[Dixielandjazz] Wynton Marsalis going back to danceable jazz again...

[david richoux]

What was that about "Goin' around and Comin' around again?"


 From Saturday's San Jose Mercury News:


> Marsalis' quintet can't be beat at giving jazz its dance groove
>
> By Richard Scheinin
> Mercury News
>
> A lot of young jazz players are busy incorporating dance rhythms into  
> their music, trying to give jazz back the social function it once had.  
> This is the music's new vanguard, we hear.
>
> But 42-year-old Wynton Marsalis, constantly criticized for being a  
> musical reactionary, is doing the same thing, and he's doing it better  
> than anyone else. His new quintet, which appeared Wednesday at Santa  
> Cruz's Kuumbwa Jazz Center, excels at shimmying grooves: shuffles,  
> slides and Second Line parade rhythms from New Orleans. The rhythms  
> frame the songs, and the songs delineate the rhythms.
>
> It's boiled-down music -- concise, relaxed, explosive when it needs to  
> be -- and would sound great at a summer barbecue. It's also hugely  
> sophisticated music, in terms of the ``art'' hidden inside the  
> down-home grooves. And where did the idea come from, that Marsalis'  
> playing is soulless? When he slowed things down and played  
> ``Skylark,'' the old standard, it was exquisite. Time stopped, then  
> Marsalis wrapped the tune up with a flourish straight out of Clifford  
> Brown.
>
snip


The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/music/ 
8959707.htm

Dave Richoux