Artikel geschrieben am: 01.01.70
--- (Datei: Marsalis, Wynton)
Wynton Marsalis (* 18. Oktober 1961 in New Orleans) ist einer der bedeutendsten Trompeter unserer Zeit.Wynton Marsalis wurde als zweiter der sechs Söhne des Jazzpianisten Ellis Marsalis und dessen Frau Dolores geboren und begann das Trompetenspiel mit 12 Jahren. Nach Studium an der Juilliard School of Music in New York wurde er 1980 Mitglied von Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Seit 1982 ist Marsalis als Solist und Lehrer tätig, wobei er sich sehr erfolgreich sowohl dem Jazz als auch der klassischen Musik widmet.
Wynton Marsalis gilt als äußerst konservativer Musiker, der viele stilistische Entwicklungen des Jazz ab Ende der 60er Jahre - etwa Free Jazz oder Fusion - rigoros ablehnt. Als Lehrer am New Yorker Lincoln Center und Musical Director der dortigen Jazz-Abteilung erlangte er in den 90er Jahren beträchtlichen Einfluss, war aber mit seinem sehr auf afroamerikanische Traditionen ausgerichteten Programm bei Kritikern, Publikum und Musikern teils sehr umstritten. Einer seiner bekanntesten Mitstreiter ist der Schriftsteller und Publizist Stanley Crouch.
Sein älterer Bruder ist der berühmte Jazz-Saxophonist Branford Marsalis.
JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER
jazz - we play it, we teach it, we write it, we dance it, we sing it, we present it, we photograph it, we film it, we produce it, we archive it, we record it, we broadcast it, we commission it, we celebrate it, we love it, we share it. Welcome! Our mission and purpose is... To enrich the artistic substance and perpetuate the democratic spirit of America's music. From down home and elegant concert performances by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra... to entertaining educational programs that bring the sound and feeling of jazz into the lives of thousands of kids and grownups... to innovative collaborative programs with artists in diverse idioms: we offer top quality musicianship and universal friendship. By taking the feeling of jazz on tour and by inviting artists and audiences from all over the world into our new home in New York City, Frederick P. Rose Hall, we bring people together for a simple purpose: To Have a Profoundly Good Time. Welcome is our motto. Strategies Our vision and mission is accomplished through four fundamental components... Curatorial We produce and present world class, well-rehearsed performances involving the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, other resident orchestras and ensembles, specials groups that we assemble and visiting artists, ensembles and soloists. Educational We foster the engagement and development of listeners of all ages who wish to appreciate and understand the art of jazz. We offer educational programming and materials for student musicians of all levels from elementary to post graduate school who wish to understand how to perform jazz. We also offer assistance to educators from all disciplines and levels who wish to impart knowledge about jazz. Archival We maintain and continually develop and make available a comprehensive library of original scores, transcriptions, arrangements, books and artifacts important to jazz. We also document and disseminate our curatorial and educational endeavors. Ceremonial We maintain and revive when necessary the great ceremonies of jazz: parades, picnics, jam sessions, big-band battles, cutting contests and funeral celebrations. We also seek to establish and maintain our own ceremonies. Simply Put... Jazz - we play it, we teach it, we write it, we dance it, we sing it, we present it, we photograph it, we film it, we produce it, we archive it, we record it, we broadcast it, we commission it, we celebrate it, we love it, we share it. Welcome!
A fixture on the American cultural scene, Wynton Marsalis has brought jazz back to centre stage in the U.S.A. through his relentless work ethic and drive. He is also a distinguished classical performer whose many recordings for Sony Classical have been an important aspect of his career since it began. In 1997 he became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music, for his epic oratorio on the subject of slavery, Blood on the Fields. As a composer and performer, Marsalis is also represented on a quartet of Sony Classical releases, At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1 (SK 60979), A Fiddler's Tale (SK 60765), Reel Time (SK 51239) and Sweet Release and Ghost Story: Two More Ballets by Wynton Marsalis (SK 61690). All are volumes of an eight-CD series, titled "Swinging Into The 21st", that is an unprecedented set of albums released in the past year featuring a remarkable scope of original compositions and standards, from jazz to classical to ballet, by composers from Jelly Roll Morton to Stravinsky to Monk, in addition to Marsalis.
