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June 29th, 2016 marked another joyful romp down to Confederation Park for an evening at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. The mainstage headliner for the evening was a giant of the genre, the second eldest brother from the First Family of Jazz and one of New Orleans’ favourite siblings, and the current leader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis.
What is Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, you might be asking? You got me. I do know that the Lincoln Center is in Manhattan and I also know that New York City is chock-a-block with the best and brightest young jazz phenoms in the land so it stands to reason that whatever the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is, it’s certain to be full of super-solid players.
Another reason I can be so certain is that Wynton had brought the same ensemble (doubtlessly with a significantly different roster) to the jazz festival just three years earlier. At the time a friend of m’lady’s was road managing the tour and helped arrange a meeting with Mr. Marsalis, where he graciously agreed to sign a trumpet for my not-for-profit to auction off (after blowing a few sweet riffs on the inexpensive horn before our very eyes), and where I subsequently discovered that not only is Wynton Marsalis an elder statesman of jazz (and music in general), but he is also an inspiring man with a Yoda-like aura who is absolutely brimming with honesty and humility.
I didn’t want to bother the man with a repeat charitable request so this time I opted to simply enjoy the show from my ubiquitous perch under the jazz tree next to the sound board. And of course it was great. The band rode a unique line between cutting edge and traditional, with neither being wholly true. While the arrangements eschewed “outside” atonality (a defining feature of “cutting edge” jazz) they also managed to steadfastly avoid sounding old and retro. Maybe that’s just what naturally happens when you ask young, hip players to try and play olde-school, but I doubt it. More likely, the sound of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is the sound that rattles around inside Wynton Marsalis’ musical mind, and no doubt he masterfully managed to transmit and extract this sound to and from the musicians under his steed.
After all, the guy’s not just another pretty face.
In the Late Night Tent immediately following the show was Judith Hill, who was ironically becoming famous for not being famous.
Ms. Hill made a career as a backup singer for some of the biggest names in music, singing behind amazing performers like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, and Elton John among many others. She had been one of the featured singers in a documentary called 20 Feet from Stardom, which examined the careers of several almost-almost-famous backup singers. And thanks to the documentary (and a lifetime of incredibly hard work, I’m sure) Judith was finally gaining a name for herself, and here she was.
I hate to be unkind (usually), but her show explained her entire situation. Wow, what a singer and what a presence! I mean anybody would be thrilled to have her singing backup in their band. But her original material was just so un-notable and unmemorable that there was no way it was going to take over the airwaves and make her a legend. And that in turn explains that while there are so many people out there with good looks and powerful voices (just tune into any major network during almost any primetime hour for dozens of examples), the world only manages to produce what, maybe five or six musical legends per decade? In truth, a good voice and a strong look is just a tiny piece of the puzzle (ask Bob Dylan, Neil Young, or Frank Zappa about that). Of course songwriting is the important thing (you can ask them all about that as well), and good songwriting is such a fickle, exacting, and elusive skill that musical legends remain few and far between.
That said, Judith Hill made for a fun nightcap band, and man, does she have the pipes.
Todd Man Out 