Customer Reviews

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (Score)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wynton Marsalis's, soulful, syncopated and very moving score is one of the finest jazz scores to have emerged since Duke Ellington did ANATOMY OF A MURDER. Marsalis draws on blues, dance and jazz idioms of the period conducting a small ensemble with all the right pieces and plenty of brass.

The opening cut, "What have you done?" is (not to pun, please) a knockout. It is dark, rhythmic and ominous. It prophesies the tragedy to befall Johnson in his prime. By comparison, the closer, "We'll meet again someday" speaks of Johnson's growing impotence in his fall from grace. Eric Lewis's nimble piano and Victor Goines' spicy clarinet, remind listeners the world continued to spin in the midst of Johnson's tragedy, and that the same world would continue to wreak havoc with its proprietary racism, politically condoned and socially acceptable, both now and then.

EMI's engineers deliver a crisp, natural acoustic to the proceedings. Liner note are interesting, but might have been longer, particularly the section written by Burns' colleague, Geoffrey C. Ward.

In all, the performance merits a more regal presentation, although I'm grateful we have it in any form.

A wonderful jazz soundtrack with an authentically vintage feel.

The thought occured to me whilst listening to this CD that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Marsalis share some common denomonators. Not the obvious comparisions of race and rise to the top of their respective crafts, mind you. But an inner drive and ability to enthral the masses regardless of the situation.

I admit this CD was approached with apprehension. I mean, Miles did the ultimate "Tribute to Jack Johnson" decades ago. And anyone who follows jazz in the least realizes the friction between Miles and Wynton. Why would Mr. Marsalis take such a chellenge.

Therein is the similarlity I see between him and his subject. Both men seem to perform best under the stress of a high-profile assignment. And, not dissimilar, both rose to the challenge and shine brighter than could be imagined.

A few of the tracks are kind of difficult to really get into, but there's plenty of rich juicy stuff here, particularly the last track "We'll Meet Again Someday." Marsalis has composed a score that justly deserves to be joined with this truly amazing documentary on a truly amazing man and boxer.

This is fun music that takes you back in time. Back to..oh..the 1999 release "Reeltime". The soundtrack Wynton wrote for the movie "Rosewood" that was not used. Play track #1 on both albums "Rosewood" on "Reeltime" and "What Have You Done" on "Unforgivable Blackness"...notice a similarity. Try "Rattlesnake Tail Swing" on "Reeltime" and..um.."Rattlesnake Tail Swing" on "Unforgivable Blackness". By now I'm sure you get the point. The music is certainly given a different treatment on both albums but that doesn't change the fact that this music is not original to this soundtrack. I guess it has gotten to the point that Wynton and "his" are now repeating themselves. Noticeably missing from the liner notes are Stanley Crouch and his pontifications (which I actually enjoy), I guess he must have felt that he said it all the first time with "Reeltime". Musically this a very good album but I liked "Reeltime" better. What the hell be a fool and buy both...God knows I did.

With four previously released tracks and two outtakes from the Rosewood, one can casually dismiss the score to the excellent Ken Burns documentary as being unforgivable; a major artist should create - not recreate - music.

But the tracks work as period pieces that Burns obviously wanted. Please remember that Marsalis had worked with Burns previously on Ken Burns's Jazz miniseries and Burns obviously knew what he needed for Unforgivable Blackness.

I wish the liner notes included information penned by Marsalis on why he chose the tracks and how he felt each piece fit the mood in the specific part of the documentary. The purchaser is left with piecing together the "picture" of music with the screen.

While the Miles Davis soundtrack of nearly 40 years ago is vastly superior musically, Marsalis does capture the feel of American popular music in the early 20th century.

Wynton is a very talented musician whose ambitions lie primarily with social rather than musical issues. He wants to get jazz through the door of the big cultural institutions of America, like Lincoln Center, schools, museums, etc., to put jazz on an equal social footing with, I guess, "classical" music. That all commendable, but it seems that he and his buddies Crouch and Murray think the way to do this is to turn jazz into stone--develop a rigid, fixed notion of what it's supposed to be, the better to promote it for its "greatness" and "timelessness". They're promoting a marble statue called "jazz", and while this is fine it's part of a culture war and not a living art.

Wynton is really a music educator and curator. He's not a person who will advance the art, despite his musical talent. This soundtrack is perfect for him, since he decided some years back that he was going to try to revive Dixieland. It provides the appropriate predictable "period" color that Ken Burns is so fond of (during his "Civil War" film that lonesome-harmonica-by-the-campfire just never quit), but how could you listen to this as music?

I fully agree with a previous reviewer, the Miles Davis "Jack Johnson" soundtrack is a lot better, because it wasn't trying to be a period costume drama. It's kind of funny, Wynton has spent his entire career trashing Miles, it seems like this is a bit of a symbolic attempt by him to slay the father figure, but all he's created is some mildly interesting background music. Miles' "Jack Johnson" is still the champion!

Wynton Marsalis' 'Unforgivable Blackness' is in its own class of scores that define a time and a place.I think this easily blows away the 'Jack Johnson' fusion take done by Miles Davis.Marsalis,
who wrote most of the score ,which also includes compositions by WC Handy and Jelly Roll Morton,combines an encyclopedic mind for "old"early 20th century classical jazz and makes it all sound "new".