Wynton Marsalis - Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. 1 (1987)

One of my favorite Marsalis albums. As the title suggests, this album sees his quartet journey through nine standards and two Marsalis originals. Marsalis' tone is fantastic in all registers and the band swings hard. Pianist Marcus Roberts nearly steals the show except the polyrhythmic efforts of drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts don't quite allow him to. Marsalis bravely picked excellent material by George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Juan Tizol, Ray Noble, Eubie Blake and Hoagy Carmichael. It's all been done many, many times but the quartet manages to put a new twist on all of it. The Marsalis website correctly promotes this album as "a memorable encounter between jazz past and jazz present that gives more than a hint, surely, of jazz future." I'm all for new and innovative tunes, but its also nice to hear these standards updated for new generations of music lovers. This Grammy award-winning album is a quality addition to any jazz library, including fledgling ones.

Press/ratings:

• Billboard: "Certain to be an immense seller."
• CashBox: "An exceptionally polished album of jazz standards"
• Los Angeles Times: 4 stars out of 5
• Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide: 3 stars out of 5
• Penguin Guide to Jazz: 3½ stars out of 4
• Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz: 4 stars out of 5

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #153
• Billboard Jazz LPs: #2
• CashBox Jazz: #1
• Radio & Records Jazz Radio National Airplay: #1

Tracks:  Lots of good stuff here, but my favorite cuts are Caravan, April in Paris, New Orleans, Foggy Day, Autumn Leaves, and the Cherokee reprise.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  I remember sitting around with Randy, one of my college roommates, figuring out what was going with the meter in Autumn Leaves. We quickly heard what was going on - with the actual measure time remaining constant, the band adds a beat to each measure then reverses the process. After figuring that out, we were completely captivated and must have listened to that track for an hour straight.

Previously revisited for the blog:

Two Men with the Blues (2008)	Crescent City Christmas Card (1989)
Live at The Village Vanguard (1999)	Baroque Music for Trumpets (1988)
Marsalis Plays Monk (1999)	Carnaval (1987)
Joe Cool's Blues (1995)	J Mood (1986)
Baroque Duet (1992)	Black Codes (From The Underground) (1985)
Uptown Ruler (1991)	Baroque Music for Trumpet (1984)
Tune In Tomorrow... (1990)	Trumpet Concertos (1983)