Our small tropical island has just been taken through an exhilarating week of musical roller coaster rides - barely three days after Barbara Hendricks' breath-taking performance with the SSO (Click for review), I was treated to Wynton Marsalis and his Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra. Two world-class performers from two polarities... Opera and Jazz. But is there such a difference after all? Virtuoso performances, intense musicality and emotion. Music will be music...

Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra came with a mission. To tell the world that Jazz is not an outdated the medium created by the Afro-Americans in the early 1900s and that there is perhaps no such thing as "Modern Jazz" because "All Jazz is Modern". In his fervent introduction, Mr. Marsalis' said that they believed that the voice of Jazz has a message for the world, a message that is yet to be comprehended by many, including themselves. This perhaps is most true of Jazz, and a genre that is so misunderstood and perhaps far under-rated. Jazz IS modern. So many great Jazz artists right from the time of its beginnings in New Orleans have borrowed tunes from operas, rifts from symphonies and gave these the voice of the city to the new heartbeat of humankind moving through "modern times and modern places", much like Pop/Rock music nowadays. Is that not a development from Jazz? This is perhaps an American medium and will never be far in spirit from those wonderful Negro spirituals, but Jazz now belongs to the world, and Wynton Marsalis and the LCJO has been here to prove it.

As a Saxophonist myself, I was totally bowled over by the players' technical mastery over their instruments and musical artistry. The LCJO's versatility in sound encompassed the Jazz Ensemble sophistication and the Big Band style. With the sweet Gillespie tune Softly with Feeling, they demonstrated a contrasting lyricism, with the spotlight on the saxophone section. What I found most impressive was their immaculate approach to the Dixieland style, where three soloists (usually a trumpeter, trombonist and a clarinetist) play improvised solos simultaneously, creating triple the melodic interest yet complimentary to each other as a whole. This traditional form of New Orleans Jazz is one of the most difficult forms to handle. In the spirit of such performers as Louis Armstrong, the LCJO simply swept us off our feet with their charming and easy treatment.

As with most Jazz numbers, there are usually lengthy improvised solo sections and through the concert, each of these musicians had a chance to demonstrate that they could stand alone well as an individual artist! In One Bass Hit, Bassist Rodney Whitaker delivered a wonderful solo on the string bass but unfortunately, parts of that solo was swallowed by the bad acoustics of the hall. Among the other soloists, the most commendable include Eric Reed (piano), Herlin Riley (drums), Ron Westray (trombone), Seneca Black (trumpet) and of course, a cut above the rest, their maestro Wynton Marsalis himself. The difference is in the tone, the boldness of his solos (both in technical difficulty and musicality) and the simple charisma of the man himself.

At first, I wondered why the organisers picked a venue such as the Singapore Indoor Stadium for a 15-piece Jazz ensemble. The acoustics were terrible and even though there were mikes, the sometimes sentimentally intimate and sometimes raucous Big Band sound was lost through the speakers. The echo from the high ceiling and such a vast hall was simply a nightmare. This was most apparent in the first piece, but even then, we could feel the musicians - true performers all - warming up to the surroundings and slowly, their music began to fill up the space.

Mr. Marsalis introduced each number before they played it and most of these were not our conventional "standards". Yet, they covered the genre from the first Jazz performer ever, Buddy Bolden, to The Duke to Monk to his own compositions. Each rendition executed in style - I'm sure there wasn't a single toe that was not tapping that night. I can only say that there was music in each and everyone of those gentlemen in the LCJO, each a virtuoso instrumentalist and soloist, and each had the swing in his soul. What they gave us was authentic Jazz that is so rarely heard here. To each Jazz fan, this was THE concert. To the unitiated, it was a revelation. If we ever thought that Singaporeans and Asians had no swing in them, we should ask why we got up on our feet and gave them such a thunderous ovation. Yes, we wished that it could have been on a stage more cosy than a stadium, but once the music started, we all appreciated the fact that the LCJO made Singapore a stop on their tour. Maybe it's all for the better - for one night, we had a big enough space to accommodate ALL of us...

A few words about Wynton Marsalis. This is a man who has won eight Grammys for both Classical and Jazz recordings (and in both genres in the same year!) and recently, a Pulitzer prize for his Oratorio "Blood on the Fields". He is possibly the most successful cross-over musician since Gershwin, striding the Classical circle and the Jazz scene with equal credibility and authority. To hear Mr. Marsalis' virtuosic trumpet-playing 'live' was worth the price of the ticket even though he only took a few solos. All in all, the whole concert was a steal for $25/$50! Pick up his collaboration with Kathleen Battle (on Sony) to marvel at his Baroque style trumpet!!! "Sweet Release", Mr. Marsalis' orginal ballet, demonstrated his great maturity in composition as well. At an age of 37, he seems to have already prodigiously mastered the rhythmic sophistication and harmonic artistry of the great Jazz composers. I am sure we will hear much more from this talented man. Most of all, Jazz fans have him to thank for championing the Jazz cause. A humble man on stage, his wry sense of humour was a joy to all of us at the concert.

When Adrian Tan came back panting from the Jazz Concert, he turned on Strauss' Last Four Songs to calm his nerves... only to have his heart pounding even faster!

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