pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news

Well, I got into Wynton Marsalis from Ken Burns’ (long ass) JAZZ documentary.  I had heard of him, but never really heard him, and he was featured heavily in the movie.  I came to find out that he was the artistic director & co-producer of the documentary series.  Anyway, I love trumpet (Dave Douglas & Steven Bernstein being top of my other Top 3 living trumpeters).  This year, I’ve had a chance to see all three of them… Yay!

I like the Hult.  I saw Wynton’s brother Branford at the Hult around this time last year.  I like the Hult this week in particular (due to it being a 4 concert week): I like that the show started early (7:30pm), ended on time (9:25pm), and I got home at a reasonable time.  Double Yay!

Wynton and his near-double octet hit the stage after a short introduction.  Wynton was position at the top center of the bandstand and went directly into announcing the first song…

Setlist:

1st set – 40 mins

• Free for All (Art Blakey) *a fave of night*
• Peace (Horace Silver)
• I Like to Take My Time (Mr Rogers)
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Up from Down (Gardner) *a fave of night*

2nd set – 45 mins

• Weary Blues (sextet band, ragtime tune) *a fave of night*
• Joe Turner’s Blues (septet, Wynton sang impromptu)
• Tattooed Bride (Duke Ellington)
• Portrait of Mahalia Jackson (Duke) *a fave of night*

The first set started off with “Free for All” which had some great solos… sax, trombone and trumpet.  The entire night was filled with some great solos, and “Free for All” kicked it off right.  For the second set we moved to some open seats near the center… right by the very energetic soundman.  He was humorous.  While I dug the first set a lot, the second set was smokin’ hot.  More ragtime and New Orleans street jazz in spots versus the more held back, big band vibe from the first set.  The first two songs of the second set were a stripped down cast (sextet and the septet before the rest of the band re-joined them for the Duke tunes.  I think my favorite tune of the whole night was “Weary Blues, ” which was really hoppin’.  Seem ironic that the entire crowd (of largely white hair) was just idly sitting in their seats. :)

All in all, a great evening of great jazz.

The Appropriate Linkage:

• Wynton Marsalis’ Official Site
• Wynton Marsalis on MySpace
• The Hult Center
  

~Dan – np: Fima Ephron – Soul Machine