Wynton Marsalis is a spellbinding virtuoso trumpet-player, a considerable band-leader, and no mean composer. He’s also the keeper of the keys of the jazz tradition, a man who fights tirelessly for old-fashioned values of craft and “swing.” As head of the Lincoln Centre Jazz programme he has the most powerful position anywhere in the jazz world—a fact which causes much resentment among his numerous critics. Many jazz musicians feel that cleaving to the values of the swing era is foreign to the entire spirit of the form, and the idea that it should always be “the sound of surprise.” For rap artists like Incarnate he’s beyond the pale, a sellout to the white establishment.
On 24th July Marsalis brings the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra to the Barbican Centre. The line-up—his supporters say—offers a rebuttal to those who conversely think Marsalis sidelines white players, or players from outside the mainstream. Pianist Chano Dominguez brings a sharp tang of flamenco to the ensemble, while the horn section includes Scottish ex-pat Joe Temperley. But a “Spanish vein” has been part of jazz since the days of Joe Oliver, and Temperley, fine player though he is, is hardly radical. Which isn’t to say this gig will be a retreading of old ground. Marsalis is keenly aware that jazz has to renew itself—but for him the renewal has to come from within the tradition. In a world that has less and less time for tradition—while worshipping “roots”—Marsalis’s crusade seems peculiarly lonely, and endlessly fascinating.
Ivan Hewett is the Telegraph’s music critic
Wynton Marsalis, Barbican, 24th July, Tel: 020 7638 4141, www.barbican.org.uk, from £25
