Wynton Marsalis and J@LCO dazzle with Democracy! Suite at Barbican

Every so often, a concert comes along that lifts the spirits of everyone present, and the final evening of Wynton Marsalis’s March residency at the Barbican was one such. The main event was the UK premiere of his ‘Democracy! Suite’, played by a septet drawn from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, before the full big band came on for the final set. But the feel-good factor preceded the main show, with a free-stage set by the J@LC Youth Orchestra. Aged 16 to 18, these young players played brilliantly, with bassist Sydney Dutta and drummer Bami Dosunmu getting the crowd’s feet tapping from the first note. There were fine soloists too, with guitarist Ezra Moran outstanding. The final ‘Jackson County Jubilee’ from Benny Carter’s Kansas City Suite (written for Basie) was a tour-de-force, and tribute to the hard work of director Tatum Greenblatt and his young players, whose grins were as wide as those of the audience as their show ended.

In the hall, Wynton’s septet kicked off the first movement of the suite ‘Be Present’. Marsalis took the opening energetic solo, ripping across the range of the trumpet, before swapping phrases with Alexa Tarantino’s alto sax. After the elegant piano of Isiah J Thompson, there were more exchanges between Chris Crenshaw’s trombone and Chris Lewis’s tenor. This set the mood, with Wynton tactfully reminding us that the suite’s messages were particularly relevant in present times. The highlight movements were ‘Sloganize, Patronize, Realize, Revolutionize’, with some almost abstract free phrasing from Tarantino, before Crenshaw picked up the rhythmic feel; and ‘Ballot Box Bounce’ with a long muted solo from Wynton at breakneck speed.

The final full band set covered varied styles — Marcus Printup’s ‘Jojo’s Mojo’, with whistle and shouted commands, nodded towards the Art Ensemble of Chicago, but the band also drew material from Eddie Sauter and Thelonious Monk and made it their own, notably the wonderful textures on Monk’s ‘Light Blue’. The concert ended with UK-based players joining the band: pianist Joe Webb, bassist Will Sach and tenorist Ruben Fox. Their energy matched that of the orchestra, the audience rising to its feet after an uplifting ‘Tenor Madness’ finale.