At the Octoroon Balls features the world-premiere recording of Marsalis' first string quartet, performed by the Orion Quartet (SK 60979). The work was commissioned by Lincoln Center, and its premiere by the Orion Quartet in 1995 was presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A Fiddler's Tale (SK 60765), also commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for MARSALIS/STRAVINSKY, a joint project of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Jazz At Lincoln Center, is work with narration about a musician who sells her soul to a record producer. It was premiered on April 23, 1998, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A version without narration was included on the album At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1. Reeltime (SK 51239) is Marsalis' score for the acclaimed John Singelton film Rosewood. This original music, featuring vocal performances by best-selling artists Cassandra Wilson and Shirley Caesar, was never used in the film and is available here for the first time. Sweet Release and Ghost Story (SK 61690) offers another world premiere recording of two original ballet scores by Marsalis, written for and premiered by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Zhong Mei Dance Company, both in New York City.
As an exclusive classical artist for Sony Classical, Marsalis has won critical acclaim for the recording In Gabriel's Garden (SK/ST 66244), featuring Baroque music for trumpet and orchestra. It includes performances of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 and Mouret's Rondeau, a video of which has been adopted as the new theme for PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. The San Francisco Examiner wrote, "Marsalis continues to define great musicmaking…[the pieces] are all articulated with dazzling clarity and enthusiasm." The album features the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Newman, and was produced by Steven Epstein.
Marsalis' other Sony Classical recordings include concert, chamber and solo music for trumpet from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th-century repertoires.
Marsalis' recent release, Classic Wynton (SK/ST 60804), is a collection of the artist's work, featuring music for trumpet from the Baroque era to the twentieth century. Highlights of the album include a duet with Kathleen Battle from the best-selling recording Baroque Duet, Mouret's "Rondeau", Clarke's "The King's March" and "The Prince of Denmark's March", a movement from Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and Stanley's "Trumpet Voluntary". Classic Wynton also includes a previously unreleased track -- The Prayer of St. Gregory by Hovhaness.
Other recent Sony Classical recordings include Jump Start & Jazz (SK 62998), which features Marsalis' first ballet scores, written for two choreographers, Twyla Tharp and the New York City Ballet's Peter Martins, and LIBERTY! The American Revolution, the soundtrack by Mark O'Connor to a three-part, six-hour PBS dramatic documentary series by the same name about the birth of the United States (SK 63216). O'Connor composed the duet for violin and trumpet "Brave Wolfe" (a tribute to the heroic death of British General James Wolfe) specifically with Wynton Marsalis in mind.
Winner of eight Grammy awards for his jazz and classical recordings, Marsalis has also been creatively involved in musical education. His four-part, Peabody Award-winning TV series Marsalis on Music, released on home video by Sony Classical, introduces young viewers to the adventure of making music. USA Today hailed Marsalis on Music as "a thrilling four-part seminar of music appreciation written and literally conducted by the affable Wynton Marsalis. Comparisons to Leonard Bernstein's famed "Young People's Concerts" are appropriate."
Born October 18, 1961, in New Orleans, the second of six sons of Dolores and Ellis Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis began studying trumpet seriously at age twelve. During high school he performed in local marching bands, jazz bands, funk bands, and classical orchestras, and at age eighteen he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School of Music. In the summer of 1980, he became a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and that same year signed with Columbia Records. Since his self-titled debut was released in 1982, Marsalis' numerous jazz and classical recordings for Columbia and Sony Classical have sold nearly five million copies world wide. He has taken his jazz groups to thirty countries on six continents, averaging more than 120 concerts per year for many of the past sixteen years.
Marsalis serves as artistic director for the internationally recognised Jazz at Lincoln Center program, which he co-founded in 1987. Under his leadership, the jazz department earned the distinction of being named Lincoln Center's first new constituent organisation since 1969. Several commissioned works for the program are among his most recent successes as a composer. The oratorio Blood on the Fields, written in 1994, was named one of the top ten music highlights of the year by Time magazine. The New York Times Magazine said the work "marked the symbolic moment when the full heritage of the line, Ellington through Mingus, was extended into the present. It also reflects a full awareness of Copland and Stravinsky."
