Two Men With The Blues

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

This release is a 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., ISBN13: B0016NF06O ISBN10: B0016NF06O Material Type: audioCD