Lazaro Vega

Cut n paste or click on the following link to petition your congressional representative to lower the proposed high cost of streaming royalties that will make it difficult for many smaller radio stations and other web streamers to continue with their streaming in the future. http://www.kcrw.com/music/music-royalty-rates

Jazz From Blue Lake Wednesday, May 9, 2007 Artist—Song Title – Album Title – Record Label 10 p.m. Eastern Time King Oliver and his Orchestra—The Trumpeter’s Prayer—1929-1930—RCA King Oliver’s Dixie Syncopaters—Snag It/Sugar Foot Stomp—Sugar Foot Stomp—Decca King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band—Canal St. Blues/Chimes Blues/Dippermouth Blues—1923—Gennett Jazz Datebook Harry Connick Jr. – Bourbon Street Parade—Chanson du Vieux Carre—Marsalis Music Bob French—Royal Garden Blues—Honors Series—Marsalis Music Jon-Erik Kellso—Way Way Back—Blue Roof Blues—Arbors 11 p.m. Jelly Roll Morton/King Oliver—Dippermouth Blues—The Pianist & Composer V. 1—Smithsonian King Oliver and his Orchestra—West End Blues/I’ve Got That Thing/Call of the Freaks—1929-30—RCA King Oliver’s Dixie Syncopaters—Deep Henderson/Jackass Blues/Wa Wa Wa—Sugar Foot Stomp—Decca Jazz Datebook Jazz O’Maniacs—Gully Low Blues—Sunset Café Stomp—Delmark Dewey Jackson—Bucket’s Got A Hole In It—Live at the Barrel, 1952—Delmark George Lewis—Swanee River—Hello Central…--Delmark Art Hodes—Chimes Blues—Tribute to the Greats—Delmark 12 a.m. Out On Blue Lake Lester Bowie—Hello Dolly/St. Louis Blues (Chicago Style)—American Gumbo—32 Jazz Roscoe Mitchell’s Trans Atlantic Art Ensemble – Part 3—Composition/Improvisation 1, 2 & 3—ECM Waddada Leo Smith/Adam Rudolph—Song of Humanity—Compassion—Meta/Kabell Waddada Leo Smith/Anthony Braxton—Goshawk—Saturn, Conjoined The Grand Canyon In A Sweet Embrace—Pi Records Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake—Saktvshiva—From the River to the Ocean—Thrill Jockey Jazz Datebook 1 a.m. The Bad Plus—Everybody Wants to Rule the World—Prog—Heads Up Typhanie Monique/Neal Alger—Never Can Say Goodbye—In This Room—Tymoni Dr. Lonnie Smith—Trouble Man—Jungle Soul—Palmetto Carl Allen & Rodney Whitaker—Inner City Blues—Get Ready—Mack Avenue The Puppini Sisters—I Will Survive—Betcha Bottom Dollar—Verve Frank Vignola—The Man I Love—Plays Gershwin—Mel Bay Kenny Davern/Ken Peplowski—Nobody Else But Me—Dialogues—Arbors Bucky and John Pizzarelli—Avalon—Generations—Arbors King Oliver and his Orchestra—St. James Infirmary—1929-30—RCA King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band—Just Gone/Mandy Lee Blues/I’m Going To Wear You Off My Mind—1923—Gennett 2 a.m. Stephane Grapelli/Martial Solal—God Bless The Child—Happy Reunion—Sunnyside Bennie Wallace—Honeysuckle Rose—Disorder at the Border—Justin Time Joshua Redman—East of the Sun—Back East—Nonesuch Charles Mingus—Pithecanthropus Erectus—In Paris—Sunnyside Ornette Coleman—Once Only—Sound Grammar—Sound Grammar Kurt Elling—Leaving Again/In the Wee Small Hours—Nightmoves—Concord Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

