06 October 2013

Buying Christian Scott

Skeptical of those jazz media darlings right about now? Don't sleep on Christian Scott. A Spotify investigation into the work of the Nextboppy trumpeter about town has landed me firmly on board. Scott's trumpet playing is merely solid, but his music as a whole strikes me as the total package. It has an intangible quality about it that far surpasses more simplistic, self-conscious notions of balancing groove with headiness, and his string of consistently great albums at this stage of his career is stunning, an outcome all the resources and media coverage in the world can't guarantee. Except perhaps for his age in light of so many jazz elders who have not received one, I would not have batted an eye if he had received a MacArthur this year. Seriously.

Here is one of my favorites, taking what could legitimately be called trite materials and transforming them into something extraordinary through counterpoint, structure, and pacing:



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