The first workday after a three-day weekend is always a good excuse to have the blues. Luckily, you’ve got Popdose to cheer you up — and we’re doing it today by offering you the chance to win a free copy of Eric Clapton and Wynton Marsalis’ new CD/DVD project, Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton Play the Blues. Read below for all the behind-the-scenes details of the project — and to find out how you can catch a screening of the show in select theaters.
And if you want to win a copy of the CD/DVD package? Oh, that’s easy. Just send our Tall Editor (and new homeowner) Michael Parr an email with the subject line “FORECLOSURE NOTICE.” After he’s resuscitated by the paramedics, Michael will pick TWO WINNERS. You could be one of them! For serious! Enter now!
LOS ANGELES — New York City’s premier jazz venue got the blues last April when Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton performed together in Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center for two sold-out shows dedicated to vintage blues. The extraordinary collaboration, billed as Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play the Blues, paired these musical virtuosos with members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as they brought to life a repertoire of songs selected by Clapton and arranged by Marsalis.
Reprise Records captures the magic of these unprecedented shows from earlier this year on CD and as a CD/DVD combo that both feature selections taken from the two public concerts (April 8-9), as well a special performance for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s annual gala (April 7). WYNTON MARSALIS & ERIC CLAPTON PLAY THE BLUES – LIVE FROM JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER will be available September 13 at physical and digital retail outlets for suggested list prices of $18.98 (CD), $24.98 (CD/DVD) and $9.99 (digital; audio only). The DVD will also feature a bonus performance of the classic “Stagger Lee” from legendary bluesman Taj Mahal’s opening solo set for these special shows.
Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and nine-time Grammy® Award winner, writes about his collaboration with Clapton, a 19-time Grammy recipient, in the album’s liner notes: ”…we wanted these concerts to sound like people playing music they know and love, not like a project.”
To help them achieve that level of devotion, Marsalis and Clapton were joined on stage by Dan Nimmer (piano), Carlos Henriquez (bass), Ali Jackson (drums), Marcus Printup (trumpet), Victor Goines (clarinet), Chris Crenshaw (trombone, vocals), Don Vappie (banjo) and Clapton’s longtime keyboardist/sideman Chris Stainton. Marsalis says the group combined the sound of an early blues jump-band with the sound of New Orleans jazz to accommodate the integration of guitar/trumpet lead, a combination that gave the musicians the latitude to play different grooves, from the Delta to the Caribbean and beyond.
The band nimbly navigated a diverse set list that touched on different styles, from the four-on-the-floor swing of Louis Armstrong’s ”Ice Cream” and the southern slow-drag of W.C. Handy’s ”Joe Turner’s Blues” to the traveling blues of ”Joliet Bound” and the boogie-woogie jump of ”Kidman Blues.” After opening the shows with his solo set, Mahal returned to join the band on ”Corrine, Corrina” and the New Orleans funeral standard ”Just A Closer Walk With Thee.”
The one song not selected by Clapton for the show was his own ”Layla,” which was requested by bassist Henriquez and arranged as a Crescent City dirge to tremendous results. On his review of the performance, David Fricke of Rolling Stone wrote: ”In the [song’s] instrumental break, Clapton hit a series of stabbing licks lightly crusted with distortion, followed by Marsalis’ slow parade of clean hurting peals — a moving dialogue in lovesickness and blues routes.”
WYNTON MARSALIS AND ERIC CLAPTON PLAY THE BLUES ERUPTS ONTO THE BIG SCREEN FEATURING SOLD-OUT PERFORMANCE FROM JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER
Centennial, CO — Grammy Award® winning artists Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton will offer fans a spellbinding evening of blues and jazz in Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton Play the Blues, a one-night in-theater concert event broadcast to nearly 550 movie theaters nationwide on Wednesday, September 7, at 7:30 p.m. local time. The concert also includes a special appearance by blues musician Taj Mahal, who joins the duo for two songs, as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage. This intimate performance from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City brings together an unrivaled cross-generational, cross-cultural collaboration as the pair of musical virtuosos brought to life a repertoire of songs selected by Clapton and arranged by Marsalis. Captured this past spring from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s renowned annual gala, the iconic duo, performed to a sell-out crowd.
Tickets for Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton Play the Blues are available at participating theater box offices and online at http://www.FathomEvents.com. For a complete list of theater locations and prices, visit the NCM Fathom website (theaters and participants are subject to change).
Presented by NCM Fathom and Reprise Records, Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton Play the Blues will be broadcast nationwide through NCM’s exclusive Digital Broadcast Network.
”We’re playing music we know and love,” says Marsalis.
Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been awarded nine Grammy awards and ”Blood on the Fields” was the first jazz piece to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the bands The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton, a 17-time Grammy award winner, has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time.
”Jazz at Lincoln Center is truly one of the most distinguished producers of jazz music in the country,” said Dan Diamond, vice president of NCM Fathom. ”Both jazz and blues enthusiasts alike will be left speechless by the eclectic mix of music and heartfelt performances of this power-duo.”
WYNTON MARSALIS & ERIC CLAPTON PLAY THE BLUES LIVE FROM JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER
CD and DVD Track Listing
1. ”Ice Cream” (Louis Armstrong)
2. ”Forty-Four” (Howlin’ Wolf)
3. ”Joe Turner’s Blues” (W.C. Handy)
4. ”The Last Time” (Louis Armstrong)
5. ”Careless Love” (Bessie Smith)
6. ”Kidman Blues” (”Big Maceo” Merriweather)
7. ”Layla” (Eric Clapton)
8. ”Joliet Bound” (”Kansas Joe” McCoy/”Memphis Minnie” McCoy)
9. ”Just A Closer Walk With Thee” (ft. Taj Mahal) [Traditional]
10. ”Corrine, Corrina” (ft. Taj Mahal) [Bo Chatmon/Mitchell Parish]
Bonus Track on DVD-only: “Stagger Lee” by Taj Mahal
Related articles
- Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play The Blues (wncx.radio.com)
- Eric Clapton and Wynton Marsalis in One-Night-Only Concert Nationwide (online.wsj.com)
- Live Jazz: Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl (irom.wordpress.com)
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