Keep reading »
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Trumpet: Wynton Marsalis
The sensational young trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who has appeared most often hereabouts as a jazz player, walked away with the show at the Mostly Mozart Festival’s final program Friday in Fisher Hall Keep reading »
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Jazz Swings Back To Tradition
THE CROWD OUTSIDE SWEET Basil, on a Monday not long ago, is so large and so eager that even jaded Greenwich Village strollers stop to ask who’s playing inside the jazz club. David Murray and Wynton Marsalis, they are told; that’s why the place is packed. That made several Mondays in a row that the David Murray Big Band drew full houses, playing a stack of new compositions that cut exultantly across the history of jazz. Keep reading »
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Kathleen Battle Sings Bach
Kathleen Battle’s concert at Alice Tully Hall last night seemed almost a conscious rejection of the song recital format. There were no French or Italian songs, no lieder, no operatic extracts, but in their place, Bach, spirituals and jazz. Keep reading »