Jazz From Blue Lake Tuesday, May 8, 2007 Artist—Song Title – Album Title – Record Label 10 p.m. Eastern Time Keith Jarrett—My Song—Carnegie Hall Concert—ECM Keith Jarrett—Bop-Be—At the Blue Note—ECM Keith Jarrett—Innocence—Personal Mountains-ECM Kurt Elling—Leavin Again/In the Wee Small Hours—Nightmoves—Concord John Coltrane—It’s Easy to Remember—Ballads—Impulse Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra—Self Portrait—Meeting of the Waters—OA2 Roni Ben-Hur—Think of One—Kepin’ It Open—Motema Joshua Breakstone—Indian Song—Back East 11 p.m. Keith Jarrett—The Wind—Paris Concert—ECM Keith Jarrett—Someday My Prince Will Come—Up For It—ECM Keith Jarrett—Birth—Foundations—Rhino Metheny/Meldau Quartet—A Night Away—Metheny/Meldau Quartet—Nonesuch EST—Tuesday Wonderland—Tuesday Wonderland—Emarcy Tord Gustavsen Trio—Twins—The Ground—ECM The Stryker/Slagel Band—Drear Mr. Hicks—Latest Outlook--Zoho 12 a.m. Nino Josele—Never Let Me Go—Paz—Norte Lee Konitz/Ohad Talmor—FreeBeMe—String Project: Inventions—OmniTone Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake—Planet E—From the River to the Ocean—Thrill Jockey Keith Jarrett—Hearts In Space—Always Let Me Go—ECM 1 a.m. East Coast Standard Time—Impressions—Impressions—Altru Music Terrell Stafford—Paper Trail—Taking Chances—Max Jazz Lauren Hooker—Goodbye Porkpie Hat—Right Where I Belong—Musical Legends Charles Mingus—Blue Bird—In Paris—Sunnyside Kahil El’Zabar’s Infinity Orchestra—Return of the Lost Tribe—Transmigration—Delmark 2 a.m. Keith Jarrett—Oleo—Live at the Blue Note—ECM Keith Jarrett—Conception—Whisper Not—ECM Keith Jarrett—Time On My Hands—Carnegie Hall Concert—ECM Brad Shepik—Temoin—Places You Go—Songlines John Abercrombie—Round Trip—The Third Quartet—ECM Bob Montgomery/Al Hermann Quintet—Speak Easy—Summit Wayne Escofferey—Looking Ahead—Veneration—Savant Booker Little—Booker’s Blues—And Friend—Bethlehem Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

"Legendary Pioneer of Jazz" NEW ORLEANS (5/8/2007 - The New Orleans Agenda) - Alvin Batiste's body will lie in state for public viewing at the historic Gallier Hall, 545 Saint Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70113 on Friday, May 11, 2007 from 12:00 noon to 7:00 pm, followed by a musical tribute where several New Orleans musicians will perform in memory of the man they called "Bat." Funeral service will be held at Gallier Hall, on Saturday, May 12, 2007 with public visitation from 9:00 am - 10:30 am. Final service begins at 11:00 am, to be followed by a musical procession immediately after the services. Arrangements by Duplain W. Rhodes Funeral Home, 1728 North Claiborne Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70116 (Phone: 504- 943-3422). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jazz a la Carte Saturday, May 5, 2007 Artist—Song Title – Album Title – Record Label 7 a.m. Eastern Time Kurt Elling—I Like the Sunrise—Nightmoves—Concord Bucky Pizzarelli—Down For Double—5 For Freddie—Arbors Count Basie—Blues for Charlie Christian—Mostly Blues…--Pablo Charlie Christian—Breakfast Feud/Gone With What Draft—Genius of the Electric Guitar—Columbia Jazz Datebook Alvin Batiste—Skylark—Honors Series—Marsalis Music Jon Erik Kellso—Way Way Back—A Love Letter to New Orleans—Arbors Duke Ellington—Mood to be Wooed/Black and Tan Fantasy—Centennial—RCA 8 a.m. Glenn Miller Spectacular—Sunrise Serenade—All the Greatest Hits—MPI Bireli Lagrene—Djangology—And the WDR Big Band—Dreyfus Frank Vignola—Nice Work If You Can Get It—Plays Gershwin—Mel Bay Kenny Davern/Ken Peplowski—If Dreams Come True—Dialogues—Arbors Jazz Dateook Miles Davis Quintet—Dear Old Stockholm—Milestones—Columbia Thelonious Monk—Misterioso—Genius of Modern Music—Blue Note Steve Grossman/Harold Land—Vierd Blues—I’m Confessin’—Dreyfus Dizzy Gillespie—Two Bass Hit—Complete—RCA Modern Jazz Quartet—La Ronde Suite—Django—Prestige 9 a.m. Mingus Big Band—Wham Bam—Live in Tokoyo—Sunnyside Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers—Along Came Betty—Moanin’—Blue Note Bob Montgomery/Al Hermann Quintet—Killer Joe—On the Brink—Summit Jazz Datebook Frank Tiberi—Four Brothers—4 Brothers 7—Jazzed Media Allen Eager—The Goof and I—In the Land of Oo-bla-dee—Uptown Woody Herman & His Orchestra—Keen and Peachy—Blowin Up A Storm—Columbia Benny Wallace & His Orchestra—Bean and the Boys—Plays Music of Coleman Hawkins—Justin Time Coleman Hawkins—Rifftide—Hollywood Stampede—Capital Coleman Hawkins—Get Happy—Bean Bags—Atlantic Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

