Blood on the Fields [Box set]
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Just as Charles Mingus owed a great debt to Duke Ellington, Blood on the Fields makes clear how much Wynton Marsalis owes to Mingus. Marsalis won the Pulitzer Prize for Blood in 1997, decades after Ellington should've won for any of two or three suite-length works, and it's clear this piece was worth it. The blats and instrumental slurs that ricochet into melodies are certainly Ellingtonian, but only when you consider that Mingus revised them with vigorous energy. Further, the spoken-word passages, taken by the ensemble, hearken to Mingus's "Freedom," extending the vaunted trumpeter's list of influences. The story line to Blood is simple: two Africans are stolen and enslaved; the man falls in love with the woman; and when they reach freedom, their love has a chance to flourish. The tunes are richly orchestrated, with 15 players on the ensemble's roster. Marsalis does astonishingly good things with the charts, making his group sound like a firm creative vehicle. Saxophonists James Carter and Robert Stewart provide nuanced solos behind vocalists Cassandra Wilson and Miles Griffith, adding improvisational elements that help raise the ante on this program. As a soloist, Marsalis doesn't make huge contributions, but his ample, clarity-laden tone is as ringing here as anywhere in his catalog. --Andrew Bartlett
Blood on the Fields, Music, Wynton Marsalis & the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Jazz, Jazz Music, Neo-Bop, Pop, Swing
Average customer rating:
- blindfold test
- The Man With The Sax
- Outstanding funk/fusion jazz
- Go For It!
- starts dont reflect album.
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Layin' in the Cut
James Carter
Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
 Avant Garde & Free Jazz
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Bebop General
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ASIN: B00004TJ94
Release Date: 2000-06-06 |
Tracks:
- Layin' In The Cut
- Motown Mash
- Requiem For Hartford Ave.
- Terminal B
- Drafadelic In D Flat
- There's A Paddle
- GP
Amazon.com
The collective electric improvisations that make up Layin' in the Cut showcase the intrepid, high-wire quality of James Carter's free jazz/super-bop side, much as the romantic acoustic arrangements of sibling release Chasin' the Gypsy focus on the saxophonist's lyrical talents. Drummer Grant Calvin Weston and electric bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma afford Carter a loose yet deeply centered rhythmic focus upon which to conceive a postmodern bridge between hard funk and modern jazz. While swing is clearly a second language here (the coda to "There's a Paddle" being an energetic example), wherever Carter dares to tread, he matches his ferocious energy with his band's grace and power--especially on the title cut and "Motown Mash."
Electric guitarists Marc Ribot and Jef Lee Johnson confer an open-ended brand of melodic fluidity and timbral flexibility, enabling the saxophonist to split the difference between John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix, as on "Requiem for Hartford Ave."--Ribot's pensive classical-styled intro and Johnson's bluesy retorts inspire alternating serene and shrieking soprano phrases. On "Terminal B," a trademark Tacuma-Weston harmolodic march leads to a psychedelic free-for-all. Their most amiable radio-friendly collective work comes on "GP," with Ribot's Wes Montgomery-styled inflections gently framing Carter's lyric tenor in Latin raiment. And from his wailing ascent up the scale on "There's a Paddle" to his gorgeous gospel-blues inflections on "Drafadelic in D Flat," Carter's unbridled tenor work is deeply compelling. While these arrangements rarely venture out of the straight vamp mode into the more harmonically expansive vistas of, say, Sam Rivers's big-band jazz-funk (try Inspiration or Culmination), Carter's potential for growth is unmistakable. --Chip Stern
Customer Reviews:
blindfold test.......2007-03-19
this cd is a blindfold test for listeners: james carter is listed as playing 'all horns'. while guessing which saxophone he's playing on each track, you can get lost in the rhythm and blues, funk, free jazz, style of carter.
this time there are no trumpet, piano, or organ. there are two electric guitar players and a double bass player, along with a drummer-a lineup cassandra wilson might use.
the selections are originals, written by carter alone or in collaboration with the group members.
The Man With The Sax.......2006-03-21
There is al lot of fuzz about Carter being a technical arteficial over-talented cat, with no warmth of tone nor making any connection with the listener. Well, friends, listen up to his Layin-cut album and judge for yourself. I do hear enthousiasm, musicality, great joy and for all wunderfull saxes.
The album does remind me of the mid-eighties Miles albums (especially The Man The Horn). The combination of rock and jazz, the importance and solo's of the electric guitar.
But James Carter goes one step further: he introduces a second electric guitar, and gradually developes his compositions into a mindblowing jamming.
And so what if he shows his technical ability? His music is convincing to me anyway, and I guess it will be convincing to you to.
Outstanding funk/fusion jazz.......2003-12-22
Just when you thought fusion jazz had run out of steam, along comes the irrepressible James Carter breathing new life into the tired old genre. This is the best jazz in a fusion vein I have encountered since Miles did Jack Johnson way back in 1970. Carter blows hard and heavy on seven funkified tracks with the able accompanyment of Jef Lee Johnson and Marc Ribot on electric guitars, G. Calvin Weston on drums, and the nearly forgotten wondrous Jamaaladeen Tacuma on electric bass. Released in 2000 simultaneously with his Chasin' The Gypsy cd, Carter again showed how wonderfully eclectic he is. In an era when music is increasingly of the cookie cutter variety, Carter refuses to be restricted and is ubiquitous in his range of musical expression. Five stars to the most distinct and emphatic voice in modern jazz today for this top notch offering of classic jazz fusion.
