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Album Review
by SaschaS
31-3-2004
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| Wynton Marsalis Quartet's 'Magic Hour' |
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Wynton Marsalis Quartet: 'The Magic Hour'
(Blue Note)
Wynton Marsalis Quartet - classy jazz, if you dare
Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Jamie Callum… Is this the jazz they are singing? There is sizeable congregation in the purists’ church of the genre to whom they are anathema, the ones who decree their fans as mere musical tourists who would run screaming from Charlie 'Bird' Parker or Miles Davis or Wynton Marsalis Quartet.
The group that bothers the pop charts sounds cosy and comfortable in their ‘smooth jazz’ or ‘jazz-lite’ forms. That is not to say that the subject of our review, the Marsalis Quartet, is not ‘smooth’ but ‘lite’ it certainly - isn’t. This is the traditional jazz, the one employing parlaying the time-honoured idiom, the language and the spirit of the legends. But, we hasten to add, without getting nostalgic about it and being as fresh as spring flowers.
And, Wynton is a tower of a musician with an imposing track record: in 1980 he signed to Columbia, an association resulting in 33 jazz and 11 classical albums that earned him nine Grammy Awards; he is the first jazzman to be the recipient of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in Music (for his 1997 recording ‘Blood on the Fields’). The Artistic Director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center is also an International ambassador of goodwill and a UN Messenger of Peace.
The trumpeter, bandleader and composer has switched labels after 20 years to record an album that befits his reputation of the international jazz statesman. Wynton’s quartet - pianist Eric Lewis, bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Ali Jackson - are augmented by two special guests, label maters Dianne Reeves and Bobby McFerrin.
The album opens with ‘Feeling of Jazz’ with Ms Reeves’ singing “jazz lifts my soul” anthem, McFerrin [best known for ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ 1988 hit] delivers ‘Baby, I Love You’, with “freedom of Louis Armstrong”, is Marsalis’s verdict. The other six compositions are instrumentals that take you by the hand - wherever your imagination lets you to.
Be it a ‘jukebox joint’ of the prohibition era, outer rims of Saturn or caving in Mexico, holidaying in a harem or a soldiers’ communal shower-room … There are no limitations and you are allowed to fly your fancy to the extremes of your imagination. As one title proclaims - ‘Free To Be’.
‘The Magic Hour’ of the title is, Marsalis has explained, “For kids, the one before they go to bed; for the parents, the one hour after the kids go to sleep.” We’ve always believed it to be what Spanish call - Madrugada, the hour of daily rebirth. And, this could well be its sonic reflection…
‘The Magic Hour’ is 61 mins and 10 secs of stimuli: highly emotive, soul elevating and brain-box invigorating…
8/10
SaschaS
31-3-2004
Wynton Marsalis Quartet’s album ‘The Magic Hour’ is available now on Blue Note
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