Jazz From Blue Lake Thursday, May 3, 2007 Artist—Song Title – Album Title – Record Label 10 p.m. Eastern Time J.J. Johnson’s Boppers—Blue Mode/Afternoon In Paris—In the Beginning—Prestige Milt Jackson—What’s New/Bag’s Groove—Wizard of the Vibes—Blue Note Charlie Parker—Parker’s Mood—Complete—Savoy Jazz Datebook Charles Tolliver Big Band—Round Midnight—With Love—Mosaic Larry Willis—Blue Fable—Blue Fable—High Note Joe Lovano/Hank Jones – Budo—Kids—Blue Note Music of Thad Jones—Little Pixie—One More—IPO Bob Mintzer—Listen Here—In the Moment—Art Of Life 11 p.m. Dizzy Gillespie—Toccata for Trumpet—Diz N Bird at Carnegie Hall –Blue Note John Lewis—Three Little Feelings—Birth of Third Stream—Columbia Modern Jazz Quartet w.t. N.Y. Chamber Symphony – Three Windows—Three Windows—East West Jazz Datebook Bennie Wallace—Honeysuckle Rose—Disorder at the Border—Justin Time Steve Grossman/Harold Land—Vierd Blues – I’m Confessin’—Dreyfus Enrico Rava—Tutu—The Words and the Days—ECM 12 a.m. John Lewis – I Remember Clifford – The World Of Jazz—Atlantic Modern Jazz Quartet—Confirmation/Round Midnight—Last Concert—Atlantic Wynton Marsalis—Find Me—Plantation to the Penitentiary—Blue Note Joshua Redman—India—Back East—Nonesuch Matt Ray—Central Park West—Lost In New York—CAP Billy Bang Quintet feat. Frank Lowe—At Play In the Fields of the Lord—Above and Beyond: En Evening In Grand Rapids—Justin Time 1 a.m. Modern Jazz Quartet – The Cylinder—European Concert—Koch Modern Jazz Quartet—Django—Django—Prestige John Lewis—Concorde—The Garden of Delight/Delaunay’s Dilemma—Emarcy Gil Evans—Concorde—The Individualism of Gil Evans—Verve Bob Montgomery/Al Hermann Quintet—Killer Joe—On the Brink—Summit Brad Shepik—The South—Places You Go—Songlines Susanne Abbuehl—Black is the Color/Where Flamingos Fly—Compass—ECM Fred Hersch/Michael Moore—Cazona—Jazz at the Concertgebouw—RNW 2 a.m. John Lewis—Afternoon In Paris—Evolution—Atlantic Modern Jazz Quartet—The Hornpipe—Echoes—Pablo John Lewis/Sacha Distel—All The Things You Are—Afternoon In Paris—Koch John Lewis—Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West—Evolution—Atlantic Duke Ellington—The Flaming Sword—Centennial—RCA Modern Jazz Quartet—For Ellington—For Ellington—East West Miles Davis—Budo/Rouge—Complete Birth of the Cool—Capital Miles Davis—When Lights Are Low/Tune Up—The Chronicle—Prestige Dizzy Gillespie—Two Bass Hit—Complete—RCA MJQ—La Ronde—European Concert—Koch MJQ—Woody N You—Together Again--Pablo Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

