Wynton Marsalis(sp)

That's crazy. I think Gary Giddins once said Marsalis's impact inversely diminished as his ambitions grew bigger, and I kind of agree (though not commercially - I think Marsalis got more press and probably sold more records and more concert tickets when he released more ambitious work). A great player, but a frustrating artist where his great technical ability can be hampered by his flawed vision.

(though not commercially - I think Marsalis got more press and probably sold more records and more concert tickets when he released more ambitious work)

Curious about the timeline -- he was dropped by CBS in 2000 for flagging sales.

It's a weird and complex issue. He writes a fucking ton of material for the JALC Orchestra, and gets other members to write and arrange, too, but nobody else plays his compositions, like, ever — not one Wynton Marsalis tune has entered the common repertoire. And that's kinda too bad, because some of the albums the JALC Orchestra has put out in the last few years — Handful Of Keys, Jazz & Art, The Fifties — are pretty good. No, he's not breaking new ground, it's all basically Mingus-meets-Ellington with some extra New Orleans thrown in, but the tunes are decent, and the band can certainly play. I feel like in his quest to preserve jazz, he built himself a giant tomb and walled himself up inside it. If he came out more and engaged with the wider world, it would be better for his music and maybe for the music as a whole. But if/when you just want to hear him do his thing, he can be pretty good at it.

I do wonder if everything he’s done with founding JALC will be his greater legacy.

Speaking of which, I know that there was and is some bad blood about the experience of the ALJO, which started at JALC but then split off for reasons maybe you can read about elsewhere. Also I heard a story about someone else of some stature unrelated to the ALJO saying "The only Wynton I care about is Wynton Kelly."