Volume 6 Squared. Mr. Jelly Lord is cleverly Volume 6 in two different collections. It is Volume 6 in Marsalis’ continuing survey of the American Canon of standard tunes and it is also Volume 6 in his ambitious “Swinging into the Twenty-first Century” Series, slated for a total of 8 volumes. That is almost too cute. In fact, it would be too cute if this were not Marsalis’ greatest contribution to the digital gods.

What Music! Mr. Jelly Lord is as perfect a statement as anything Marsalis has committed to tape. Marsalis may be a great Ellingtonian, but he is a sublime interpreter of Jelly Roll Morton. Marsalis has a telepathic, light speed empathy with this music. He deftly mixes the old and the new with this music, somehow making the music move from myth to legend (Check out that swinging bridge in “Red Hot Pepper”). Marsalis’ arrangements are crystalline and delicate, yet durable and exciting. Breathtaking performance.

The Usual Suspects. Marsalis has many of his usual bandmates, many from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson provides his able alto saxophone with the ubiquitous Victor Goines providing his plethora of reeds. Again, Marsalis is licorice-stick heavy, having added Professor Michael White to the clarinet of Goines. The extraordinarily fine Wycliffe Gordon plays trombone, tuba and even trumpet on “Red Hot Pepper”. The aforementioned Dr. White shines brightly incandescent on “Deep Creek.” “Mamanita” is a vehicle for the amply talented Danilo Perez. “Sidewalk Blues” has an almost Vaudeville feel with its campy introduction.

Not Enough… …Can be said for this recording. I have often been critical to Marsalis’ mechanical and academic homage-paying to jazz, but this recording is as near a perfect and genuinely heartfelt performance as I have heard. Like Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic playing Beethoven, so Marsalis playing Morton. Bravo!