Word: ellington
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Marsalis began the evening with a characteristically unequivocal statement of his mission: "We came here to swing." With his irrepressibly jocular style, he described the LCJO's commitment to the music of Duke Ellington while carefully distinguishing the group from a repertory band. Though the evening was devoted to Ellington's music, Marsalis declined to term it a tribute. Rather, he explained, they just believe in playing his music. He ended his preface to the first set with some comments on the past few weeks on the road, offering a somewhat elusive remark about how this had been the "antebellum...
Although Marsalis's introduction implied an exclusively Ellington set, some of Marsalis's own compositions found their way into the concert as well. The evening started slowly with the medium-tempo Ellington tune "Blues in Blueprint," followed by Marsalis's "Back to Basics," which allowed the band to open up a bit with solos throughout each section. However, it wasn't until after they had played two selections from Ellington's Deep South Suite and "Red Garter" from Ellington's Toot Suite that the band finally began to warm up. The highpoint of the first set came with the second...
...concert's second half continued the Ellington/Marsalis theme. Obscure Ellington tunes such as "The Giddybug Gallop" and "Anitra's Dance" from the Peer Gynt Suite preceeded the most impressive moment of the evening, "Jack the Bear." Ellington's double bass feature for Jimmy Blanton was competently played by bassist Ben Wolfe. However, the cameo appearance of pianist Marcus Roberts proved to be the highlight of the tune. Roberts stretched the harmonies of his blues choruses with Monkish lines, piano runs reminiscent of Ellington's "Ko-Ko" and an unparalled rhythmic concept. Following Roberts, Marsalis introduced LCJO's vocalist Milt Grayson...
...band was brought back for an encore of "Wild Man Moore," an obscure Ellington tune from the Paris Blues Suite which featured tenor Andy Farber in a Paul Gonsalves feature. Marsalis ended the tune by leading the trumpet section offstage followed by trombones and saxes in a second-line march. A five-minute standing ovation brought Marsalis back with pianist Eric Reed for a rendition of Marsalis's best composition of the evening, the ballad "Spanish Yaounde." Another five minutes brought the entire band back for "Across the Track Blues" to close the night...
Overall, the band delivered an impressive show. The Ellington charts were flawlessly executed by some of the most competent soloists today, despite the fact that it took nearly an entire set for their talents to emerge. One standout was the trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, who is perhaps one of the most versatile and loudest trombonists today. Though he only rarely picked up his horn, Marsalis also distinguished himself, particularly in his trumpet duel with Marcus Belgrave and his balled performance. Those performance stood out from the concert together with the adventurous selection of seldom-heard Ellingtonia which constituted a fitting tribute...