Jazz From Blue Lake Wednesday, May 2, 2007 Artist—Song Title – Album Title – Record Label 10 p.m. Eastern Time Groove Holmes—Misty—Hammond Heroes—Prestige Groove Holmes—Body and Soul—Get Up and Get It--Prestige Groove Holmes—Night Train—On Basie’s Bandstand--Prestige Jazz Datebook Joshua Redman—I’m An Old Cowhand—Back East—Nonesuch The Bob Montgomery/Al Hermann Quintet—Ladybird—On the Edge-Summit Charlie Parker—Ornithology/Yardbird Suite—Complete—Savoy Frank Foster’s Loud Minority—Joy Spring—Well Water--Piadrum 11 p.m. Groove Holmes—Blues All Day Long—Blues All Day Long—Muse Groove Holmes—Work Song—Spicy—Prestige Groove Holmes—Polkadots and Moonbeams—Hot Tat—Muse Jazz Datebook Wess Anderson—Monk’s Starlight—Live From Blue Lake 2007 Alvin Batiste – Skylark—Honors Series—Marsalis Music Horace Silver—Que Pasa—Song For My Father—Blue Note 12 a.m. Out On Blue Lake Roscoe Mitchell – Ornette – Sound—Delmark Roscoe Mitchell’s Transatlantic Art Ensemble – Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 and 3 –ECM Billy Bang Quintet – Dark Silhouette – Above and Beyond: An Evening In Grand Rapids—Justin Time 2 a.m. Brad Shepik—Temoin—Places You Go—Songlines John Coltrane—Moment’s Notice—The Ultimate Blue Train—Blue Note Turtle Island Quartet – Round Midnight—A Love Supreme—Telarc Groove Holmes—Castle Rock—That Healin’ Feelin’ – Prestige Groove Holmes – Groove’s Blue Groove – Get Up and Get It—Prestige Groove Holmes—Nica’s Dream—On Basie’s Bandstand—Prestige Modern Jazz Quartet—La Ronde Suite—Django—Prestige Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

Jazz From Blue Lake Tuesday, May 1, 2007 Artist—Song Title – Album Title – Record Label 10 p.m. Eastern Time Shirley Horn – You’re Nearer – Here’s To Life—Verve Shirley Horn – The Look of Love – The Main Ingredient—Verve Shirley Horn – It Had To Be You – You Won’t Forget Me—Verve Miles Davis – Well, You Needn’t – Legendary Quintet—Prestige Buck Hill—Prancin’—Relax—Severn The Puppini Sisters—Jeepers Creepers/I Will Survive—Betcha Bottom Dollar—Verve Bireli Lagrene—We Are the Champions/We Will Rock You/It Was A Very Good Year – To Bi or Not To Bi – Dreyfus The Bad Plus – Tam Sawyer – Prog—Heads Up The Glenn Miller Spectacular – Sunrise Serenade/Serenade In Blue – All Time Greatest Hits—MPI Media 11 p.m. Shirley Horn – I’m Old Fashioned—Lazy Afternoon—Steeplechase Shirley Horn – Come Fly With Me – Close Enough For Love—Verve Shirley Horn – If I Had You – All Night Long – Steeplechase Shirley Horn – New York’s My Home/Why Did I Choose You—Lazy Afternoon—Steeplechase Stan Bock – I’ll Remember April—Your Check’s In the Mail—Origin Tommy Newsome—Billie’s Bounce—Friendly Fire—Arbors Carl Allan/Rodney Whitaker—Inner City Blues –Get Ready—Mack Avenue Sachal Vasandani—A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing—Eyes Wide Open—Mack Avenue Thelonious Monk—Round Midnight—Thelonious Himself—OJC 12 a.m. Steve Turre—Thandiwa—Keep Searchin’ – High Note Jackie McLean—Hipnosis—Hipnosis—Blue Note Grachan Moncur—Sonny’s Back!—Exploration—Capri Shirley Horn—Old Country/It’s Easy to Remember – I Love You, Paris—Verve Shirley Horn—My Man’s Gone Now—I Remember Miles—Verve Anat Cohen—No Moon At All—Noir—Anzic 1 a.m. Brad Shepik—Temoin—Places You Go—Songlines John Abercrombie Quartet—Round Trip—The Third Quartet Andrew Hill—Duplicity—Andrew!—Blue Note Scott Colley—Smoke Stack—Architect of the Silent Moment—Sunnyside Nels Cline—Dedication—New Monastery—Cryptogramophone Ornette Coleman—Call to Duty—Sound Grammar—Sound Grammar Allen Lowe—Sound Track Theme from Jews In Hell/I Cam From Nowhere—Jews In Hell—Spaceout Keefe Jackson’s Fast Citizens—Ready Everyday—Ready Everyday—Delmark 2 a.m. Bunky Green—Another Place—Another Place—Label Bleu Bob Montgomery/Al Hermann Quintet—United—On the Brink Mark Sherman—Punjab—Family First—City Hall Steve Grossman/Harold Land—Circus—I’m Confessin’—Dreyfus Shirley Horn—Hit the Road Jack/Georgia—Light Out Of Darkness—Verve Jack Sheldon—Star Eyes—Listen Up—Butterfly Art Pepper—You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To—The Hollywood All Star Sessions--Galaxy Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

