by Giovanni Russonello 
It’s extremely rare for all the musical members of jazz’s royal family to perform together. So when they do, fans take notice.
During last summer’s Duke Ellington Jazz Festival in D.C., that’s just what happened: An audience at the Kennedy Center had the opportunity to hear the Marsalis Family – all four musician brothers along with patriarch and pianist Ellis Marsalis – perform a benefit show. Now that concert is available on a newly released album, Music Redeems (Marsalis Records).
This record, just the second full album that the Marsalis Family has recorded as a unit, consists of a June 2009 performance that served as a fundraiser for the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, an artistic refuge in post-Katrina New Orleans. It was also the event where Ellis Marsalis received the Ellington Festival’s lifetime achievement award. So it’s big names, a great cause and a celebration of a worthy honoree – what could go wrong?
Well, the soloists, despite being some of the top names in jazz, seem uninterested in taking chances here, and the album is broken up by four spoken-word tracks (out of 12 in all) that mostly just get in the way and jam up the momentum of the music. What’s more, the guest appearance from Harry Connick, Jr., one of Ellis Marsalis’ former students, is more about his star power than his piano playing. Connick simply doesn’t carry his weight next to his former instructor during their duet on “Sweet Georgia Brown.”
A similar complaint can be made about baby brother and talented drummer Jason Marsalis’s whistling solo on “Donna Lee:” It’s simply impressive, not impressively creative, and it seems like a needless attention grab.
But the opportunity to hear trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Branford and trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis wail as their father strokes the keys and Jason rides the cymbals simply doesn’t come around that often. And it’s always worth a listen.
- Listen to “Syndrome” from Music Redeems | mp3
- Buy Music Redeems directly from Marsalis Music
- Buy Music Redeems from Amazon.com
- And for a golden moment in the history of Marsalis-D.C. interaction, check out Wynton Marsalis’ classic Live at Blues Alley
[…] as the Lincoln Center in New York — but it has a rich history of showcasing some of the top names in jazz. This fall, an array of top-notch jazz shows are scheduled […]