Nah, I haven't heard it yet. I should, though: I'm at least morbidly curious... I have fond memories of Miles Davis' hip-hop crossover attempt Doo-Bop, which probably says more about me than I'm comfortable with. Who knows? The idiom may suit him.

I've often wondered whether Mr. Marsalis -- along with his self-appointed mouthpiece, Stanley Crouch -- hasn't been engaged all these years in an elaborate subterfuge aimed at exorcising his own deep-seated sense of self-loathing for having resided at the master's house for too long (i.e., Sony/Columbia and, more recently, Lincoln Center). By constantly singling out hip-hop for his piddling criticisms, methinks he doth protest too much. After all, this is the same person who excoriated Miles Davis for going "electric" -- an insult that Miles never forgave him for, even long after Bitches Brew had racked up gold-record sales. Wynton Marsalis is a great trumpeter, but he's a preservationist -- not an innovator. The next time he fires up yet another in a seemingly endless string of tributes to "the Dixieland tradition," maybe he should ask himself who the real minstrel is.

Ornette Coleman just won the Pulitzer Prize for music and he blows the wheels off Marsalis. Not even in the same league.

Hey Brad,

I'm glad you went back and read the article. Davis is great, isn't he? And while I agree that Davis clearly had his reservations about Marsalis' album, he did also say he agreed with many of Wynton's points. That's what I enjoyed most about the review -- Davis seemed level-headed without being boring or hedging.

Have you heard "Plantation?" If so, I'd love to know what you thought. I felt Marsalis' words were nowhere near as passionate as his music.

I am a bit of a jazz fan and have a couple hundred Jazz CDs lying around, but I have never taken much to the music of Wynton Marsalis, which has always seemed over academic and unswinging to me, but I do have an interesting story about him (never published.)

In the early eighties I saw Marsalis and his band play at the Bermuda Festival (when I lived there). I found the performance rather boring. The next night, a friend of mine, a black Bermudian who played trumpet in the Bermuda Regiment band went to the show.

Afterwards my friend went backstage and introduced himself to Marsalis and said he had really enjoyed the performance, especially as he was a trumpeter himself. "Where is your horn? asked the jazzman. "In my car", replied my friend. "Well go get it then".

My friend ran out to his car to get his horn,and when he returned Marsalis gave him a free 45-minute individual trumpet lesson--which he was tremendously excited about.

My friend died young a few years later from a heart attack, but that lesson from Marsalis was a memory that he always treasured.

I wonder how many rappers give their fans doggerel lessons.

And I see Mr. Marsalis given a fairly fair shake. David, you didn't really do justice to the unease Davis feels at a wealthy, PBS-friendly jazz traditionalist clucking about rampant capitalism and that damn jungle beat. Check these quotes: "This is a protest album staunch Republicans could get behind"? "I'm not saying go back to blaming Whitey, but don't let him wiggle off the hook, either"? C'mon, Dave, that's a starting point for some fun!

Wynton Marsalis is a hide-bound trad bopper. He is to jazz what... well, what Ken Burns' "Jazz" was to jazz: a veneer of respectability that the form really doesn't require, a codification of narrow values to emulate and rarely transcend. Like "Jazz," he ain't nowhere near the whole picture, and he ain't the towering authority.

Furthermore, I'm not sure he's had an original musical thought in ages; the same cannot be said, however, for hip-hop (and the irony of his usurping the form to remain relevant is too perfect... at least Mos Def and Chuck D dabbled in hard rock like my man Sonny Sharrock). Just because he's black doesn't mean he's an acceptable Trojan Horse for people's musical biases.

If you'll excuse me, I've got a Rahsaan Roland Kirk CD in the car. Oh, and "Throw Some D's" on a mix CD.