Braxton in Jazz Times: http://adlermusic.com/C119771372/E19633070...dia/Braxton.pdf

New Orleans morns the loss of veteran clarinetist Alvin Batiste who passed away in his sleep early Sunday morning, May 6, 2007. Batiste was scheduled to perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival later today. New Orleans morns the loss of veteran clarinetist Alvin Batiste NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans morns the loss of veteran clarinetist Alvin Batiste who passed away in his sleep early Sunday morning, May 6, 2007. Batiste was scheduled to perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival later today. His most current CD; Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste is with Bradford Marsilas and other notable Jazz musicians. It also includes a reading by wife, Mrs. Edith Chatters Batiste. Several well known musicians studied under Alvin Batiste while at Southern University. They include Randy Jackson (American Idol), his brother Herman, Brandford Marsalis, Donald Harrison, Henry Butler, Kent Jordan, Micheal Ward, Herlin Riley, Charlie Singleton (Cameo), Woodie Douglas (Spirit) and others. His Columbia album billed him as a "Legendary Pioneer of Jazz." Alvin Batiste is an avant-garde player who does not fit easily into any classification. Under-recorded throughout his career, Batiste was a childhood friend of Ed Blackwell and he spent time in Los Angeles in 1956 playing with Ornette Coleman. However, Batiste chose the life of an educator in Louisiana where he taught music at Southern University in Baton Rouge where her created the Batiste Jazz Institute and currently at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) where served as lead teacher in jazz instrumental music. Batiste recorded with the AFO ("all for one") quintet in New Orleans, performed with Cannonball Adderley, and toured with Ray Charles in 1958, but was an obscure legend until he made three albums with Clarinet Summit in the 1980s (a quartet also including John Carter, David Murray, and Jimmy Hamilton). Batiste recorded an album, Bayou Magic, in 1988 as a leader for India Navigation and made the 1993 Columbia album Late. Songs, Words and Messages, Connections appeared in 1999, followed by Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste in 2007. Batiste also performs on the Marlon Jordan featuring Stephanie Jordan 2005 CD which was a production of the Jordan-Chatters-Batiste family. Arrangements will be announced onced complete. The New Orleans Agenda newsletter is the leading local alternative for information on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Region. A provider of turnkey Web-Based Internet Marketing Services, we specialize in servicing faith-based entities, community groups, professional organizations, and arts & cultural interest events. Our newsletter have been read by our customers more than 1 million times. Sincerely, Vincent Sylvain The New Orleans Agenda

http://www.okkadisk.com/releases/od12001.html

Up for tonight's special pre-release broadcast. From about 12:05 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. during a special segment of "Out On Blue Lake."

