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It’s the End of the Riff for Wynton Marsalis’s Septet
Wynton Marsalis made news in his first set on Tuesday night at the Village Vanguard. Before he began to play, the trumpeter and band leader announced that this week’s engagement would be the last for his septet, one of the most influential and active bands in jazz. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis trumpets the importance of classic jazz
Wynton Marsalis starts off with a simple, definitive statement: “I never use interviews to publicize myself. I like to keep my comments to the music,” he says by phone from his home in New York City. And that he does. Keep reading »
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Marsalis Takes Jazz To Church
Years from now, they’ll still be talking about the concert that lit up a grand old church on the South Side of Chicago. They’ll reminisce about the jazz band that dared to offer a three-hour show from the pulpit of a 19th Century house of worship. They’ll recall how brilliantly the seven musicians played, how frequently the congregation sprang to its feet, how often it fell silent during passages of mystery and reverie. Keep reading »
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Got them low-down Lincoln Center blues
THE PROGRAM for “What Is the Blues?,” latest concert in Lincoln Center’s “Jazz for Young People” series, contained a full-page advertisement for the home video version of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. Keep reading »
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Wynton Rebels by Playing It Straight : Marsalis Scores the Garth Fagan Dance Company, Funk-Free
Don’t let the tailored suit and natty tie fool you. Wynton Marsalis sees himself as a rebel. Arriving in town this week for three performances of his “Griot New York” ballet score with the Garth Fagan Dance Company, Marsalis doesn’t understand why he is viewed by many as a jazz traditionalist. Keep reading »
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Jazz at the White House (Home of a Serious Fan)
It had to happen, and when it did, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. After President Clinton gave his final remarks tonight at the White House jazz festival, the saxophonist Illinois Jacquet handed him a saxophone, and off the band went into Miles Davis’s blues waltz, “All Blues.” Happy to say, the President (who in his early career as a saxophonist had committed Mr. Jacquet’s landmark improvisation on “Flying Home” to memory), didn’t equivocate, change his mind or buckle to pressure, though he did look a bit uncomfortable. Keep reading »
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A Red, White and Blues Evening at the White House
Her’s was the opening salvo Friday evening at the White House in a heady two-hour mix of entertainment and artistry. It was one of those magic evenings when the blues in the night met the green of the lawn—specifically the South Lawn, where a large area was covered with a canopy, under which 30 artists tried to encapsulate much of the music’s history. Keep reading »
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Joyfull Jammings at The Blue House
At night’s end, the First Saxophonist contributed a cool solo to what could be a signature tune for a president—“Every Day I Have the Blues.” Luckily, it’s already the signature tune of jazz vocalist Joe Williams, and while a poll-conscious Bill Clinton clearly might empathize with lyrics like “nobody seems to love me,” his presence last night on a stage with several dozen jazz greats was not weary confession but jubilant confirmation of his regard for the form. Keep reading »
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Masters of Improvisation Marsalis, Mulligan Kick off Festival
Trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis set the tone for the evening with a version of “The Star Spangled Banner” that was steeped in New Orleans parade tradition. Keep reading »
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Jazz at the White House
To judge by the historic television program to be broadcast Sunday, America’s recently rekindled love affair with its own music, jazz, is going strong. Keep reading »