Wynton Marsalis : Magic Hour

[Dr. Rat]

Disclosure: I own no WM albums, I've never been able to relate to his music: there's always been a coldness and impersonality to it to my ears. I did like the Marciac Suite -- things seemed to be warming up a bit.

I've got the entire release the other day for the station, and I have to say, it's pretty good.

No saxophone player, which I think is a good decision. Piano, drums, bass manned by the ususal strong younger players: Eric Lewis, Ali Jackson, Carlos Henriquez, respectively. All have recognizable personalities.

The album starts with a slow blues with Dianne Reeves singing (and she can sing) and the low-key approach predominates until the last, title track.

There are lots of simple-sounding melodies here, and a wistful, reminiscining-about-childhood feeling to the proceedings. A lot of this feel seems to eminate from the pianist, Eric Lewis, who at times puts me in mind of Vince Guaraldi, not someone I ever thought I'd be reminded of on a WM recording.

Relatively lightweight in both intention and actuality, which I take to be a positive step for Marsalis. While there's still a certain reserve to the music I recognize from before, but this at least sounds personal rather than (how I'd characterize a lot of earlier recordings) "official."

The last title track is a series of episodes--some of which sound like good little grooves that should have been developed, others like opportunities for WM to show off some aspect of his playing. A disappointing ending to the album.

--eric

Edited March 8, 2004 by Dr. Rat

[Ed S]

Thanks for posting that review. I pre-ordered this disc from CD Universe along with a few others coming out next week but was having second thoughts and was going to cancel. I think I'll give it a shot and see what I think.

[montg]

Richard Cook reviewed it this month in Jazz Review. Your review makes some of the same points he makes--maybe it's time to start your own Penguin guide

Some quotes: "As Wynton projects go, this one is surprisingly low-key, without frills or lofty aspirations...he's having fun"

The title track: "strange, 13 minute title track, which consists of a series of skimpily-linked episodes where Wynton actually sounds like Lester Bowie some of the time"

[Dr. Rat]

Richard Cook reviewed it this month in Jazz Review. Your review makes some of the same points he makes--maybe it's time to start your own Penguin guide

Some quotes: "As Wynton projects go, this one is surprisingly low-key, without frills or lofty aspirations...he's having fun"

The title track: "strange, 13 minute title track, which consists of a series of skimpily-linked episodes where Wynton actually sounds like Lester Bowie some of the time"

I've often thought it might be useful to get an internet review database going in a knowledgable group such as this one.

There can be contrasting views and some give and take, the space is infinite to preserve OOP recordings that may be found used, etc., etc.

I've always liked the Penguin guide, though I've disageed with it pointedly (I am no fan of a lot of the AG stuff they (or one of them) loves, and the prejudice against humor (which I love) was pretty apparent in the first edition), but I've also always thought it could be done a lot better.

Scott Yanow over at AMG does an OK job, but he has a lot of collector's prejudices (e.g., completism) which I have little patience for and a lot of his reviews seem perfunctory, but I don't envy him. It's amazing how difficult it can get to say something sensible and useful about music when you are called upon to do it every day.

I can imagine dancing about architecture, but dancing about it day after day! sheesh.

But give & take with interesting interlocutors really helps.

--eric

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Village Voice this week:

They're miles ahead of the competition, and the hip thing should be to dig both of them

Mr. Uptown And Mr. Downtown

by Francis Davis

March 3 - 9, 2004

Dave Douglas

Strange Liberation

Bluebird

Wynton Marsalis

The Magic Hour

Blue Note

A year ago I played Dave Douglas's 2001 The Infinite for two friends, an avant-garde percussionist and a West Coast composer and performance artist, both of whom prefer boundary-stretching jazz to the likes of Wynton Marsalis, at whose name they practically sneered. Though they liked it, they professed to hear nothing experimental in Douglas, who sounded to them as conventional as Marsalis —just semi-electric and a touch edgier.

Douglas and Marsalis are usually seen as epitomizing not just opposing temperaments, as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie once were, but irreconcilable philosophies of jazz. Although Douglas has succeeded in staying above the fray, the two have been waging a grotesque parody of a trumpet battle, through surrogates in print rather than on the bandstand. But maybe my friends were noticing something insiders have missed—without kissing electronica and Balkan polyrhythms goodbye, Douglas has been flirting with the mainstream since forming his quintet with Chris Potter on saxophones and Uri Caine on keyboards. Like Marsalis, he was an impressionable teenager during that null period in the 1970s when Miles Davis dominated jazz in absentia, and in the same way that Marsalis's Black Codessounded like the Miles LP that should have come after Nefertiti, Douglas's newStrange Liberation puzzles over Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro, where Davis first braved electric instruments and the doubled-up rhythms of progressive rock.