Nate's review: http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine...may_text.html#3

Photos from the concert form page 2, from DSCO 1582: http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e188/tlaquachito/

Violinist Billy Bang's Quintet played The Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts April 28, 2003 and Blue Lake Public Radio hired the sound engineers at Hope College to document the evening. Justin Time Records eventually purchased the files and much of the concert is available on this new CD. These are the final recordings of Frank Lowe. With Andrew Bemkey, piano; Todd Nicholson, bass; and Tatsuya Nakatani, drums. Randy was at the concert.

Terry Teachout's 2 cents: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117770477769485173.html

Kurt Elling sets the poetry of Rumi to that Von Freeman solo on the new Elling CD.

This record will broadcast Out On Blue Lake this Wednesday May 2nd at 12a.m. over www.bluelake.org.

Andy Bey, the singer/pianist? with Cecil Taylor?

And ANOTHER happy birthday to Johnny Griffin!

Ha!

Not that band, per se, but Mats a number of times. Have a great time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.bluelake.org Fair warning -- it is a funder program. Have his new one "Another Place," as well as "In Love Again" with trumpeter Willie Thomas, "Places We've Never Been" with Randy Brecker, Albert Dailey, Eddie Gomez and Freddie Waits, "Healing the Pain" on Delos, as well as a sideman appearance with Travis Shook. The LP's we have but won't be playing tonight include Elivn Jones' "Time Capsule" and Bunky's own "Visions" and "Transformations." From 10 p.m. to midnight. And, no, you don't have to pledge but thought, since there are many Green fans around, you'd want to know. LV

Workornot(nospacesonthiskeyboard,daughterspilledpop)Ornetteisaleaderinandofthemusic

