Willie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis - Two Men With The Blues
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Willie Nelson/Wynton MarsalisEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2008-07-08
Music Label: Blue Note Records
Product features:
- NELSON WILLIE & WYNTON TWO MEN WITH THE BLUES
- Bright Lights, Big City
- Night Life
- Caldonia
- Stardust
- Basin Street Blues
- Georgia on My Mind
- Rainy Day Blues
- My Bucket's Got a Hole in It
- Ain't Nobody's Business
- That's All
Free Music Notes for Two Men With The Blues
Free Music Review: Surprising !
Hit: 5 Stars
First let me state that I almost always refuse the trend to give a recording 5 stars merely because I enjoy it. I reserve 5 stars for those I find remarkable. I had to play this CD 3 times (now 4) the 1st day to confirm my initial awe.
Wynton and Willie are 2 artists that I'd given up on, was a huge fan of both many years ago but had lost interest as both had settled into comfortable, but unspectacular or predictable recordings. Upon reflection though, this pairing isn't as odd as it first seems. They are smart to find the common ground that they share - the Blues - and it works. With this, Willie has always had Jazz inflections to his vocal style, swinging around the beat much like Billie Holiday [singing along with him has always been maddening]. Like Billie, Willie can add tension to a lyric by his slightly off-the-beat phrasing. Unlike another reviewer here, I find him in fine voice on this recording. Willie is also an underrated guitarist and is known for using chords more common to Jazz than Country. The songs mostly have small-combo Swing arrangements, occasionally running to full Dixieland.
The choice of musicians here is right on, with the incredible Mickey Raphael on harmonica from Willie's band and the rest, I assume, from Wynton's. I am particularly impressed with Walter Blanding on sax and am glad that the 2 giants give him room to play. Dan Nimmer is also excellent on piano and his jazzy comping is a better choice on this recording than the honky-tonk piano Willie generally would use.
Then there are the songs: a great selection of songs from each other's repertoire. The only song that I could do without is "Caledonia", a song that I just dislike. Willie has recorded "Night Life" a hundred times by now, but Wynton's growling trumpet blows new life into it with a solo that reinforces the angst of the lyric - it may become my favorite recording of the song. It's impossible to improve on Willie's original recording of "Georgia On My Mind", but I particularly like Nimmer's piano accompaniment with Raphael's superbly understated harmonica solo. Sublime!
"Basin Street Blues" and "Rainy Day Blues" gets Wynton's folks into a familiar groove, with latter featuring Blanding and Raphael playing off each other and Willie stretching out a little on his distinctive guitar.
The group even has some fun with "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It" and ending the set with the hilarious "That's All". "Bucket" is reworked as a Dixieland swing number with loose gut-bucket playing by the whole ensemble; Ali Jackson contributes an interesting drum solo and Wynton even contributes a lyric. "That's All" ends with the hottest playing on the disk with all the group members going full blast, an ending that leaves them - and you - breathless.
Which leaves "Ain't Nobody's Business" which may be the tour-de-force. I always shudder when an artist does a song made famous by Billie Holiday, but this version is looser (done very tongue-in-cheek) and gives plenty room for all to solo. Willie contributes a fine guitar solo and a great vocal and Wynton his contibutes his finest playing on the disk. Walter Blanding again impresses on sax and and bass player Carlos Henriquez gets to solo a bit.
It's impressive how tight this group is, you'd think they'd played together forever. I'm glad that Willie and Wynton don't dominate the other band members, especially given the talent of the other players. Jackson and Henriquez provide a solid rhythm section throughout. This is a great performance, perhaps my favorite CD of the year. I recommend it without reservation.
Two Men With The Blues Poster
The event was simply billed as "Willie Nelson Sings the Blues," but the historic two-night stand on January 12 and 13, 2007 at Jazz at Lincoln Center was far more than that. Call it a summit meeting between two American icons, Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, two of the most significant figures in modern-day country and jazz, who discovered common ground in their love for jazz standards and the blues. Their performance stirred the sounds of New Orleans, Nashville, Austin and New York City into a brilliantly programmed mix that was equal parts down-home and cosmopolitan, with plenty of swing and just a touch of melancholy. To say that these shows were a hot ticket would be an understatement. Luckily, the tapes were rolling and the results of this unique collaboration now constitute the Blue Note album Two Men With The Blues for everyone who couldn't cram into The Allen Room. Featuring great playing from one of the hottest bands around these classic tracks are given new life by the extraordinary dual talents of Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. At a time when most people are thinking of retirement, Willie has never been busier. His profile has been high in recent weeks with his various career retrospective releases and sold out tour and this album can rightly stake it's place alongside anything else he has done. Wynton rarely sounds so relaxed and both of these musical giants are clearly having the time of their lives together on these new interpretations of some of the greatest songs of the 20th century.Two Men with the Blues is no more a jazz album than a blues album. It's neither jazz returning home, nor blues wandering out. What Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis have created is a compilation of jump-blues standards with arrangements that compliment both genres. While most of the album is careful not to take itself too seriously, there are a few tracks that seem to plod on for ages. The live set kicks off with the upbeat "Bright Lights, Big City," on which Marsalis' horn is crisp and full. "Ain't Nobody's Business" and "Basin Street Blues" are arranged slower than better known versions but still fit the album's context. Nelson and Marsalis's take on "Stardust" comes off as a bit too "Sinatra" for Nelson's thin vocal, while "Georgia on My Mind" just doesn't work at all. Still, the things that work, work well. "Night Life" and "Rainy Day Blues" are particular stand-outs, and "Caldonia" is a faithful homage to the Louis Jordan original (minus Jordan's screaming punch line, of course). The album ends riding high on closer "That's All," with its straight-out-of-a-New-Orleans-Baptist-church feel. Both Nelson and Marsalis are notorious for collaborating with other artists. Therefore, it seems only natural that they've found themselves on a project together. Overall, this set is well worth the wait. --Eric C.P. Martin
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