But unlike Marsalis's early LPs, Strange Liberation never sounds merely imitative. Douglas and Potter venture further away from Davis and Wayne Shorter than Wynton and Branford did, and Douglas has the edge as a composer. In effect, the album is a showcase for added starter Bill Frisell, whose guitar slashes and burns the way it used to with Power Tools and Naked City but rarely does anymore with his own bands. Minus Frisell at the Village Vanguard last month, these pieces were no less potent. Douglas has absorbed the lessons of the 1980s, in particular Henry Threadgill's strategy of unfolding theme and improvisations simultaneously before merging them into something unlike either. Just so in the title number, on the CD and even more at the Vanguard, where the tune began suspensefully, with a nearly tempo-less soliloquy by Caine on Fender Rhodes. The set's highlight, as on the CD, was a loping variant on "Blue Monk" called "Skeeter-ism," which was savvy jazz criticism as well as great jazz, capturing what was so wonderful about Monk by isolating his shambling rhythms from his shambolic intervals.

As for Marsalis, his canon-keeping duties at Lincoln Center occasionally tempt him into interpreting music at odds with his own sensibility. Ornette Coleman was overdue for a tribute, but when his turn finally arrived at Alice Tully Hall last month, there could have been a banner above Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra reading, "This is not our music." The arrangements of Coleman classics from the early 1960s, most of them by Marsalis or saxophonist Ted Nash, tethered harmolodics to a metronome and a tuning fork. Coleman was in the audience, but audible in the music only whenever Herlin Riley resourcefully evoked Ed Blackwell's tom-toms and on the few numbers where guest soloist Dewey Redman offered a bit of Ornette-like keening.

What makes Coleman all wrong for Marsalis is that his own music has no dark corners or slippery edges; how could it, given his dogmatic insistence that the essence of jazz is celebration? Fortunately, his reputation is unlikely to rest on misadventures like the Coleman tribute. You'll have to visit Brooks Brothers to purchase the full-length promotional CD Plays the Music of Duke Ellington, but the repertoire alone makes the humiliation worth it—the focus is on underperformed Ellingtonia such as "Almost Cried," from his score for Anatomy of a Murder, and "The Shepherd (Who Watches Over the Night Flock)," from hisSecond Sacred Concert. Marsalis solos only on two of the 13 tracks, even leaving growling honors to Ryan Kizor on "Concerto for Cootie." But nobody else active today knows this material as intimately as Marsalis, and the band's performances are infused with his spirit.

On The Magic Hour, his much anticipated first release for Blue Note, featuring just Marsalis and a rhythm section, plus cameos by singers Dianne Reeves (delightful) and Bobby McFerrin (humdrum), Marsalis reminds us of what all the fuss was about when we first heard him with Art Blakey in 1980. All the compositions are his, and some don't amount to very much: The New Orleans-syncopated "Big Fat Hen" runs a choice Carlos Henriquez bass vamp into the ground, and the programmatic title track, which supposedly depicts children at play just before bedtime and their parents breathing a sigh of relief (and getting it on?) once they're tucked in, is a little too Leroy Anderson (unless the shriller episodes are Marsalis's idea of avant-garde). All of this hardly matters, because Marsalis's solos dart with invention, and when he conjures Miles's balladry on "Sophie Rose-Rosalee," he does so briefly and knowingly, as if inviting us to measure how far he's come. No new ground is broken here, even for Marsalis. But to reject on general aesthetic principle solos as wistful and vivacious as he turns in on "You and Me" or as deliciously salty as the one he uncorks alongside McFerrin on "Baby, I Love You"—well, that would be evidence of a mind as closed as Wynton's often appears to be.

Edited March 4, 2004 by Man with the Golden Arm

[John L]

A lot of this feel seems to eminate from the pianist, Eric Lewis, who at times puts me in mind of Vince Guaraldi, not someone I ever thought I'd be reminded of on a WM recording.

If Eric Lewis got together with John Reed for 10 days, I bet that would really shake the jazz world.

[Dr. Rat]

A lot of this feel seems to eminate from the pianist, Eric Lewis, who at times puts me in mind of Vince Guaraldi, not someone I ever thought I'd be reminded of on a WM recording.

If Eric Lewis got together with John Reed for 10 days, I bet that would really shake the jazz world.

Whoops, should have been Lewis throughout. I fixed it!

Easy to do since Reed did that Christmas album, and I was talking about Guaraldi . . .

--eric

Edited March 8, 2004 by Dr. Rat

[montg]

Wynton's Magic Hour received a positive review in the Sunday Chicago Tribune by Howard Reich. And, I just noticed it's out of the gate today ranked as the 38th biggest seller on Amazon--pretty rarified air for jazz. I haven't bought this, but from a business/pr standpoint, signing Wynton is looking like a good move for Blue Note.

Hey Blue Note, how about a Wynton dividend--sign Jeremy Pelt!

[Christiern]

I have now heard it. Quite honestly, it has pleasant moments, but it is mostly uneventful and there is not a single chorus of excitement. The two vocals add nothing except to link a couple of BN artists to Wynton. The Bobby Ferrin track is particularly boring, and I guess that term sums up this whole effort for me.

I have not found much of interest in Wynton's earlier music, although some of his work with Blakey was certainly promising--he simply has not progressed, on the contrary. I have heard his supporters blame Columbia for Wynton's failures to rise to a musical level commensurate with his PR (although they will never admit that he hasn't)--the new BN, they said, would really show how great he is when in the right environment. Well, if 33 albums is insufficient opportunity to express what's in you, I could not see why a 34th should make any difference--imo, it doesn't.

