Wynton Marsalis: The Magic Hour

In 2000, after a heroic attempt to fill the world's cut-out bins following the release of eight albums plus a six-CD box set in the space of 12 months, jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was dropped by Sony Jazz. 'Company insiders say Marsalis shopped himself around to other labels but was turned down because he wanted too much money, in one case asking $1 million per album,' said the Boston Globe . In 2003, he signed with Blue Note, their president Bruce Lundvall announcing: 'Wynton is on the cusp of an innovative new creative period.'

Heaven knows how much they must have forked out, but after The Magic Hour , Lundvall's colleagues must be wondering privately what he thinks passes for 'innovative' and 'creative' these days. Like F. R. Leavis codifying literary tradition along narrow and intolerantly proscriptive lines, Marsalis espouses 4/4 swing and the blues as basic ingredients of jazz, yet he really isn't a convincing blues player. He plays a sort of Esperanto jazz comprising several dialects stitched together from the past - all of which were history before he was born. Tracks such as 'You and Me' or 'Skipping' are déjà vu jazz and curiously unmoving. By the time you've reached the end of this CD you feel as if it's gone on for ever, like an Oliver Stone movie. It reinforces the belief that one of today's most famous jazz musicians may also be one of the most boring.