Twenty years ago, my wife surprised me on my birthday by driving me to Lawrence, Kansas to hear the Wynton Marsalis Septet in concert. It was a stunning evening of brilliant music. For their second set, the Septet played much of their recently released The Marciac Suite which they recorded as an homage to their annual visits to the jazz festival in Marciac, France.It was an amazing way to end a fantastic concert. Upon returning home I immediately bought the CD of the suite. It became one of my favorite jazz records. But over the years I began to listen to it less and less for myriad reasons. I branched out in other musical directions. The medium began to change. Digital streaming overwhelmed my listening habits. There was so much out there to explore that old favorites often got neglected.
So, as I'm going through the Marsalis discography I saw this album was coming up and I was excited to see it. It had been a couple of years since I had given it a spin and I was eager to listen to it again after such a long time. And man oh man, it did not disappoint. This record is so good. So evocative of a European jazz festival. Great swinging music. Transcendent ballads. I need to put this back in the rotation. It is a classic from start to finish.