Hip-Hop Is Dead to Him Hypocrisy and lack of flow defeat Marsalis's attack on "safari seekers" and "thug-life coons" by Francis Davis April 16th, 2007 2:11 PM Amid rancorous critical infighting over free jazz in the early '60s, A.B. Spellman lobbed the following rhetorical hand grenade: "What is anti-jazz, and who are these ofays who've appointed themselves guardians of last year's blues?" Along with free's legitimacy as a new form of jazz, at issue was the contention by advocates like Spellman and Amiri Baraka that its screaming saxophones gave vent to growing black impatience with the goal of racial integration as an end in itself. Spellman, the author of Four Lives in the Bebop Business, a polemical oral history that's become a standard college text, was really asking what gave his white colleagues—onlookers to both the struggle for black liberation and the actual making of jazz—the right to decide. The taunt lingers four decades later, only today's self-appointed tradition-keepers aren't ofays. And in lieu of a regular byline, today's most influential jazz critic—the one whose word most shapes public perception of jazz—boasts a trumpet, his own stage at Lincoln Center, and the ear of Ken Burns. Criticism means calling into crisis—that's been Wynton Marsalis's modus operandi since the early '80s, when he first decreed that the avant-garde's excesses and fusion's commercial accommodations were leading jazz astray. Plenty of veteran musicians shared that opinion and had been saying so for years. But their grumbling could be dismissed as an older generation's opposition to change, and it was quoted mostly in the jazz press, then as now a short step away from speaking in private. What granted Marsalis a megaphone was the shock value of hearing the complaint from a brash newcomer. He's held onto it all these years because he's talented, personable, and articulate—but also because working the media is no different from working a crowd, and like the Right since Reagan (by pointing out which I don't mean to tar him with the same brush), Marsalis goes on hammering home his talking points with an outsider's righteous indignation despite having long ago acquired an insider's power. He and his confidant Stanley Crouch may be disciples of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray in matters of music and race, but their pronouncements on both are closer in tenor to vintage Baraka and Spellman—the language of black exceptionalism, this time in support of an essentially conservative aesthetic. By virtue of being so closely identified with jazz—which most kids think of as a safe haven for burned-out swells in suits and ties—the one area in which Marsalis truly remains an outsider is contemporary popular culture. On From the Plantation to the Penitentiary, he branches into social criticism. That's the hype, anyway, though in proselytizing for jazz, when has he ever held back from taking swipes at the infantization of pop and black self-stereotyping in the name of keeping it real? He's just more specific here, making his debut as a lyricist and rapper (the latter thankfully only on the closing "Where Y'All At?") to call out "thug-life coons" and their white "safari seekers," "raggly public schools," rampant materialism, the burgeoning prison industry, '60s radicals who "started like Eldridge and [wound up] like Beaver," and hip-hop's "modern-day minstrels and their songless tunes." I side with Marsalis on most of these issues, and he occasionally evinces a knack for wordplay. But the clunkers far outnumber the stinging rhymes and alliterations, and Penitentiary's worst offense may be wasting the considerable talents of Jennifer Sanon, a young discovery of Marsalis's whose dreamy, behind-the-beat, Peggy Lee-like phrasing deserves lyrics more singable than "I see women dragging/Souls of their womb vanquished dreams/Never to be" and "All you con men can hang up your schemes/Pimps and hustlers/Put up the Vaseline." The latter is from "Love and Broken Hearts," a ballad from the point of view of a woman insistent on being courted and cherished, not just played—in this context, a conceit that might have been better served if Marsalis had interrupted his haranguing and let Sanon show her stuff on "Let's Fall in Love" or another of the great standards she was born to sing. She's simply miscast on the title track, a sodden chant not even Abbey Lincoln or the Sun Ra Arkestra's June Tyson could've raised. Instrumentally, though, it moves along nicely as it segues from 6/4 to 6/8 for solos by Marsalis, saxophonist Walter Blanding, and pianist Don Nimmer, with Carlos Henriquez's nimble bass ostinato supplying the common thread. Sanon aside, the saving grace throughout is Marsalis's gift for melody and orchestration. "Doin' (Y)our Thing" is instrumental from start to finish, its corker of a trumpet solo reminding us what sparks Marsalis can light when he's not out to make a point. The whole thing becomes embarrassing only on "Where Y'All At?," when ego escalates into hubris and Marsalis tries to beat "big baggy-pants wearers with the long white T-shirts" at their own game. "They're rapping straight in the time," he criticizes the hip-hop his teenage sons listen to in a recent JazzTimes Q&A. "I told them, 'I'm gonna come up with a rap that goes all across the time.' " When I interviewed him years ago, around the time he was still being accused of copying '60s Miles, Marsalis replied it might sound that way to someone who didn't listen to much jazz, the same way all string quartets might sound alike to someone who hadn't heard very many. I take it from "Where Y'All At?" that Marsalis hasn't heard much recent hip-hop. Neither have I, but I've heard enough to know it's become a producer's medium—the polyrhythmic tension comes from the way the rhymes move in and out of the samples and the abrasive string arrangements. A New Orleans shuffle and a chorus refrain worthy of a junior high school assembly sing-along prove to be no substitutes, Marsalis comes off sounding like a cranky grandpa, and the entire exercise reeks of misguided noblesse oblige—an attempt to "improve" hip-hop by means of better musicianship and high-minded ideals. Even before reading Marsalis say in JazzTimes that "Supercapitalism" was inspired by ATM fees and hidden charges on his credit card bill, I found myself thinking someone featured in Movado watches was on shaky ground dissing anybody else for wanting to live large. But Penitentiary's drawback as social criticism isn't just its hypocrisy in omitting Marsalis's own penthouse from the alliterative equation. This is a protest album staunch Republicans could get behind, inasmuch as it preaches the gospel of personal responsibility as the only foolproof way out of poverty and degradation: "Don't turn up your nose/It's us that's stinkin'," Marsalis rants on "Where Y'All At?," "And it all can't be blamed on the party of Lincoln." "No Vietcong ever called me nigger," Muhammad Ali famously proclaimed while resisting military induction in the '60s. Marsalis's message to black youth often seems to be "No white man ever called me nigga," and while it's a message not without merit, it's simply not enough. I'm not saying go back to blaming Whitey, but don't let him wiggle off the hook, either.