Sic Semper Tyrannis

Standard Time Vol.3-The Resolution of Romance by Wynton Marsalis (1990)

A Random CD Review from the Stutzman Memorial Library

Standard Time Vol. 3-The Resolution of Romance by Wynton Marsalis (1990)

“That’s baby-makin’ music, that’s what that is,” I said one time when someone noticed this album playing in the background at my house.

Well, the Excel random-number formula spit out #337 today. As I’ve said before, Wynton is one of my all-time favorite musical artists and on this album he takes on some down-tempo, smoky jazz with his dad Ellis on piano. Wynton is pretty much the epitome of “cool” to me. I came to this realization after seeing him live with his septet several years ago. He speaks in a slow, deliberate manner, sometimes with playful humor and a vocabulary just barely out of his reach, and there is always the hint that he might be saying something profound in a southern way.

I certainly can’t remember any of the tunes on this album in particular. This is a real “vibey” record. You put it on with the lights low and allow the quartet to massage your soul and tell you, “everything’s gonna be all right, baby.” I’ve actually got a bunch of jazz albums like that. They only exist for me in the moment of audible perception. Due to their improvised nature, they are fleeting. The exact opposite of this would be, say, a Beatles song-something that “stays with me.” I can hear “For No One” with my mind’s ear right now---the bright piano, Paul singing “Your day breaks, your mind aches” in his lower middle register, the brilliant horn solo by Alan Civil in the middle, the harmonium…I could probably work out the form from memory.

Not so with anything from this Wynton album. And that used to kind of make me feel bad, as if I wasn’t being faithful to what Wynton and the guys were doing. I’ve always been an analysis-first kind of listener. But jazz just defies that need for specifics. I don’t have the background or education to fully understand what’s going on in a standard performed by a small combo like this. It’s just a bunch of nice “vibey” sounds to me. As I get older, I am slowly getting to the point where that’s ok. I don’t have to be hyper-aware of all the technicalities when listening. It’s becoming ok to surrender to the musical moment.

And I think that “letting go” is spilling into other areas of my life. The world around me doesn’t just suggest, it forces a multitude of questions. I’ve never had the answers. I’m slowly becoming ok with that again. I say “again,” because when I was a kid, one of my favorite bits of Biblical advice was “lean not on your own understanding.” And I loved God’s response to Job’s reasonable complaints, basically saying “I’m God. Get used to it. I didn’t ask for your permission or opinion when I created all this.” College, (with its’ emphasis on argument-and defense), and ego kind of forced that advice into the back of my head.

I’m getting back to a “what the hell do I know?” mindset these days.

posted by Mike @ 10:55 AM