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While Wynton Marsalis’s public stance on what constitutes jazz has made it seem like it belongs in the nostalgia bin, this latest release by his entire family in support of the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in their native New Orleans manages to ground that take by putting the music in historical perspective.
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Ellis’s sons Branford, Delfeayo, Jason and Wynton join their father in a program that dips into the New Orleans tradition while retaining a blues thread, a solid sense of swing and the ever-present echoes of Mother Church. Family stories and other oral tributes to the Marsalis patriarch and matriarch alternate with the music.
This takes the edge off some of the Marsalis jazz conservatism and reminds us what this rare family session is all about: expressing through music the importance of family and community in sustaining black America.
Wynton Marsalis plays Massey Hall February 1.
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