An international tour for Blood on the Fields, presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center in early 1997, featured vocalists Cassandra Wilson, Jon Hendricks and Miles Griffith with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. The work was released as a three-CD set by Columbia in April 1997. The extended septet work In This House on This Morning, which was premiered at Lincoln Center in 1983 and released on CD by Columbia in 1994, was termed "a spiritual feast" and a "masterpiece" by Ebony magazine. Another important Lincoln Center commission, Marsalis' first string quartet, (at the) Octoroon Balls, was premiered by the Orion String Quartet in May 1995 and was presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Marsalis has also shown a special interest in composing for dance. His Sony Classical recording Jump Start and Jazz features Jazz/Six Syncopated Movements and Jump Start, which were written for ballets by Peter Martins and Twyla Tharp, respectively. The New York Times rated the score of Jump Start as simply "superb," and Newsweek wrote that Jazz contained "verve and vigour rarely heard at the ballet." Sweet Release, a recent commission from Jazz at Lincoln Center, was his first collaboration with Judith Jamison of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and a work that The New York Times described as "sly and exuberant." Marsalis also collaborated with Garth Fagan to create a three-movement symphony for seven pieces, Citi Movement/Griot New York, his first music for dance as well as his first extended work. He recently wrote Ghost Story for New York's Zhong Mei Dance Company.
Education continues to be a top priority for Marsalis. One of the most successful aspects of the Jazz at Lincoln Center program has been Marsalis' Jazz for Young People series, which has become a favourite of New York audiences. Throughout the year, Wynton schedules meetings with students wherever he is, and while on the road with his bands he regularly conducts master classes in local schools. The 1996 Peabody Award he won for Marsalis on Music also recognised his informative twenty-six-part National Public Radio series, Making the Music, which was based on Jazz for Young People.
This release of a companion book with CD for Marsalis on Music followed the publication of Marsalis' 1994 book, Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, an in-depth chronicle of his touring life. His personal thoughts are accompanied by Frank Stewart's photographs in this firsthand portrayal of the travels and camaraderie of a jazz band. The Los Angeles Times Book Review described the book as "laden with insight and anecdote and a lexicon unique to modern-day jazz," and Jazz Times praised Marsalis by saying, "He writes warmly and well about his men as a group, and about their musicianship and personalities," adding further that the book is replete with "original thought and expression."
Marsalis has been awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of France and the Edison Award of the Netherlands, and was elected an honorary member of England's Royal Academy of Music. In recognition of the many hours he has contributed to music education, community organisations, and charities, he has been given keys to cities across the country, all types of community service awards, and a congressional citation. In May of 1997 he received honorary doctorate degrees from Rutgers University and Amherst College; these honours will be added to the list of colleges and universities that have recognised him, including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, John Hopkins, Brandeis, the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Miami. He was profiled by 60 Minutes in December 1995. He has been the subject of cover stories for Life magazine, Time magazine, Parade, the Sunday New York Times Magazine, the Sunday Los Angeles Times Calendar, London Times magazine and Esquire (UK), as well as numerous appearances on the covers of Jazz Times, Downbeat, and Jazziz. In 1996, Time magazine named him among America's twenty five most influential people.
Jazz News, 21. bis 27. August 2006
27. August: Wynton Marsalis & Jazz at Lincoln Center
Nate Chinen portraitiert in der New York Times den Trompeter Wynton Marsalis als Mastermind hinter Jazz at Lincoln Center, der bestausgestatteten und wichtigsten öffentlichen Jazzinstitution in den Vereinigten Staaten, zu der neben dem Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra ein Archiv, ein großer Konzertsaal (und ein Club) gehören sowie jede Menge musikpädagogische Projekte, die die Geschichte und Bedeutung des Jazz vermitteln und bewahren sollen. Vor einigen Monaten hatte Marsalis Probleme mit seinen Lippen und es wurde gemunkelt, er wolle sich als Trompeter zurückziehen. Im Frühjahr aber kam er wieder auf die Bühne und ins Rampenlicht. Chinen erzählt, wie es Marsalis seit den späten 80er Jahren gegen viele Widerstände gelungen war, Geld für Jazz at Lincoln Center zusammenzubekommen. Die Organisation hat heute 105 Vollzeitstellen, mehr als ein Dutzend Praktikanten sowie mehr als 400 Teilzeit-Mitarbeiter. Chinen sieht Parallelen in Marsalis' musikalischem (kompositorischem) Ansatz und seiner Arbeit als Manager, wenn Marsalis sagt: "Ich schreibe immer erst enmal eine Form und versuche es dann aus einem menschlichen Standpunkt zu betrachten.". Am Schluss fragt er, was J@LC ohne Marsalis machen würde und deutet an, dass zum Beispiel in New Orleans etliche Aufgaben für den Großmanager Marsalis warten könnten.
