These
ballets
, each lasting a few minutes over half an hour, are mostly written-out compositions with
jazz
rhythm sections and
inflections from the players. As in much of
Marsalis
' writing in the '90s, he reaches back to several pre-
bop
classic
styles to form a synthesis of his own, with the wailing mark of
Ellington
ever-present in the voicings and harmonies.
Jazz: 6 1/2 Syncopated Movements
is a tightly arranged series of episodes that stalk across the
landscape from
ragtime
to dissonance, sometimes so tightly that it begins to resemble
cartoon music
. One of the more striking sections is
"Trail of Tears,"
which has subtly smeared harmonies and horse-laughing from the muted brasses, and
"Express Crossing"
is right in the mold of
's
"Daybreak Express,"
with a nice breakneck muted solo for
. Though burdened with a typically pompous title,
Jump Start -- The Mastery of Melancholy
is actually the less pretentious
ballet
of the two, a suite of ten brief, disconnected
big-band
pieces in different idioms where the
elements come through with more freedom for the rhythm section and the soloists. This work hits its stride only toward the close with
"Bebop"
for small group (where
burns as he did in his extreme youth) and
Harry "Sweets" Edison
's delicious cameo on
"Jump."
Heavily staffed by members of
' late septet,
the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
plays both works in precise, crisp fashion, with
conducting
Jump Start
and playing lead and section trumpet in both
. ~ Richard S. Ginell