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Marsalis, Roberts renew musical bonds in impromptu reunion
Two reigning jazz virtuosos were reunited in impromptu fashion Tuesday night, and the results were as profound as they were accessible, as technically brilliant as they were musically direct. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis plays with prowess
After all the talk from and about Wynton Marsalis concerning the scope and nature of his influence on the state of jazz, it was a reaffirming pleasure to hear him at his most articulate with a trumpet in his mouth Monday at the Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis. Keep reading »
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Jazz, he says
Wynton Marsalis is a perpetual explorer. The 33-year-old premier jazz trumpeter said he continues to develop his art form by experimenting with musical styles and configuration of groups. Marsalis has played R&B, classical and popular music. Keep reading »
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Blues Alley Cat Wynton Marsalis
WYNTON MARSALIS has enjoyed an unusual relationship with the Blues Alley nightclub over the years. Not only has the jazz trumpeter recorded a live album there and conducted numerous workshops with the Blues Alley Youth Orchestra, but he continues to play in the Georgetown club every December even though he now has the commercial clout to headline at Wolf Trap and other theaters. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis Gets Kind Of Blue
There’s a recurring song on Wynton Marsalis’s formidable new trilogy, “Soul Gestures in Southern Blue,” called “So This Is Jazz, Huh?” It is both a challenge and a history lesson. Yeah, the song argues, this is jazz: a system of African-American mythmaking guided by the blues, with a rhythmic chain stretching back to pre-Civil War New Orleans and beyond. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis, Immersed in the Deep Blues
Some 100 years after its development, the blues and its distinctly American tonality still roll on. The impact has been astounding: a humble 12-bar, 3-chord repeating cycle, made popular by the repressed black minority, has given definition to some of the most important musical developments of the 20th century. Keep reading »
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With Hampton and Marsalis, the 40’s and Today
Lionel Hampton and Wynton Marsalis, respectively the last active band leader from the big band era of the 1940’s and the currently most publicized young jazz musician, shared a JVC Jazz Festival Concert on Wednesday evening at Avery Fisher Hall. Keep reading »
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Marsalis’s success not a 1-man effort
It’s easy to hear the music of Wynton Marsalis and focus on the seven Grammy awards the trumpeter has won. But no small part of the horn man’s success in jazz rests on the strengths of his band – and those strengths were more than evident last night. Keep reading »
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The School of Hard Bop
He was young, only 17, and though there was bravado in his stride as he took the stage, the professional musicians said nothing to him. Watching him seat himself at the piano, they smiled at one another. They knew he had set a trap for himself, and now he would have to pay. They had done this themselves once. Long ago. Keep reading »
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Marsalis Brilliant but Predictable in Orange County Center
The most amazing thing about Wynton Marsalis’ appearance at the Orange County Performing Art Center on Sunday night was the fact that the brilliant young trumpeter—the most visible new jazz musician of the ‘80s—played virtually nothing that could have startled anyone. Keep reading »