Ein Bigband-Abend macht den Auftakt zum achttägigen Open-Air-Event: Wynton Marsalis eröffnet die BW-Bank jazzopen 2007. Mit dem Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra unter der künstlerischen Leitung von Wynton Marsalis kommt die weltweit führende Bigband, die tonangebende Instanz einer genauso zeitgenössischen wie traditionsbewussten Jazzaufführungspraxis und -didaktik nach Stuttgart. Tatsächlich steht dem neunfachen Grammypreisträger und dem Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra mit der 2004 eingeweihten Frederick P. Rose Hall die erste ausschließlich der Pflege des Jazz gewidmete Ausbildungs-, Aufführungs- und Rundfunkanstalt zu Gebote. Auf seinem neuen Album ''From the Plantation to the Penitentiary'' widmet sich Wynton Marsalis erneut explizit der Black History des Genres: ''Jazz ist eine Musik der Veränderung, es ist eine Musik des Engagements und eine intellektuelle Musik, es ist aber auch soulful Music - all das muss in der Musik sein.''
A fixture on the American cultural scene, Wynton Marsalis has brought jazz back to centre stage in the U.S.A. through his relentless work ethic and drive. He is also a distinguished classical performer whose many recordings for Sony Classical have been an important aspect of his career since it began. In 1997 he became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music, for his epic oratorio on the subject of slavery, Blood on the Fields. As a composer and performer, Marsalis is also represented on a quartet of Sony Classical releases, At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1, A Fiddler's Tale, Reel Time and Sweet Release and Ghost Story: Two More Ballets by Wynton Marsalis. All are volumes of an eight-CD series, titled "Swinging Into The 21st", that is an unprecedented set of albums released in the past year featuring a remarkable scope of original compositions and standards, from jazz to classical to ballet, by composers from Jelly Roll Morton to Stravinsky to Monk, in addition to Marsalis.
At the Octoroon Balls features the world-premiere recording of Marsalis' first string quartet, performed by the Orion Quartet. The work was commissioned by Lincoln Center, and its premiere by the Orion Quartet in 1995 was presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A Fiddler's Tale, also commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for MARSALIS/STRAVINSKY, a joint project of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Jazz At Lincoln Center, is work with narration about a musician who sells her soul to a record producer. It was premiered on April 23, 1998, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A version without narration was included on the album At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1. Reeltime is Marsalis' score for the acclaimed John Singelton film Rosewood. This original music, featuring vocal performances by best-selling artists Cassandra Wilson and Shirley Caesar, was never used in the film and is available here for the first time. Sweet Release and Ghost Story offers another world premiere recording of two original ballet scores by Marsalis, written for and premiered by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Zhong Mei Dance Company, both in New York City.
As an exclusive classical artist for Sony Classical, Marsalis has won critical acclaim for the recording In Gabriel's Garden (SK/ST 66244), featuring Baroque music for trumpet and orchestra. It includes performances of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 and Mouret's Rondeau, a video of which has been adopted as the new theme for PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. The San Francisco Examiner wrote, "Marsalis continues to define great musicmaking…[the pieces] are all articulated with dazzling clarity and enthusiasm." The album features the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Newman, and was produced by Steven Epstein.
Marsalis' other Sony Classical recordings include concert, chamber and solo music for trumpet from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th-century repertoires.
Marsalis' recent release, Classic Wynton (SK/ST 60804), is a collection of the artist's work, featuring music for trumpet from the Baroque era to the twentieth century. Highlights of the album include a duet with Kathleen Battle from the best-selling recording Baroque Duet, Mouret's "Rondeau", Clarke's "The King's March" and "The Prince of Denmark's March", a movement from Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and Stanley's "Trumpet Voluntary". Classic Wynton also includes a previously unreleased track -- The Prayer of St. Gregory by Hovhaness.
