The Magic Hour by Louisiana-born trumpeter Wynton Marsalis is that sweetest of swinging homecomings – like time spent laughing with old friends on a front porch.
We have Marsalis returning finally to small-band work – where he once sparked a resurgence of interest as the first widely known trumpeter since Miles Davis. We have Marsalis again beside music industry veteran Bruce Lundvall, who signed Wynton to his very first record deal in 1980.
We have Marsalis finally returning to the driving rhythms and lyrical whimsy that marked his best early work, before he won Pulitzers and made records with 199 other musicians.
Really. One hundred and 99 other folks.
That was “All Rise,” an extended classical composition from 2002 for big band, gospel choir and symphony orchestra.
“‘All Rise’ was such a huge piece,” Marsalis says. “I wanted to produce my next recording with a smaller group. I wanted to restate my basic love of jazz music in a quartet format.”
After 20 years on Columbia, Lundvall has lured Marsalis to the Blue Note label, a bastion of earthy substance and fiery brilliance in the 1950s and ’60s. In keeping, he presents himself not as concert master or Ellingtonian composer, but as the impish youngster we sometimes saw when Lundvall originally signed him.
In between, Marsalis occasionally calcified into a prematurely aged figure, the 30-year-old grousing about how things had gone so wrong in music. He hated the avant-garde movement of jazz after 1965, despised 1970s fusion. But in Marsalis’ honorable quest to save the older jazz that he so clearly loved, he sometimes came off as a shrill and humorless pitchman – and a suddenly retrograde performer.
The truth is, Marsalis only resembled Miles Davis through imitation. (Well, he was also named after Davis’ one-time pianist, Wynton Kelly.) Marsalis’ legacy in jazz more closely resembles that of Freddie Hubbard, a talented musician who popularized the more challenging work of others.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
hmmm, i've been thinking of getting this record on the strength of one of the tunes heard on satellite radio. don't know which one it was but it really brought me back to that "Black Codes" sort of vibe.
2 - Michael J. West
First good review I've seen of this one. OK, you've got my interest piqued...iTunes, here I come!