[GregK]

anything with bobby mcferrin will keep me miles away from it

[Joe M]

I know it's not going to win over any of his detractors, but while I haven't cared much for the big "productions" he's done, I like this one, it's a fun cd. I think it's the kind of album he should be making at this point, and should have been making for a long time, but, like I said, Wynton haters aren't going to be won over by anything.

[Eric]

Well, if 33 albums is insufficient opportunity to express what's in you, I could not see why a 34th should make any difference--imo, it doesn't.

Amen. I really enjoy "Black Codes" and the live record from Blues Alley, but after that it got a little stiff for me. "Citi Movement" has a bunch of nice moments, but his trumpet playing has not moved me in 15+ years.

I certainly don't hate the guy or his music, but it really does not move me. And it isn't just Wynton - there are a lot of folks who seem to be playing it safe. Fortunately there are 5X more who are not and those are the folks I seek out.

Eric

[ADR]

This cd is currently available for listening to in its entirety for free in Quicktime streaming format at the jazzonline web site: jazzonline

I agree with the Ben Ratliff of the NYT who said in his review that the album is pretty good with the exception of the two vocal tracks, which seem like concessions.

I don't think I'll be buying the album - but it was nice to get to check it out online for free.

ADR

Edited March 10, 2004 by ADR

[Christiern]

Ben Ratliff rarely if ever hears the flaws in Wynton's recordings--he is clearly biased in WM's favor.

[Dan Gould]

Ben Ratliff rarely if ever hears the flaws in Wynton's recordings--he is clearly biased in WM's favor.

Oh, and all your disappointment and disgust hasn't colored your view, Chris? 34 failed LPs haven't made you slightly biased against Wynton? After everything you've said about him and his music and everything else, I have a hard time believing that you listen to every new release with completely fresh ears.

[RDK]

It's times like this- the release of a new WM album, for instance - that I really miss Hardbop.

[Christiern]

"Oh, and all your disappointment and disgust hasn't colored your view, Chris?"

• My view is based upon what I hear, and it is not always negative, but in the case of Wynton, I do take into account the fact that he has recorded prolifically and had more opportunities to prove himself as a musicians than most musicians ever get. This was not the case when I first reviewed his performances, so I built up my hopes on the basis of what I heard--it was quite promising.
  
  Since then, Wynton's output has been extremely uneven, ranging from truly bad performances to fairly good ones--I say "fairly" good, because I have yet to hear him give a performance that knocks me out.
  

"34 failed LPs haven't made you slightly biased against Wynton?"

• That many albums, most of which are insignificant, musically, and none of which is outstanding, simply underscores my feeling that Wynton is the most over-rated musician on the jazz scene. That may be construed as a bias, but it is nothing more than my opinion, formulated by many years of listening and watching musicians develop from good to extraordinary
  

" After everything you've said about him and his music and everything else, I have a hard time believing that you listen to every new release with completely fresh ears."

• None of us listen with completely fresh ears, at least not after 50 years. Having that yardstick (listening experience) gives one a better perspective. IMO, Wynton has been on a idiomatic treadmill and he has all the emotion of Xerox machine--or Kenny G (take your pick).
  
  Would I like to hear him do something great? Of course I would, but I thought it was naïve to think that a mere change of label was going to give him a quality that has been missing from his 33 previous releases.
  

[PHILLYQ]

Do we really need a paean to 'The Great One' that doesn't mention Jackie Gleason?

Hardbop has been too busy hanging out with Chris A. & Stanley Grouch, quaffing a few and roving around NYC, beating up electric bass players & threatening Fender Rhodes players.

[Christiern]

Who is this "hardbop"?

[Big Al]

It's times like this- the release of a new WM album, for instance - that I really miss Hardbop.

Was he ever here? I'm pretty sure he's never posted here, and the board's been all the better for it.

[RDK]

I think he was here for a while - but wasn't he banned or something? Really, though, it was a rhetorical, intended-to-be-humorous statement. Not that I'd object to him posting here, but I don't really miss him...

[PHILLYQ]

Chris a,

Hardbop= Heaney, your favorite reviewer..

[Christiern]

Ohhhhhhhhhh

[PHILLYQ]

[jazzypaul]

Chris...

34 failed albums? That might be a little harsh, my man. His debut was great (especially the tracks with Tony/Ron/Herbie), and Black Codes is hands down one of the best jazz albums of the 80's. Let's not forget about In This House, On This Morning, either, which is a truly great album. Fine, he's not Freddie Hubbard, he's not Lee Morgan, and he's not Charles Tolliver. But who is? Musically speaking, no, he's not the messiah that Heaney makes him out to be...but he's far from the hack that you make him out to be as well, Chris.

As for the new one, there are a couple of shining moments on the album, but the vocals are a yawn, and the tune with all of the clapping...it's lame after about 20 seconds. Wynton's attempt at some avant-gardisms doesn't really fly either, which is odd when you consider how far he was willing to stretch in his earlier years.

All I'm saying is that he's deserving of some recognition. And at least he has some ambition, which is far more than I can say for many, many, many people in the world.