Other recent Sony Classical recordings include Jump Start & Jazz, which features Marsalis' first ballet scores, written for two choreographers, Twyla Tharp and the New York City Ballet's Peter Martins, and LIBERTY! The American Revolution, the soundtrack by Mark O'Connor to a three-part, six-hour PBS dramatic documentary series by the same name about the birth of the United States. O'Connor composed the duet for violin and trumpet "Brave Wolfe" (a tribute to the heroic death of British General James Wolfe) specifically with Wynton Marsalis in mind.
Winner of eight Grammy awards for his jazz and classical recordings, Marsalis has also been creatively involved in musical education. His four-part, Peabody Award-winning TV series Marsalis on Music, released on home video by Sony Classical, introduces young viewers to the adventure of making music. USA Today hailed Marsalis on Music as "a thrilling four-part seminar of music appreciation written and literally conducted by the affable Wynton Marsalis. Comparisons to Leonard Bernstein's famed "Young People's Concerts" are appropriate."
Born October 18, 1961, in New Orleans, the second of six sons of Dolores and Ellis Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis began studying trumpet seriously at age twelve. During high school he performed in local marching bands, jazz bands, funk bands, and classical orchestras, and at age eighteen he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School of Music. In the summer of 1980, he became a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and that same year signed with Columbia Records. Since his self-titled debut was released in 1982, Marsalis' numerous jazz and classical recordings for Columbia and Sony Classical have sold nearly five million copies world wide. He has taken his jazz groups to thirty countries on six continents, averaging more than 120 concerts per year for many of the past sixteen years.
Marsalis serves as artistic director for the internationally recognised Jazz at Lincoln Center program, which he co-founded in 1987. Under his leadership, the jazz department earned the distinction of being named Lincoln Center's first new constituent organisation since 1969. Several commissioned works for the program are among his most recent successes as a composer. The oratorio Blood on the Fields, written in 1994, was named one of the top ten music highlights of the year by Time magazine. The New York Times Magazine said the work "marked the symbolic moment when the full heritage of the line, Ellington through Mingus, was extended into the present. It also reflects a full awareness of Copland and Stravinsky."
An international tour for Blood on the Fields, presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center in early 1997, featured vocalists Cassandra Wilson, Jon Hendricks and Miles Griffith with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. The work was released as a three-CD set by Columbia in April 1997. The extended septet work In This House on This Morning, which was premiered at Lincoln Center in 1983 and released on CD by Columbia in 1994, was termed "a spiritual feast" and a "masterpiece" by Ebony magazine. Another important Lincoln Center commission, Marsalis' first string quartet, (at the) Octoroon Balls, was premiered by the Orion String Quartet in May 1995 and was presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Marsalis has also shown a special interest in composing for dance. His Sony Classical recording Jump Start and Jazz features Jazz/Six Syncopated Movements and Jump Start, which were written for ballets by Peter Martins and Twyla Tharp, respectively. The New York Times rated the score of Jump Start as simply "superb," and Newsweek wrote that Jazz contained "verve and vigour rarely heard at the ballet." Sweet Release, a recent commission from Jazz at Lincoln Center, was his first collaboration with Judith Jamison of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and a work that The New York Times described as "sly and exuberant." Marsalis also collaborated with Garth Fagan to create a three-movement symphony for seven pieces, Citi Movement/Griot New York, his first music for dance as well as his first extended work. He recently wrote Ghost Story for New York's Zhong Mei Dance Company.
Education continues to be a top priority for Marsalis. One of the most successful aspects of the Jazz at Lincoln Center program has been Marsalis' Jazz for Young People series, which has become a favourite of New York audiences. Throughout the year, Wynton schedules meetings with students wherever he is, and while on the road with his bands he regularly conducts master classes in local schools. The 1996 Peabody Award he won for Marsalis on Music also recognised his informative twenty-six-part National Public Radio series, Making the Music, which was based on Jazz for Young People.
This release of a companion book with CD for Marsalis on Music followed the publication of Marsalis' 1994 book, Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, an in-depth chronicle of his touring life. His personal thoughts are accompanied by Frank Stewart's photographs in this firsthand portrayal of the travels and camaraderie of a jazz band. The Los Angeles Times Book Review described the book as "laden with insight and anecdote and a lexicon unique to modern-day jazz," and Jazz Times praised Marsalis by saying, "He writes warmly and well about his men as a group, and about their musicianship and personalities," adding further that the book is replete with "original thought and expression."
