mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) (12/14/84)
Wynton Marsalis is probably as close as we are going to get to a popular
jazz superstar. After all, how many jazz musician have been advertised in
the Sunday New York Times Magazine section? Marsalis seems to be settling
in a role as the supreme stylist, the man capable of doing anything to the
trumpet. His classical albums are giving him a legitimacy (why must that be?
but that's another debate) unprecedented since Benny Goodman's similar
classical forays of forty years ago. Yet Marsalis has yet to establish his
own identity as a trumpeter. One clear example is his inability to inject
himself into a ballad. His version of "Round Midnight" is a carbon copy of
Miles', but Wynton blows too hard, and winds up shattering the tension
inherent in the tune. His recent album "Hot House Flowers", while a valiant
attempt, also fails to dominate the genre. He plays pretty, beautifully indeed,
but not memorably. None of those ballads is from now on identified with
Marsalis, the way "It never entered my mind" is associated with Miles, or
"Warm Valley" with Harry Carney, or "Blue Light" with Ben Webster, etc.
There is, however, a lot to be admired about Marsalis. He has, in the
face of what must be enormous pressures from Columbia, refused to
take the easy , fusion way out, a la George Duke/Crusaders/Stanley Clarke/
Bob James/etc. He presents himself as an impeccable role model for young
would-be musicians He is an articulate, opinionated spokesman for jazz and a
wonderful entertainer. I guess that to expect him to be the next Ornette Coleman
on top of all that is a bit too much. And yet...
Marcel Simon {ihnp4!allegra}!mhuxr!mfs
"Jazz can be defined in one word: listen" Jon Hendricks