Although jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and nation music legend Willie Nelson appeared to return from totally different musical planets, there was extra that united them than separated them. A shared love of the identical high quality music is among the many causes that their joint dwell album, Two Males With The Blues, launched on July 8, 2008, on Blue Observe Information, was such a spectacular essential success.
Hearken to Two Males With The Blues now.
For starters, each musicians had been fervent followers of the infectious music of Louis Jordan, who was referred to as The King Of The Jukebox within the 40s and 50s, when he had 18 No.1s and 54 High 10 hits. Marsalis stated: “As musicians, we like a lot of the same things… Louis Jordan’s ‘Caldonia’ or ‘Saturday Night Fish Fry.’ Willie Nelson and I came up on the same sounds.” It’s no coincidence that one of many highlights of the album is a swinging, vibrant model of “Caldonia.”
Two Males With The Blues was recorded throughout January 12-13, 2007, at New York’s Lincoln Centre, and is a seamless mix of jazz, nation, people, R&B, and, after all, the blues. Mixing jazz and nation had been accomplished earlier than, after all. When Texas-born Nelson and New Orleans native Marsalis met to debate the challenge, they talked about how Jimmy Rodgers (referred to as The Singing Brakeman) and Louis Armstrong had fused the genres within the 30s with “Blue Yodel No.9.”
The music all through the entire live performance is assured and exhilarating, as two masters get their enamel into high-quality songs. A swaggering model of Jimmy Reed’s “Bright Lights, Big City” is adopted by “Nightlife,” one in all Nelson’s personal classics. On Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust,” Marsalis’ deft trumpet and Walter Blanding’s saxophone twinkle gorgeously across the vocals.
The entire band sparkles, with pianist Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez, and drummer Ali Jackson including their very own soloist expertise to the combo. Harmonica maestro Mickey Raphael makes up the band, and his taking part in on Spencer Williams’ “Basin Street Blues” is a delight. In the meantime, Nelson’s personal jazz guitar taking part in, stuffed with intelligent shuffle grooves knowledgeable by his admiration for the good Django Reinhardt, retains tempo with the depth of Marsalis’ taking part in alongside his tight jazz unit.
Marsalis was challenged by working in tandem with Nelson’s uncommon singing fashion, recalling, “Willie’s phrasing is very unpredictable but it comes out poetic and very logical in a sense of harmony. It is very advanced, it’s sophisticated.”
The eclectic alternative of track materials brings out the strengths of each jazz and nation requirements, with Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind” and “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” sitting fortunately alongside the sardonic “That’s All,” written by Merle Travis, the nation singer-songwriter who additionally wrote “Sixteen Tons” and “Dark As A Dungeon.”
Elsewhere, Clarence Williams’ “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It,” which has been recorded by artists as numerous as Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, and Louis Armstrong, is given a New Orleans makeover, with Nelson and Marsalis sharing vocals, and the trumpeter having enjoyable as he sings alongside and segues right into a portion of “I Hear You Knocking.” Nelson stated, “Wynton Marsalis is one of the greatest musicians that I’ve ever run into in my life. We’ve always played basically the same music. ‘My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It’ is a great example of what I always consider to be a country song. And then I found out that Wynton played it better than I did and knew verses that I didn’t know.”
Two Males With The Blues was a deserved hit, spending 4 weeks at No.1 on the Billboard jazz album charts. It additionally stands as a testomony to 2 of music’s biggest trendy craftsmen discovering a real connection.
Two Males With The Blues might be purchased right here.
