By Walter Price
Whatever you do, don't touch this guy with anything electrical! If Kenny G.
is the poster child of smooth music, then Wynton has to be the poster child of
"straight ahead-classical" jazz. Unlike Kenny, many jazz fans know Wynton
has the chops as a trumpet player. Thin of One, Black Codes, Blues Alley,
Think of One, Soul Gestures 1-3, and J-Mood are great contemporary jazz
albums. His sound and tone are almost perfect.
Now the bad news.
Wynton in a way like Kenny G. has been, and is, overexposed
in the jazz world. And we know as soon as one gets popular or in, here comes
the criticisms of "he isn't all that." He has been castigated and
characterized as Stanley Crouch's puppet, an arrogant prima donna, a Louis
Armstrong wannabe, a Lincoln Center Nazi, and a close-minded twit.
There is no doubt Wynton is a master trumpet player, just check out the above
titles. Personally all those forays into classical, gospel, opera or whatever
are not my cup of tea, but Wynton has paid his dues to get into some artistic
exploration. My big problem with Mr. Marsalis is his tunnel vision. I mean
Wynton, I understand if you don't like fusion, pop, or smooth jazz, but you
hold yourself up like you're the last bastion of pure authentic real jazz!
And what about this paranoia with anything electrical? I mean has Wynton even
played with an organ? To count everyone one out who has so called compromised
themselves by having some electrical instruments is an injustice to great jazz
artists like Freddie Hubbard or Sonny Rollins. While winning battles to keep
jazz sacred, dignified, and pure, he loses the war by shutting out so many
other jazz fans of different genres. While he is promoting jazz music he also
in a way tearing it down with this tunnel vision. Please give me someone like
Herbie to promote jazz that you know enjoys and dabbles into many musical
forms while still maintaining great jazz piano chops. I leave you with a
quote by Wynton that has always left me disappointed in him not as a jazz
trumpeter, but as a standard-bearer of jazz music.
Downbeat (Dec. 1992, p. 17) - "Wynton's Decade":
..."But, then again, he [Miles Davis] made things more difficult for me,
because I [Wynton] was trying to build jazz up, and represent it, which
he [Miles] had represented so magnificently when he was serious. But
unfortunately, by the time I came around, he had bent over so far rock & roll
that he was a hindrance [my emphasis]. Like I would go to jazz festivals, and
he would be playing rock music or funk or something - he was always saying
something negative about jazz music. And he could always be held up by the
opponents of jazz as some kind of example. He was like a great general who
goes to the other side."
I'm so glad, Mr. Marsalis, you are not hindering jazz!