Marsalis has been awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of France and the Edison Award of the Netherlands, and was elected an honorary member of England's Royal Academy of Music. In recognition of the many hours he has contributed to music education, community organisations, and charities, he has been given keys to cities across the country, all types of community service awards, and a congressional citation. In May of 1997 he received honorary doctorate degrees from Rutgers University and Amherst College; these honours will be added to the list of colleges and universities that have recognised him, including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, John Hopkins, Brandeis, the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Miami. He was profiled by 60 Minutes in December 1995. He has been the subject of cover stories for Life magazine, Time magazine, Parade, the Sunday New York Times Magazine, the Sunday Los Angeles Times Calendar, London Times magazine and Esquire (UK), as well as numerous appearances on the covers of Jazz Times, Downbeat, and Jazziz. In 1996, Time magazine named him among America's twenty five most influential people.
My friend Wynton Marsalis comes from a rich musical-family tradition in New Orleans that I share with my family. From that core of talent and tradition has sprung an amazing young man who has worn many hats in his career: musician, composer, ambassador, activist, arts administrator and more. He's an original in so many ways and has a tremendous influence on the popularity of modern jazz and its deep roots in New Orleans history. We share a love for our universally beloved hometown and were shattered by its recent destruction.
No one has done more than Wynton, 44, to bring the plight of today's New Orleans to the attention of the world. Over the past year, we have shared the stage many times, performing at post-Katrina fund raisers. I look at him, he looks at me, and you can feel the mutual pain. Gone are the many nooks and crannies of the place we called home and which brought us so much joy and brotherhood. Wynton and his music personify New Orleans and its great musical tradition, today displaced but not destroyed. His willingness to give of his time and talent in preserving and promoting the New Orleans music heritage is a great tribute to his character and personality. When you've known someone as long as I've known Wynton, nothing surprises you, but in his case, it is a wonder that he still finds time to pay homage and support to the place that gave him his start. Wynton is a special brother, whose music and persona flow forth freely with truth, talent and tenacity.
Award-winning singer Neville, whose home was destroyed by Katrina, has been active in the relief effort
Trumpeter. A supremely talented instrumentalist who has made his mark on both the classical and jazz worlds (winning Grammies in both categories in 1984), Marsalis has become one of the leading advocates of the cause of jazz in the world's media, and a figure of towering influence in the world of jazz education. In addition he is a composer of style and flair, winning a Pulitzer prize for his oratorio Blood On the Fields (1994). Marsalis grew up in the rich musical tradition of New Orleans, in which his father was a prominent pianist. Three of his brothers, Branford ( a saxophonist, born 1960); Delfeayo (trombonist, born 1965) and Jason (drummer, born 1977) are also world-class musicians. All the boys received a classical and jazz education, and Marsalis began playing with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers while he was studying classical trumpet at Juilliard School in New York. In the early 1980s, after playing with Blakey, Herbie Hancock and his own groups, Marsalis soon made his mark as one of the most gifted jazz trumpeters in the hard bop tradition of Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard, gradually relinquishing his classical career. Unlike Branford, who went on to play fusion and funk, Wynton turned his back on rock and free jazz, and began to explore the earlier jazz tradition, notably in his work with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, one of the world's leading big bands, which he has directed from the late 1980s. His playing and writing have systematically covered music related to the work of Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and above all Duke Ellington, and Marsalis's small groups have also drawn on the traditional styles of New Orleans jazz. Wynton has recorded prolifically, and toured the world with both the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and his own groups, bringing jazz to a vast new, young audience, through a mixture of regular concerts and a programme of educational outreach work. He has broadcast widely about jazz, notably in Ken Burns's 2001 documentary TV series, and he has also published books on the subject. His clear trumpet tone and beautifully crafted solos are coupled with a mastery of muted techniques.
