Marsalis Quintet does the work of an orchestra

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - For the first couple of numbers, as Wynton Marsalis put his visiting quintet through its rich and compelling repertoire Monday night, the guys sat close together in the middle of the vast stage of the even vaster Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Perhaps they were a trifle intimidated to be situated where the 100-plus members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic usually do their stuff. But this is a hall that loves a beautiful sound, that seems to embrace it and enhance it, and sure enough, when Marsalis began to produce his noble open trumpet sound on his slow and lyrical original, "The Magic Hour," the benign acoustic space made it seem doubly majestic.

Marsalis and his saxophone player Walter Blanding stationed themselves comfortably on either side of the stage, waiting their turns while the dynamic new pianist Dan Nimmer, a student of Chicago's great Willy Pickens, found his own unique path, paralleling those of such classic jazzmen as Oscar Peterson and Wynton Kelly.

When Blanding, a member of Marsalis' Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, got his turn, he laid his booming sound right alongside the jazz groove Nimmer was laying down. He, too, had his own little way of doing things, but both of them played regular, recognizable jazz the way it's supposed to be played. Real jazz, as Marsalis likes to put it.

Drummer Ali Jackson Jr. and bassist Carlos Henriquez were stalwarts when it came to anchoring the many challenging forms that the writing presented. They were particularly useful on the song "The Return of Romance," sung with authority and straight-arrow intonation by Jennifer Sanon, who kept the complex story line under control with the help of the imperturbable Jackson and Henriquez.

No doubt mindful that a whole evening of open trumpet, no matter how gorgeous, might be tiresome, Marsalis deployed a variety of mutes. His plunger work behind Sanon on "Comes Love" hit the growl target in the style of Cootie Williams. Marsalis put in his cup mute for a toy trumpet effect on the playful "Do Your Thing," a sprightly number in the manner of Raymond Scott.

The Disney Hall gave Marsalis its most telling assist during his solo on "Sparks," a bullet-train-paced blues number that closed the set. Marsalis kept his horn open and his fingers blurred to produce high-speed cataracts of 16th notes. Every .001 of a second microtone had an audible beginning, middle and end, and all were heard clearly to be separate from the preceding note and the next one.

It was a mighty feat not only of acoustic surroundings but of trumpet technique, not at all lessened by the fact that Blanding followed Marsalis' triumph by doing the same thing on saxophone without breaking a sweat. Nimmer put in some equally rapid work on his piano solo, Jackson took some bright little drum breaks, and when it was over, a standing ovation lasted almost as long as the tune.

Six musicians. Not 100-plus. But just as much music.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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