The 2012
Columbia box set
Swinging into the 21st collects all of trumpeter/bandleader
Wynton Marsalis' ten albums released in 1999. An ambitious project approved by
Columbia due to
Marsalis' highly respected career and longstanding association with the label,
Swinging into the 21st featured a mix of large- and small-group sessions in various cross-genre settings from classical and ballet to big band, all connected by the theme of jazz. In that sense, each album was a logical extension of
Marsalis' career and musical inclinations up to that point and, as such, generally featured the more traditional New Orleans-based jazz approach he began to favor in the early '90s. This is true even when exploring such divergent musical entities as
Thelonious Monk on
Standard Time, Vol. 4: Marsalis Plays Monk and
Jelly Roll Morton on
Standard Time, Vol. 6: Mr. Jelly Lord. Also included here is
The Marciac Suite,
At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1,
A Fiddler's Tale,
Reeltime,
Big Train,
All Rise, and a single disc of selections from the box set
Live at the Village Vanguard. The best cuts from the
Swinging series were the small-group sessions where
Marsalis and his septet got to stretch out with longer solos and inspired group interplay, as on the rollicking New Orleans second-line number "Juba and a O'Brown Squaw" from
Live at the Village Vanguard and "King Porter Stomp" from
Mr. Jelly Lord. Also engaging are the slightly more modern tracks, including two roiling, cubist
Thelonious Monk numbers, "Hackensack" and "Green Chimneys," which
Marsalis worked up for
Marsalis Plays Monk. While his small-group recordings are certainly a highlight here,
Marsalis' extended large-ensemble pieces such as the bluesy "Loose Duck" from
The Marciac Suite and the lyrical violin-led ballad "Morning Song" are superb orchestral jazz recordings that, as with all of
Swinging into the 21st, showcase the urbane and always swinging mind of
Marsalis. ~ Matt Collar