Wynton Marsalis for PRESIDENT!

(which, the way I understand it, is an ILX cardinal sin)

really fantastic interview with/essays on/re-evaluation of wynton & '80s jazz by ethan iverson: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2008/12/readers-guide.html

I should have known sooner; the tempo's self-important braggadocio was a dead giveaway. Marsalis, New Orleans born and New York praised, is jazz's most famous living musician. He's been around for years, but until that night I'd never heard one note of his astringent horn in public. I'd never seen one of his CDs in a poolroom jukebox or seen a spry, elderly, know-it-all black man hanging out in front of the supermarket, snapping his fingers and whistling one of his melodies to pass the time. He's a middle-aged child prodigy to whom everyone gives plaudits, but no one plays.

The tune, like most contrivances of the black telegentsia, seemed lost, a corny cacophonic search among the ruins of a romanticised African history for a self-affirming excuse to love being black. However, Wynton's pretentious narcissistic nigrescence couldn't fool me. The pentatonic scaling and the repetition of the ninth through twelfth bars belied an underlying skittishness, and the song flitted aimlessly about like a flock of canaries that have flown into a room and can't find their way out. If I had had a sack of breadcrumbs and sprinkled them on the car floor, his cawing notes would've fluttered from his trumpet one by one, landed at my feet, and begged for attention. The thunderclap of an Art Blakey rim shot would've scattered the song into nothingness, leaving nothing but muted airs and some unresolved psychosexual issues with Mother Africa.

I hate Wynton Marsalis in the same manner Rommel hated Hitler.

... The song labored on, Wynton's band, like the critics, playing in the past tense.

what the hell is this ^^^^^

it's from the new(ish) paul beatty novel, which i got today. it's a comedy about a guy searching for a free jazz musician in cold war berlin

there's actually like uh three pages of that riff

(p.s. to jordan: thx for the link, relish getting around reading those pieces)

wynton marsalis is one of the most tedious puffed up people to hear talk on the entire tv and thats saying a lot

hmm, yeah, i'll agree with you to a point -- but reading that interview did actually make me interested in Wynton as a musician rather than as, you know, Mr. Jazz At Lincoln Center. He even seems a little bewildered by his position in the cultural world as the jazz ambassador (jazz messenger, even), though he's certainly embraced the role. dunno, i think i am going to seek out some of his recordings ...

remind me to avoid paul beatty

^^^

yeah haha wtf

HARDCORE. DAMMMNNN.

The thunderclap of an Art Blakey rim shot would've scattered the song into nothingness, leaving nothing but muted airs and some unresolved psychosexual issues with Mother Africa.

well, who doesn't have at least a few unresolved psychosexual issues with Mother Africa. i mean, if we're being honest here.

i haven't read the interview yet but i really like the first part about the recordings. black codes from the underground is some sick shit, and i really like some more recent wynton too. part 1 of those essays says "At some point, I hope Wynton quits the big band and the JALC altogether and becomes just a goddamn good trumpeter again", but he really did that on live at the house of tribes (it's standards instead of crazy originals, but it's seriously amazing).

cool, i will check that house of tribes recording out. that's kind of what i've figured -- the dude has to be good, right? regardless of irritating ideology, pomposity, etc.

oh yeah black codes is unimpeachable imo

jeff watts sat in at a club i was at in new orleans last year, it was crazy to see him rip it on a janky kit from about three feet away.

yeah, i'm not that interested in his big pulitzer prize epics but he's still a serious player and worth listening to imo.

How comforting that some ILMers finally take Black Codes seriously.

wynton is an amazing player

i love his 7-disc @ the vanguard cd, a steal at like 35 bucks

his live version of knozz-moe-king on that record is absolutely insane

the version of happy feet blues from that vv set is like my bible as far as herlin riley second line stuff goes.

Wow, the Bad Plus guy praising Wynton...I think I'd take that about as seriously as Vanilla Ice calling for a long-overdue reassessment of MC Hammer.

guys it's ok to like the bad plus and wynton, the jazz wars are over. or are you saying that they're both wack?

another good wynton-playing-trumpet album is herlin riley's last solo record, it's got wynton & wycliffe on all tracks and is awesome.

some of the stuff he plays around 3:30, i mean who does that

It's funny how the ire Marsalis draws for his playing is so much a result of his persona/books/JALC involvement, etc. I mean no one goes on about how much they hate Roy Hargrove or Arturo Sandoval or a million other well-known jazz trumpeters that are 1/10 as interesting to listen to. Marsalis-hate is the most boring and generally uninformed challop of jazz, and at this point even saying so I guess is a bit of a tired challop. So let's just put the thing to death. Dude can play and is fun to hear live.

Also I like his taste in sidemen, and that's half the game in jazz.

A Marsalis solo I like a lot:

Ironically, there are moments that almost sound like Tristano school playing.

fwiw i think hurting is v much otm here: "Marsalis-hate is the most boring and generally uninformed challop of jazz"

i still think the sheer inexplicable level of vitriol that novel's narrator (who is kind of a weeny) directs at him is funny

this is pretty dope: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/files/06-knozz-moe-king_wyn.mp3

(wynton talking over the record explaining the interaction and why he's pissed at jeff watts not listening to him)

Paul Beatty is actually cool. J0hn D. should read Tuff -- dude, you would really like it.

Great Marsalis-related record: Marcus Roberts' Deep in the Shed. Wynton is on two tracks, under the hilariously knowing pseudonym E. Dankworth.

coming to the end of part five. i feel like i have a lot of homework to do.

i own a courtney pine record and it is "okay"

love this

wtf

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/10/11/arts/JUMPJAZZ1/JUMPJAZZ1-popup.jpg

"Dayrón Rodríguez, a 12-year-old bongo fiend, jamming with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center band on Saturday."

glad wynton's helping keep those bongo fiends off the streets.

so? they're in cuba now, right?

Yep, the NY Times has been blogging it:

earlier in the week:

Marsalis and the Lincoln Center jazz orchestra are in Havana and the NY Times has been blogging about it:

A horde of students, teachers and passers-by began to dance as the Vancitos — clad in mustard-and-brown school uniforms — pumped out the Los Van Van classic “Muévete.” Before long, the percussionist Ali Jackson and the bassist Carlos Henriquez, both members of Jazz at Lincoln Center, were twirling Cuban dance partners around the patio.

Even Wynton Marsalis, the group’s leader, who has called himself a bad salsa dancer, was soon bopping with the guitar teacher Sandra Del Castillo.

“He’s got rhythm,” Ms. Castillo said afterward. “We just need to teach him some of our Latin thing.”

for someone who's mostly been exposed to wynton through his high horse comments on free jazz, wynton comes off like an incredibly likeable person in those 'do the math' interviews posted upthread. enough for me to finally check out a copy of 'Black Codes' and hear the guy, anyway

and I've always heard his classical baroque recordings referred to with respect, can anyone point me towards a good starter?

http://www.amazon.com/Kathleen-Battle-Marsalis-Baroque-Anthony/dp/B0000027C1

twofer of "great musician"/"annoying personality"

lol

never had a stronger feeling of love/hate than for wynton marsalis' opinions

I remember watching the Jazz series primed to be all down on Wynton but he so clearly speaks from a position of musical love that I totally crushed on him instead. Dude is much more moonship than pipecock I reckon.