Live at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and the New York
April 8. 1999 New York, New York
Lincoln Center the most
prestigious place in music in our town
had another night of music
featuring the tunes of Duke Ellington
and the Lincoln Center
Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis as its
musical director and
arranger.
What a night of music
with everybody dressed up in their best
outfits, It made the
New York Philharmonic look more human,
almost happy, than just a
group of serious musicians playing
their hearts out. The
dress of the orchestra was a happy change
for me anyway.
This brings up the
concept, if the public would ever stop using
music for social events
and really learn to enjoy it or
understand it more. It is
a nice thought and something the public
should take into
considerations. Readers take some time and think
about how one should
listen to music. It is a very abstract
subject and it comes down
to knowledge and learning. But I have
come across learned people
who have completely different views
about what I would believe
about music. So the subjective state
of music is a large open
space idea waiting to be discovered. So
writing a review about an
artist can be objective and subjective
at the same time.
Do people go to the
concert to be there or to enjoy the music?
Anyway the church threw
serious music out of their services a
few centuries ago so the
musician moved over to the concert hall
to pay their tribute to
God. The music at Lincoln Center was
this traditional
transformation forced on by the contradiction
between the mass and the
power of music. The joy of music this
evening was apparent with
the mixing of races, customs,
harmonies, rhythms,
orchestrations and themes.
This has been the
wonderful thing about jazz that the serious but
informal nature of the
music brings about changes that would
normally never take
place. The work of Benny Goodman, Stan
Kenton, Woody Herman,
Count Basie, Jerry Mulligan, Duke
Ellington, Maynard
Ferguson all were there last night, not in
name, but in their spirit
of their own music and contribution to
jazz history. Now if
we could only have a jazz orchestra in each
city in our country
promoting different jazz artists from
different areas of music
would really be a wonderful idea. Wynton
has chosen to promote Duke
Ellington, but let us not forget the
many other artists who
contributed to our jazz legacy. To me it
is like the Met promoting
one composer throughout their hold
season. This is one
of the big problems in music is the
functional aspect of the
performance and the presentation. There
is so much to chose from
and not many opportunities to present
music. And for
Wynton to concentrate so much effort on
Ellington, no matter how
deserved, is doing injustice to the
music and our culture. But
when art is ruled my money and not art
how can it be any
different. Since the many artists and business
community are so tuned to
the public and not to the music.
It is such a shame that
the management aspects of music are so
much more powerful than
the artistic possibilities in music.
Last night's concert made
me think what is jazz anyway and what
is Wynton trying to
accomplish with his orchestral work with big-
band? Does a
big-band need an orchestra is my question? I
suppose you could have
many different view points about this. My
disappointment was that
one could not hear the big-band as a
separate unit, it was so
blended in with the orchestra. Was this
jazz? Was this movie
music? Was this classical music? I believe
it was all of the above.
It certainly was not a new form of
music. I personally
would have loved to hear more jazz. Or was
it another attempt at
classical jazz like Paul Whitman and
Gershwin promoted in the
30's. In a painting there usually is
one central idea and so
much mixing.
I have been waiting for
Wynton to come out and be his own artist
to play his own music and
be his own composer. He keeps falling
back on his heros and
living off their legacy. Mr. Marsalis is
such a wonderful musician
and has such great knowledge of music
in both classical music
and jazz music. I have always thought
that he was a better
instrumentalist in classical music. When he
plays jazz he always seems
to be lost in the idiom searching for
who he is and what he
stands for. If he plays another one of
those plunger solos over
the bell I'll die. What ever happened
to the melodic line that
was so wonderful from people like Chet
Baker.
My object today is not
to go over every note of the concert, but
to come up with a jazz
concert concept that would let
improvisation be a strong
part of the performance and not just
short token solos. Or
should we call it a classical concert with
a few parts of jazz
included. Jazz solos are always being
covered up by formal
composing and arranging. Wynton is always
stating how he is a jazz
artist. Well Wynton lets hear some hard
core jazz or is this just
another job bringing a certain level of
entertainment jazz to the
upper class that attends Lincoln
Center? Yes give the
public something of what they like, but
open up their hearts and
minds to some new music too.
What was exciting about
the concert was the orchestra's blending
of the harmonies from some
of the chord textures that were
presented.
Though the rhythm was the weakest aspect of the
concert. Jazz is
suppose to be rhythm and not melody or harmony.
Last night was a festival
of melody, orchestrations, and
different concepts of
harmonic effects. However, because Wynton
is a trumpet player the
orchestrating would be the most important
aspect of his arranging
where as a drummers or piano players were
arranging it the blending
would be accented with more rhythm and
not much melody. The
orchestrations were the most exciting part
of the concert for me.
Bernstein had a lot of orchestrators work
on some his music I
wondered if Wynton did it alone? Not having a
program I do not know. Was
this concert in the tradition of
classical jazz concert
music or was it a jazzy Broadway Show
style concert. In this day
of marketing concepts I can only ask
this question and also for
jazz and its history. Remember the
Stan Kenton Classical Jazz
Concert it wrote. I thought it was
very exciting concert jazz
music with a jazz sound. What I am
trying to say let jazz
live, let improvisation live, let's follow
jazz in an improvisation
context too. This is what was left out!
What was it? Well,
what to say about the concert last night, it
was the same as with all
of Wynton's concerts ,Wynton" give up
your heros and spend some
time presenting yourself to the public
or present other artist
who have their ideas about creative
music." Jazz as
far as I know is a creative art form more than
it is an interpretive form
with most classical musicians. I am
always looking and waiting
for Wynton to come out and introduce
the real Wynton to us.
Greg
Waters (Home Page)
Music Critic
Copy Rights Reserved April
8, 1999