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 JAZZ PREVIEW Heeding the Music's Call The synchronicity between the lives of two jazz giants comes to light as Wynton Marsalis prepares a Duke Ellington centennial celebration.
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America in Rhythm and Tune: Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 796-9293 or 224-4400 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 10 $25-$125 "Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one." --Duke Ellington There was once a world-famous jazz giant who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, scored pop hits and pieces for orchestras and dance troupes, was granted honorary degrees from numerous colleges and universities, gained universal respect from peers for his playing abilities, and was lauded by the public for his role as the personable ambassador of jazz music. His name was Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. Another world-famous jazz giant has won a Pulitzer Prize, scored pop hits and pieces for orchestras and dance troupes, been granted honorary degrees from numerous colleges and universities, gained universal respect from peers for his playing abilities, and is lauded by the public for his role as the personable ambassador of jazz music. His name Wynton Marsalis--and who better to launch an international tribute to the Duke on the centennial of Ellington's birth? In fact, Dempsey J. Travis even dedicated his biography The Duke Ellington Primer to "Wynton Marsalis, the Torchbearer of Jazz." The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the famed ensemble of which Marsalis is musical director, plays more Ellington than any other composer. When asked why, Marsalis replies simply in his warm Louisiana drawl. "It's very rich material," he says, "very difficult technically, but it doesn't sound [that way]. It's difficult to play, but fun. A wide range of music. Very comprehensive." And that's that. Not that anyone needs a reason to pay tribute to the Duke. Over a songwriting career spanning 50 years and 2,000 songs, Ellington's name was writ large in the cultural lexicon, and in addition to composing such indelible classics as "Take the 'A' Train," "Solitude" and "Mood Indigo," he was a vocal advocate of racial equality both here and abroad. As Ellington toured the world throughout the mid-century, spreading the word with swinging jazz, so Marsalis does today. If anything, Marsalis is an even greater ambassador, since he tirelessly devotes himself to enlightening new generations about jazz. Duke once said, "I am not a teacher"--words unlikely to ever pass from Marsalis' mouth. Marsalis says he got his urge to instruct from his piano-playing pops, Ellis. "Like most kids, when you grow up around your father, you see what they're doing and you want to do it, too," he says. To this end, Marsalis holds constant lectures, seminars and master classes for excited youths; records instructional videotapes; and, of course, plays, plays and plays some more, including benefit concerts such as this performance, a fund raiser for regional arts education supporters Young Audiences of Oregon and Southwest Washington. He expends all this effort in the hopes that jazz will return to the forefront of the American musical consciousness. What Marsalis considers jazz, "real" jazz, includes such melodic and improvisational forms as ragtime, Dixieland, swing, big band or bop, from which post-fusion rock and pop music have diverted the public's attention. While many question the authenticity and motives of the neo-swing acts, today's most noticeable horn-driven bands, Marsalis is less hasty to dismiss them. "If you get ill for a long time, when you finally get out of the hospital you have to walk first, you have to crawl," he says. "The development is slow. I'm happy and encouraged by what I see. I think we've been having a bad period for 20 or 30 years in American popular music, and the fact that people are dancing with each other, and they have horns playing and all of that--even if it's a fad, with all those corny clothes--I think it's better than just two or three people playing real loud with ear plugs in." Despite all his Grammys for classical performances, his zeal for being a spokesman, and his interest in composing a variety of commissioned works, Marsalis is still primarily a trumpeter, and this tour gives him the chance to lay back and play with the Orchestra. "Yeah, I just play," he says of his move from actively leading the group on stage to just blowing his horn with the rest of the gang. "I stopped conducting. That's not really my talent." So does he prefer that role--just jumping into the Duke's songs and letting loose with a few improvisational solos--to the responsibility of being a leader, teacher and "torchbearer of jazz"? "Most definitely," Marsalis answers with a tired laugh. "Mooooost definitely, my friend." The Duke would undoubtedly have understood.
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