Customer Reviews

Soul Gestures 3: Levee Low Moan

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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This album features some of the finest arrangements and songs ever. Ever. I've got over 1500 albums, CD's, etc. and feel strongly that this secret gem is one of the finest albums ever. If you got far enough to read this review, buy this record and understand.

I never could understand why most critics believe Wynton Marsalis took a huge step back with his "Soul Gestures In Southern Blue" recordings. I am even more baffled on as to why they consider this installment (vol 3) to be the weakest of the series. I personally believe "Levee Low Moan" is one of Wynton's finest, and I think it is a much more solid entry than "Joe Cool's Blues", any of his "Standard Time" recordings, and even "Black Codes".

ALL of the songs on this album are memorable. There is some serious swinging on the title track and a MUCH improved version of "So This Is Jazz, Huh?" Perhaps the crown jewel of this album is "Superb Starling": an odd-metered beauty of a ballad featuring beautiful lyricism and a smoldering saxophone duel that will make you fall in love with jazz all over again. The album overall also includes some beautiful piano work, courtesy of Marcus Roberts.

"Levee Low Moan" is easily Marsalis's most overlooked and most underappreciated album. Give this album a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I purchased this CD largely due to the other Amazon reviews. I own more than ten Marsalis recordings and this is by far the best, probably in my entire music collection. All five songs are excellent. It is the most relaxing, well though-out album ever. Not one musician misses a note, and the balance of the instruments is perfect. It is a better representation of jazz than other Marsalis recordings because the trumpet playing is excellent, yet every other instrument is given just as much time in the songs and is played with just as much skill. 5 stars.

Put on some headphones and set this cd on repeat. I loved Jmood and Black Codes, but this is the Wynton that I love. Easily my favorite album of all time and I love everything from Prince, to Marilyn Manson, to Swedish Komeda, and Miles. I have turned many people onto this disc, especially horn players of all walks who are just blown away by this.

What are you waiting for; find out what it's all about.

I recently picked up this recording, and already am wondering what took me so long. I have over twenty Marsalis recordings and think I stayed away from his "Soul Gestures" series so long becuase of bad critical reviews that I'd read and been influenced by. Shows what they know because this album is full of startlingly beautiful blues and swing. I can see why someone might dismiss this album after only one listen, which is what I imagine most critics rely on for their views, becuase the album's five tracks have similar tempos and feelings that could cause a casual listener to become bored or disenchanted with the recording. But keep playing this one because its beauty unfolds like the best art does, slowly, improving with each new listen. Some find Marsalis to be a complacent composer, throwing out whatever comes into his head and passing it off for tunes, but they're missing the point entirely. Read the linear notes. Read Marsalis' own books, and for God's sake, listen well to his recordings, and you'll find that he's way too smart and way too talented to release anything that isn't full of structure and careful planning. This, if anything, is the one drawback to some of Wynton's recordings--they're almost too planned out. But that feeling takes a distant back seat to the joy that comes through in his best recordings, of which Levee Low Moan is one.
Marsalis and his partners, including Marcus Robers, piano, Reginad Veal, bass, Herlin Riley, drums, Wess Anderson, alto, and Todd Williams, tenor and soprano, are so locked into the grooves on this five tunes, that it's almost scary. They have such a deep respect for the groove and never try to push these numbers too far for the sake of a cheap thrill or a flurry of notes that they could easily execute but would cheapen the chosen tempos and feelings. Like Stevie Ray Vaughan learned and spoke about, a slow blues is a lot harder to play than a fast one, even though it sounds like the opposite would be true.
Check out the other nice reviews that folks have written about his gem and do what they recommend, pick it up, put it on repeat and relax into this one. Glorious.

Ellington -- meets Blakey and his Messengers -- meets the Miles Smiles Quintet -- distilled via the excellent early nineties sextet of the grand eminence and standard bearer of jazz, Mr. Marsalis. Thoroughly satisfying composition and ensemble work throughout, highlighted in my opinion by the Todd Williams penned "In the House of Williams" which would make a dead jazz lover shout!

Mr. Marsalis seems to elicit polar reactions from critics and the public. Musically speaking, Marsalis is the truth. End of discussion.

He's supremely talented. He's done his homework -- and then some. He is the direct linkage to, descendent from, and obvious heir of the most serious, talented and prolific progenitors of this American popular and classical artform.

Marsalis is no gimmick, fad or one trick pony. His vision is wide; his accumulated knowledge and studied understanding of his chosen artform runs deep. He is a preeminent instrumentalist, composer and ensemble leader. He is a musical and cultural intellectual. History will assuredly prove his critics both shortsighted and tasteless.

Armstrong, Ellington, Bird, Monk, Miles, Trane, Marsalis? Who else in the last twenty years has come close to responsibly assuming any part of this mantle?

Better ask somebody, or better yet listen for yourself -- then get on board, or get left behind.

If you haven't already, especially for those who feel Marsalis belabors traditionalism, don't sleep on his Citi Movement or The Marciac Suite.

And, don't be afraid of beauty.