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Sweet Swing Blues on the Road: A Year with Wynton Marsalis and His Septet

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The book "Sweet Swing Blues on the Road" is a fantastic view into the life of American jazz darling Wynton Marsalis.

It professes and appears at first glance to be about life touring on the road, but instead reveals itself as a collection of essays about subjects as diverse as bandmates, romance, and of course music.

The tone Marsalis takes is very reminiscent of his good friend, Stanley Crouch, who wrote most of the liner notes for Marsalis' albums. However, while Crouch can come off as losing a ferocious battle against the English language, Marsalis seems earthy, clever, and insightful.

Marsalis writes like a musician or every black preacher worth a drive. He has a cadence. A strong cadence. A cadence that finds resonation in the soul. He developes writing themes like any good improviser should.

It is clear that Marsalis has spent time with noted writer Albert Murray, whose book "Stomping the Blues" finds a kindred heart in "Swing Sweet . . ."

Readers receive a sneak peak at Marsalis' Pulitzer-prize winning epic "Blood on the Fields" as some of the sights of this book reappear in that work. Readers also find themselves agreeing with Marsalis' view of rap ("Rappers have funny haircuts") and misunderstandings of jazz.

Photographer Frank Stewart provides visual compliments to the text in fine black and white fashion. Perhaps the belle of this ball is the out of fucus shot of the late Dizzy Gillespie with an in-focus sillouette of Marsalis in the foreground.

"Swing Sweet home blues" is a great book that people who like jazz would love and those who don't understand jazz owe to themselves to check out. END

The book "Sweet Swing Blues on the Road" is a fantastic view into the life of American jazz darling Wynton Marsalis.

It professes and appears at first glance to be about life touring on the road, but instead reveals itself as a collection of essays about subjects as diverse as bandmates, romance, and of course music.

The tone Marsalis takes is very reminiscent of his good friend, Stanley Crouch, who wrote most of the liner notes for Marsalis' albums. However, while Crouch can come off as losing a ferocious battle against the English language, Marsalis seems earthy, clever, and insightful.

Marsalis writes like a musician or every black preacher worth a drive. He has a cadence. A strong cadence. A cadence that finds resonation in the soul. He developes writing themes like any good improviser should.

It is clear that Marsalis has spent time with noted writer Albert Murray, whose book "Stomping the Blues" finds a kindred heart in "Swing Sweet . . ."

Readers receive a sneak peak at Marsalis' Pulitzer-prize winning epic "Blood on the Fields" as some of the sights of this book reappear in that work. Readers also find themselves agreeing with Marsalis' view of rap ("Rappers have funny haircuts") and misunderstandings of jazz.

Photographer Frank Stewart provides visual compliments to the text in fine black and white fashion. Perhaps the belle of this ball is the out of fucus shot of the late Dizzy Gillespie with an in-focus sillouette of Marsalis in the foreground.

"Swing Sweet home blues" is a great book that people who like jazz would love and those who don't understand jazz owe to themselves to check out.

Combine Armstrong, Ellington, Twain and Leonard Bernstein and you get Wynton Marsalis. His musical genius is well-established but his prose writing is just as good. SWEET SWING is part travelogue, part history book, part opera, part day-in-the-life of a jazz band, part philosophy of celebration of existence. A total package of words that swing, baby, from sentence to sentence. There is enough in this book to delight anyone with eyes and ears!
You tap your feet and snap yr fingers to Marsalis' writing. If you weren't a jazz fan before reading this magnum opus, you will be now.
Frank Stewart's photography supplies a visual rhythm section spanning the entire keyboard of jazz and American existence!

Wynton Marsalis is commonly referred to as the leader of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in New York. His fame was established through years of touring with his brilliant Wynton Marsalis Septet. It is from that period in his creative life that this memory album comes. Frank Stewart's genius snapshots are complimented by Marsalis' commentary on a multitude of topics. Some excerpts are just recollections, others read like sermons. If nothing else, one is given a chance to observe Wynton in all of his elements - intellectually, musically, and socialy as well. His band is also introduced throughout the episodes. A highly intimate journey through the life of a jazz legend in our time.