The Majesty of the Blues is a 1989 jazz album by Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...

.

Marsalis wrote all the selections on the album, in addition to playing trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

.

The first two selections on the album are played by the Wynton Marsalis Sextet, including in addition to Marsalis Marcus Roberts

Marcus Roberts

Marcus Roberts is an American jazz pianist who has achieved fame as a stride pianist committed to celebrating classic standards and jazz traditions. Roberts has also distinguished his solos by accompanying himself with walking basslines...

, piano; Todd Williams, tenor and soprano saxophone; Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson

Wesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....

, alto saxophone; Reginald Veal, string bass; and Herlin Riley

Herlin Riley

Herlin Riley is an American Neo-bop jazz drummer. Along with other notable musicians such as Wynton Marsalis and Wessel Anderson, he is a member of the New York jazz group, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra....

, drums. These tracks are "The Majesty of the Blues", subtitled "The Puheeman Strut", and "Hickory Dickory Dock".

The remaining three tracks (side B on the original LP release), a set entitled "New Orleans Function", features the sextet along with additional New Orleans musicians in a style strongly influenced by the traditional New Orleans brass band

Brass band

A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...

. The additional musicians on the "New Orleans Function" section are Teddy Riley

Teddy Riley (jazz)

Theodore Riley, better known as Teddy Riley was a jazz trumpet player and bandleader. On occasion he also sang and played flugelhorn....

 trumpet (mostly playing first trumpet lead, with Marsalis playing second); Freddie Lonzo, trombone; Dr. Michael White

Michael White (clarinetist)

Michael White is a jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer, jazz historian and musical educator...

, clarinet; and Danny Barker

Danny Barker

Danny Barker , born Daniel Moses Barker, was a jazz banjoist, singer, guitarist, songwriter, ukelele player and author from New Orleans, founder of the locally famous Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band...

, banjo. This section mirrors a traditional "jazz funeral

Jazz funeral

Jazz funeral is a common name for a funeral tradition with music which developed in New Orleans, Louisiana.The term "jazz funeral" was long in use by observers from elsewhere, but was generally disdained as inappropriate by most New Orleans musicians and practitioners of the tradition...

", with a dirge

Dirge

A dirge is a somber song expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral. A lament. The English word "dirge" is derived from the Latin Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam , the first words of the first antiphon in the Matins of the Office...

 like first selection ("The Death of Jazz"), then a spoken word section ("Premature Autopsies", an essay by Stanley Crouch

Stanley Crouch

Stanley Crouch is an American music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, and novelist, perhaps best known for his jazz criticism, and his novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome?- Biography :...

 performed by Reverend Jeremiah Wright

Jeremiah Wright

Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr. is Pastor Emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ , a megachurch in Chicago exceeding 6,000 members...

, Jr.) preached like a minister saying the final words at the graveyard, and finally a second line number ("Oh, But On The Third Day - Happy Feet Blues").

The Majesty of the Blues was originally released in the LP

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

, Compact Disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

, and Cassette tape

Compact Cassette

The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...

formats.

External links

• "The Majesty of the Blues" on WyntonMarsalis.org