‘You got to speak the language the people are speaking, especially when you see the havoc it’s wreaking/Even the rap game started out critiquing; now it’s all about killing and freaking!’ The words of 50 Cent? Ghostface Killah? No. It’s Wynton Marsalis, bravura trumpeter, jazz icon and outspoken defender of the jazz orthodoxy turned part-time rapper. They’re taken from his latest, angriest and finest album; the gloves are finally off and he’s primed for the fight.
It seems that the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina has stoked the flickering embers of Marsalis’ rage. This is jazz at its most passionate, connecting directly with the firebrand politics of ’60s musical activists Max Roach and Archie Shepp. Marsalis serves up a vociferous critique of contemporary US politics and culture, and it’s ironic that it’s America’s most conservative musics – country and jazz – currently leading the political charge with such unlikely figureheads as Dixie Chicks and Marsalis. But there is much more to ‘FTPTTP’ than an angry rant – his rage has ignited a creative breakthrough. Driven by his tightest, finest band to date, he borrows Louis Armstrong’s paint-stripping power to drive his message home, finding a new expressiveness where bland technique once dazzled. Propelled by the drum-tight grooves and bouncing bass lines of Ali Jackson Jr and Carlos Henriquez, this is a classic slice of hard bop, as punchy as any of the great Blue Note albums and far superior to his ‘Blood On The Fields’.
Marsalis and band bob and weave their way through marvellous Motown grooves, beautiful ballads, blues, gospel and African numbers with an Ali-esque lightness of touch. Regular co-conspirator, saxophonist Walter Blanding, is a forceful presence and the eloquent singing of Jennifer Sanon almost steals the show, but it’s Marsalis’ singing horn and closing rap sermon which has the final word. Music for the heart, head and hips.
