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Wynton - The Only Person in Jazz Who Matters?

I was just wondering when Wynton Marsalis’ opinion became so central to jazz that an article about another musician has to include a discussion about whether that artist gets along with Wynton and the nature of their relationship?

The New Yorker this week has a – mostly – very nice article on Esperanza Spaulding, the Portland, OR bass player. (She just smokes her fiddle BTW. I saw her playing with Joe Lovano last year and she was just phenomenal. She got every bit as much applause as Joe did.) For some reason the author felt compelled to discuss her – and I think by extension all of jazz – through the lens of whether or not Wynton would approve, or even call it jazz. That seems awfully narrow minded.

Granted, he has the loudest megaphone with JALC, but c’mon, is that really necessary?
grimace
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,242 posts
 
Jazdoc, very well said.

When Mr. Marsalis first gained the music world's attention back in 1980 jazz from a commercial perspective was dead. No one was getting label contracts and established artists were still in their funk/fusion stages. Whether it was foisted upon him or he jumped and grabbed it, Marsalis became the face and voice of jazz to the wider population. For more than a generation he's carried that burden quite well. He ain't perfect, but he's real, real good.
ojgalli
165 posts
 
Group think, bandwagon mentality. It's the reason EVERYone knows Mozart, Ansel Adams, Ella Fitzgerald, and many other examples of people with talent, but who've been given excessive praise at the exclusion of other greater talents. Have you every heard of Betty Carter, Gerry Ueslmann, George Crumb? Names not completely unknown, but certainly overshadowed, yet they were uncompromising trailblazers who weren't entrenched in the previous generation's style. (And what about the "stepbrother" Brandford?)
ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
Can't stand Wynton or his music. He was just catering to the classical crowd over at Lincoln Center, not the true jazz lover (I'll probably catch sh!t from some for saying that).
schipo
1,268 posts
 
Please lets not compare George Crumb to Mozart..and when it comes to Betty Carter no contest with Ellas voice and vocal intelligence she wins out.
loomisjohnson
1,949 posts
 
marsalis is unquestionably a great technician, but has always sounded somewhat clinical and soul-less to me. i also found his classical & operatic stuff like "blood on the field" to be virtually unlistenable. however to suggest that he's "the white man's window to jazz' because he's an articulate (cf outspoken), well-dressed guy is classist nonsense. remember, miles davis, who's everyone's epitome of cool, was the julliard-trained son of a surgeon. i personally think the guy's music should be viewed on its own terms; he is after all, a trumpet player, not a political or religious icon.
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