What’s up with Wynton Marsalis? And what’s up with jazz? 20 years ago he was the genre’s Boy Wonder, driving force behind a new Classical Jazz movement; today he’s label-less and has gone years since his last new CD. Then, Jazz clubs across NYC and across the US still played bebop, now their numbers are dwindling. Is jazz doomed, permanently embalmed by those who tried to save it? (Has it been doomed since 1945?) Will it rise from its ashes nu jazz? Will it be subsumed into world music and lose its identity? How are any musicians and listeners out there finding the current scene? [metafilter.com]
I never cared much for Wynton Marsalis. His music always struck me as cold & emotionless. Although he’s a great musician, his music has no feeling & doesn’t affect me the same way as Coltrane or Miles Davis.