Als Entertainer spielt Tom Gaebel in einer ganz eigenen Liga: Die Eleganz seiner Erscheinung erinnert an das Auftreten der großen Crooner wie Frank Sinatra oder Tom Jones, mit seiner Bigband lässt er die swinging sixties wiederaufleben, seine Kompositionen weisen ihn als legitimen und gut gelaunten Enkel eines Burt Bacharach aus. Bereits in jungen Jahren erlernte Gaebel eine ganze Reihe von Instrumenten, von denen heute vor allem die Posaune und das Schlagzug zum Einsatz kommen. Denn bei allem instrumentellem Können: promoviert hat das Multitalent dann doch im Fach Jazzgesang, und genau der steht auch im Vordergrund seiner Bühnenshow. Mit dieser auch auf der DVD ''Live In Concert'' dokumentierten Performance besetzt er genau die Lücke zwischen Jamie Cullum und Michael Bublé. Mit seiner Bigband wird Gaebel auch Songs seines aktuellen Albums ''Good Life'' auf dem Pariser Platz präsentieren.
Tom Gaebel, Theaterhaus, 21.3.2007
Nach den Frauen kommen die Männer. Auf zauberhafte Vokalistinnen wie Norah Jones, Solveig Slettahjell oder Lisa Bassenge folgen nun die Sänger. Swing ist wieder in. Der unvergleichliche Jamie Cullum hat vor kurzem das Theaterhauspublikum elektrisiert, am Montag verdrehte Roger Cicero im Hegelsaal mit seinem witzigen Beziehungsswing den Leuten den Kopf und nun – wieder auf dem Pragsattel – der Auftritt des jungen Tom Gäbel. Sechzig Jahre jünger ist der Sinatra-Nacheiferer aus Gelsenkirchen als sein Idol aus Hoboken, New Jersey.
Wohnen wir, wie PR-Texte suggerieren, etwa einer musikalischen Wiedergeburt bei? Wie kein zweiter Vokalist hat Frank Sinatra die Swing-Ära nach dem 2. Weltkrieg geprägt: Aus nahezu jedem Song, den er interpretierte, machte er einen Hit. That’s Life, Moon River, Lee Roy Brown, und wie sie alle heißen. Sinatra, das Naturtalent, gewann einmal ein Stipendium an der Berklee-Musikhochschule in Boston, hingegangen ist er aber nicht. Gäbel hatte zwölf Jahre Geigenunterricht, sich das Schlagzeugspiel selbst beigebracht, wie er im Konzert charmant vorführt, und in Amsterdam – wie Roger Cicero - Musik studiert (Hauptfach Jazzgesang).
Zweifellos ist der 32-jährige blonde Strahlemann ein Entertainer-Talent, und stimmlich erinnert er in der Tat an die 1998 verstorbene US-Legende. Auch Ausstrahlung ist Gäbel nicht abzusprechen, auch wenn er gern mit erhobenem Zeigefinger singt, seine Baritonstimme klingt warm und klar, er phrasiert sauber und kann mit seiner scharfen Zehnmann-Combo (darunter sein kleiner Bruder Denis am Tenorsaxophon) und stringenten Arrangements das Publikum für sich einnehmen. „Besser als mit der ollen Play-Back-Cassette“, bemerkt er grinsend.
Die Bühnenpräsenz jedoch von Ol’ Blue Eyes bleibt unerreicht und – sorry - wohl unerreichbar. Ein Riesenschatten fällt auf den, der versucht, in solche Fußstapfen zu treten. Dabei, das wissen etwa auch die besseren Elvis-Imitatoren, kann man daraus durchaus Kapital schlagen. Gäbel, begeisterter Computer-Zocker und Ego-Shooter, eilt von TV-Total zu einer Gala, er singt „Für Sie“, bringt eine CD nach der anderen heraus, tourt und hat zuletzt den Jazz-Award von Edel-Records gewonnen.
Auf der Erfolgstreppe tut er alles, um nach oben zu kommen. Besser als seine eigenen Kompositionen funktionieren im Konzert die altbekannten Swing-Hits, die er humorvoll ansagt und gut interpretiert. Als Frontmann der Combo „Young Sinatras“ hat er vor Jahren gespürt, dass er ein eigenes Profil finden müsste. Aber die Leute wollen ihn als deutschen Sinatra, und so klingt er bei den jüngsten Aufnahmen („Good Life“) wieder fast wie Good Old Frankie Boy. Aber eben nur fast. Epigonenschicksal. Thomas Staiber
~ Thomas Staiber
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