Big Train
Train sounds hold a special mythic space in Afro-American folklore, literature, and music, and on this CD Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra explore and expand these railroad resonances in grand fashion. WithDuke Ellingtonas the spiritual "conductor," Marsalis and his crew guide the listener through the syncopated scenery of America's harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic places and spaces. As always, Marsalis is in top form, growling and sliding in vivid locomotive tones driven by his trumpeting cohorts includingMarcus PrintupandRyan Kisor. Saxophonists Wess Anderson,Victor Goines, Walter Blanding Jr., andJoe Temperleybrilliantly recombine essences ofPaul Gonsalves,Johnny Hodges, and Harry Carney. With this CD, it's apparent that Marsalis's grasp of the compositional demands of a large ensemble is still growing and traveling in the right direction.--Eugene Holley Jr.