Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 19, 1993 TAG: 9311190107
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his Septet played to a sold-out Preston Hall at Radford University on Thursday night. "We're here tonight solely for the purpose of swinging as much as possible, as hard as possible, for as long as possible," announced Marsalis to the standing-room-only crowd.
A Radford University official said that "between 300 and 400" disappointed jazz fans were unable to get seats. The ones who did liked what they heard.
"Tight" sums it up pretty nicely. The Marsalis unit came ready to swing, and they were tight and well-rehearsed. The program included much material from the trumpeter's hit albums of the past decade, focusing in the first half on more progressive tunes.
The Preston Hall crowd was clearly impressed by the more complex material, but it was the traditional jazz that earned the biggest applause.
The band included all the players Marsalis has been recording and touring with over the past year or so with the exception of tenor sax man Walter Blanding. He was replaced by Victor Goins, who frequently doubled on clarinet.
Marsalis may be at his peak now as a trumpeter. He long ago reached the point at which the instrument seemingly presented no more technical obstacles to him. Now, as far as mere mortals can tell, any musical idea that occurs to him issues flawlessly from the bell of his horn.
He has a big, round tone that's purer and warmer than any other jazz trumpeter's playing today. His classic purity of tone may turn off fans who prefer a more gutbucket style of playing, but it's what seemed to please his fans Thursday night, who screamed with delight when he nailed the high notes.
The band kicked off the first half with "Black Codes from the Underground," moving quickly on to Thelonius Monk's "For Break's Sake." Both these vehicles, as well as "Knozz-Moe-King," were tight, fast, angular, complex and difficult.
"The Superb Starling" featured a wailing duet between Victor Goins on tenor and Wes Anderson on alto. Anderson has an almost unbelievably fluid improvisational style and plays with equal facility on alto, soprano and sopranino sax. The little sopranino ("What is that thing?" several fans were heard to ask) looks like a shiny, stubby clarinet and, in Anderson's hands, was a beautifully expressive horn.
Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon turned in a bluesy rendition of "Danny Boy" with pianist Eric Reed that earned yells of approval.
The band ended the first half of the concert with "The Uptown Ruler," a number that began with tambourine and New Orleans shouts and featured some beautiful work with a hat mute by Marsalis.
After a half-hour intermission, the group returned with its impression of a New Orleans funeral, a medley of "The Death of Jazz" and "Happy Feet." Bassist Reginal Veal played with a bow, Marsalis uttered his bluesiest notes of the night, and Gordon took a long trombone solo using the bottom of a bathroom plunger as a mute.
This was the kind of music the Preston Hall crowd came to hear, and it got the loudest applause to that point in the concert. A beautiful duet between Goins on clarinet and Anderson on sopranino, followed by a long bowed bass ride, brought down the house.
The Septet returned to progressive music immediately, though, with Monk's "Bright Mississippi." This tune is based on the chord changes to "Sweet Georgia Brown," though once past the head you had to listen closely to tell. Despite that fact, there was almost nothing that Marsalis and the Septet did that didn't earn loud applause in what may have been the best jazz concert of the year thus far.
Seth Williamson produces news features and a weekday afternoon classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.
by CNB