Go For It!.......2000-11-25
Jazz has had no new perspective on funk for 15 years. Along comes James Carter to make sax sound new, and get jazz and funk allied again and fired up. This is an album not of virtuosity but of fresh ideas. James gives us hope for new grooves, so dig in.
starts dont reflect album........2000-11-03
i havent listened to nay of james carters albums, i just wanted to say i saw him live at yoshis jazz club in oakland september 29,2k. he played a 25 minute jam with his band, and i wish more than anything i had recorded it, it was the most amazing show i have ever seen. james and his band were so awesome! that song just blew me away, and hearing him play sax , wow....
Average customer rating:
- Maybe you had to be there
- Groundbreaking Music!
- A True Musical Epic
- Ellington has to be spinning in his grave!
- Sorry, I had to return this one!
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Blood on the Fields
Wynton Marsalis & the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
Bebop General
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ASIN: B0000029GF
Release Date: 1997-06-17 |
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Amazon.com essential recording
Just as Charles Mingus owed a great debt to Duke Ellington, Blood on the Fields makes clear how much Wynton Marsalis owes to Mingus. Marsalis won the Pulitzer Prize for Blood in 1997, decades after Ellington should've won for any of two or three suite-length works, and it's clear this piece was worth it. The blats and instrumental slurs that ricochet into melodies are certainly Ellingtonian, but only when you consider that Mingus revised them with vigorous energy. Further, the spoken-word passages, taken by the ensemble, hearken to Mingus's "Freedom," extending the vaunted trumpeter's list of influences. The story line to Blood is simple: two Africans are stolen and enslaved; the man falls in love with the woman; and when they reach freedom, their love has a chance to flourish. The tunes are richly orchestrated, with 15 players on the ensemble's roster. Marsalis does astonishingly good things with the charts, making his group sound like a firm creative vehicle. Saxophonists James Carter and Robert Stewart provide nuanced solos behind vocalists Cassandra Wilson and Miles Griffith, adding improvisational elements that help raise the ante on this program. As a soloist, Marsalis doesn't make huge contributions, but his ample, clarity-laden tone is as ringing here as anywhere in his catalog. --Andrew Bartlett
Customer Reviews:
Maybe you had to be there.......2005-04-18
There's much of musical-narrative value to be extracted from any one of the three discs comprising Wynton's ambitious attempt to capture the odyssey of the African-American experience through jazz. And I hear more of Ellington's signature and spirit in this work than in other attempts to invoke the Master's muse. The frequently loose and polyrhythmic textures, the vocal expressiveness of the instrumentalists, the indebtedness of the singers to the instruments of jazz, the narration supplied and dramatized by Wynton himself, the balance between composition and improvisation--all are in abundant evidence throughout this lengthy program.
But having listened attentively to the program once, I doubt it will receive another playing. "Melodrama"-- the combination of music and story--is not an easy form to pull off successfully and, above all, to sustain for upwards of three hours, especially without the aid of visual choreography. After 10-15 minutes the instrumentation and textures become overly familiar, the voices of the principals begin to seem indistinguishable (not helped by the baritone register which Cassandra Wilson shares with the other singers), and the spoken narrative supplied by the band remains informative but at the expense of lightness and life.
My impatience is only increased by the discovery that a similar musical narrative, Duke's scintillating and highly personal (and very underrated) "A Drum Is a Woman," is no longer in print! Maybe it's time to call a moratorium to more latter-day original compositions until we've had time to process the rich legacy that is in danger of being lost.
Groundbreaking Music!.......2003-02-05
I rate this album based on the quality of musical expression, not on some implied or expected intention. The variety and complexity of rhythmic and melodic expression here is enormous. The various instruments and vocals combine to give an effect unique in jazz. Each track has its own special flavor. I own more than 20 Wynton Marsalis albums and this one has really grown on me.
A True Musical Epic.......2001-07-22
A truly epic story must have many elements such as tragedy, suspense, humor, psychological and even historical insight. This work has all that and more. The music and lyrics are intellectually and emotionally engaging and are very effectively crafted to help the listener to feel as well as follow the story. However, that does not prevent many of the songs from being catchy or much of the music from being simply delightful. I think the pieces are also composed and arranged to the strengths of the performers. I found Cassandra Wilson's vocals (and the arrangements behind them) to be especially effective. Although some of the most catchy and memorable songs belong to the male vocalists. I suspect that in a hundred years or so this work will stand out as one of the most important musical compositions of the 20th century.
Ellington has to be spinning in his grave!.......2001-04-22
The spirit of the great Duke Ellington must be listening to this self indulgent tripe and wondering three things: 1. Who told Wynton he could liberally borrow huge portions of my work and put his name on it? 2. Who told Wynton he could rearrange my notes like that? 3. Who said he could have MY Pulizer?
Sorry, I had to return this one!.......2001-02-06
I purchased more than 100 Jazz recordings last week alone. Including Armstong, Goodman, Art Blakey, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown, Dave Brubeck, Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, etc., etc., etc. I even purchased other Wynton Marsalis recordings. Of all of them, I could not help but return this to the store from which I bought it. Normally, they don't take things back but because I purchase so many CD's from them as well as Amazon, they agreed. Sorry, this is boring, with emphasis on the boring. Regardless of whatever awards Wynton has won as a result of this work. I am into results, not polls or awards. There were also polls that said Clinton had a 68% approval ratings. From who? Wyonton Marsalis is a great composer/musician but this one does not warrant the praise.
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Average customer rating:
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Best of Basic Classics, Vol. 1 [Box Set]
Manufacturer: T-Rax Basic Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: B000056BCK
Release Date: 2001-01-02 |
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