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RE: Wynton Marsalis

To: <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Wynton Marsalis
From: "John McLoughlin" <JohnMcLoughlin@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 11:52:27 -0000
Importance: Normal
In-reply-to: <002201bf3d6f$386b8d20$ee188cd4@pc1>
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jeremy,

Couldn't agree more about Wynton's musicianship!  Why don't we all just
forget about debating whether his sound is "cornet" or "trumpet" and just
sit back and listen?  Give him a kazoo and he'd still be worth listening to.
At least he uses vibrato judiciously, not as an omnipresent aural wallpaper,
as many cornet players do, regardless of what they're playing.  I would
emphasise that most of the current top cornet players I'm familiar with also
adjust their "cornet" sound well to suit the style of music.  When ANY of
the brass band cornet players can play jazz and classical music as well as
he can, we can then perhaps take him to task for his cornet style.

It was quite amusing to see him thumb through my soloist's copy of the
"Carnaval" music before he was kind enough to autograph it a few years ago,
after a stunning performance with his quintet (the one that did the Proms
the same year) in Symphony Hall, Birmingham.  He reckoned it was the first
time he'd seen the published edition (whether he noticed the lousy print
quality and ridiculous page-turns in some places I'm not sure).

The only other time I saw him live was with the same quintet, this time in
Manchester.  Martin Winter was in the audience and also "knocked out" by his
performance.  The encore lasted a mere 45 minutes!  During this time,
unannounced, a casually dressed young bloke joined the quintet on the
ivories.  I thought this was a really nice touch, assuming they'd let a
local jazz pianist join them in their "jamming" session.  Silly me, it was
only Harry Connick Jnr., who'd just finished playing to a packed hall just
around the corner!

After the show was finished, I handed a couple of brass band tapes to
Wynton, just to show what WE could do.  Whether he ever listened to them is
anyone's guess.

John McLoughlin
Besses o'th' Barn

--

References:
- Re: Wynton Marsalis
  - From: jeremy wise

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