CHAPTER 22 | JAZZ: AMERICA’S CLASSICAL MUSIC? 533
the fi rst time to a jazz work: Marsalis’s oratorio Blood on the Fields, an epic work for
vocal soloists and jazz ensemble. By then he had written a series of ambitious mul-
timovement compositions, beginning with In This House, on This Morning, which
was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center, premiered in 1992, and released
as a two-CD set in 1994. Scored for seven players, the piece is an instrumental
depiction of a Sunday worship service in a Southern black church, from sunrise
prayers to the home-cooked meal that follows the service. Its twenty-one separate
sections, grouped into three large parts, span nearly two hours in performance.
A lt hough ma ny of t hose section s d raw on t he ex pressive power of t he ja zz tra-
dition’s rhythmic groove, the opening, “Devotional” (LG 22.1), is in free tempo.
“Devotional” also introduces musical material that will be heard in later sections:
especially the wide-ranging six-note fi gure played fi rst by the soprano saxo-
phone, then the double bass, then the trumpet, and fi nally again by the soprano
sax as the section nears its end. This fi gure is used in “Devotional” as a blues-like
call, representing a deacon who leads the prayers, with the other instruments
suggesting the responses from the congregation: a bluesy eighth-note piano fi g-
ure, two or three bell-like piano chords, and hushed chords from the rest of the
players. Only twice does the drummer join in the ensemble, as if an in-tempo
section is about to start. Both times, after a brief polyrhythmic moment, a unify-
ing call returns and the beat again becomes fl exible. While “Devotional” is not
intended as a free-standing piece, it provides an example of how non-swinging
jazz elements can be used to introduce a large-scale musical structure.
In a milieu of strong-minded indiv iduals, it is no surprise that Marsalis’s stance
has drawn criticism, especially since he became a dispenser of patronage through
Jazz at Lincoln Center. Many musicians have disagreed with his historicist approach
to a tradition that since the 1950s has evolved into a broad range of musical styles,KTrumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis, director of New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra.LG 22.1the Wynton controversy172028_22_531-558_r3_sd.indd 533 23/01/13 11:20 AM