| B-SIDES | ▼ Music Wynton Is Coming Jazz god Wynton Mar- salis will perform and receive an honor at UNT. BY EVA RAGGIO N orth Texas has just enjoyed two of the best concert weeks ever, with tour stops by Elton John (in his last North Texas appearance), Flaming Lips, Wu-Tang and Nas, Smashing Pumpkins and Gorillaz, among so many others. But one of the biggest names in the music industry is coming our way, and jazz heads will surely explode. In the world of jazz music, there are play- ers, there are greats and there are giants. Be- yond that, there’s Wynton Marsalis who is, without question, a jazz god. The trumpet player and composer was perhaps divinely destined to become a lumi- nary contributor to American music. The New Orleans-born, Juilliard-educated nine- time Grammy winner is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts (bestowed by former President George W. Bush), and the first jazz musician to receive a Pulitzer. In 1997, Marsalis received that honor for an oratorio called Blood on the Fields, which tells a story about two slaves. Now the honor is all ours, because Mar- salis will be coming to North Texas. The University of North Texas in Denton will host Marsalis for a performance with his 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4. The opening band will be UNT’s own One O’Clock Lab Band. The university’s prestigious music pro- gram has fostered talent through the de- cades such as Norah Jones, Don Henley, Meat Loaf, Roy Orbison, the members of Snarky Puppy and Maren Morris. It’s the first university to develop a jazz studies pro- gram, and Marsalis’ visit coincides with the 75th anniversary of the program. UNT alumnus and Grammy-nominated bassist Wes Stephenson, who plays with jazz band The Funky Knuckles, remembers the time he got to see Marsalis perform at Sandaga in Fair Park. “Years ago I had the good fortune to hear 22 Wynton play at an invite-only jam session in Dallas,” he says. “Some of the best players in town were there. Those guys played all of their hottest and sophisticated vocabulary. Wynton murdered them all using the sim- plest triads. What he did differently was in- stead of crazy notes he used some of the slickest rhythm and phrasing I’ve ever heard. I learned a very valuable lesson that night. Rhythm and phrasing [are greater than] fancy school-bought notes.” Michael Loccisano Kwinton Gray, a Dallas Observer Music Award Best Pianist winner, says, “Wynton Marsalis is one of the most prolific jazz artists still around, who has remained adamant on maintaining the tradition of jazz and classical music and keeping it alive and well.” Marsalis will also be awarded a citation from UNT president Neal Smatresk “to honor his role in shaping jazz music as a musician, composer and educator,” accord- ing to a press release. Members of Marsalis’ orchestra will teach master classes to the school’s music students on Nov. 5. “We are beyond thrilled to welcome Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to campus this semester,” said John W. Richmond, dean of the College of Music, in the press release. “These artists reside at the very pinnacle of excellence in jazz performance, jazz composition and jazz advocacy.” A Concord-signed jazz singer and vocal teacher, Ashleigh Smith, agrees that Marsa- lis’ visit is a massively big deal. “Wynton Marsalis is one of the most rele- vant and consummate musicians of our time,” she says. “His ability to remain true to the foundations of jazz while consistently innovating within the art form is why the youth of today are still inspired by his past and current work. His love and passion for the youth and moving the music forward is why he continues to be one of my biggest in- spirations.” Even crazier, tickets for the show are only $30. ▼ REVIEW MOTHER HENS T THE CHICKS MADE TEXAS DARN PROUD WITH THEIR SHOW IN IRVING. BY CARLY MAY GRAVLEY he legendary Dallas country trio The Chicks opened their first of two shows at the Pavilion at Toyota Mu- sic Factory in Irving on Monday with a snip- pet of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.” It’s a bit of cliched needle drop at this point, but no- body can say they haven’t earned it. In the aftermath of lead singer Natalie Maines’ comments about the invasion of Iraq and her resentment that then-President George W. Bush was from her home state of Texas, The Chicks (then known as The Dixie Chicks) received an anonymous letter out- lining a detailed plan to kill Maines at an up- coming show in Dallas. Though the full contents of the letter have never been made public, it is known to have said, “Shut up and sing or your life is over.” The show in question went on without incident, but the threat marked a turning point for the band. They’ve recorded and toured sparingly in the 20 years since, and their concerts have a heightened security presence to this day. Also notable is Maines’ presence on stage. At Monday night’s show, she did not explicitly speak on her past controversies or any of her political stances. Her stage banter was limited to talking about her father and son, who are both part of The Chicks’ touring band. In some sense, they did shut up and sing. Make no mistake, though. The Chicks have not backed down. They just let their art speak for them now. This current tour is in support of their 2020 comeback album Gaslighter, a crimi- nally underrated record that got lost in the chaos of the pandemic and, possibly more damningly, the band’s name change mid- promotion cycle to distance themselves from the Confederate origins of the word “Dixie.” They are nothing if not principled. Gaslighter and its belated tour explore feelings of betrayal, both personal and polit- ical. New songs like the title track and “Juli- anna Calm Down” artfully blur these lines, exploring how feelings of rage and heart- break in a crumbling marriage can be exac- erbated by an apocalyptic news cycle. Pain doesn’t differentiate between the narrow and broad scopes. That’s not to say there wasn’t joy to be found in this show. Classic hits such as ‘Wide Open Spaces” and “Cowboy Take Me Away” felt like a warm hug to attendees, many of whom were younger fans who grew up on The Chicks. The show emphasized the importance of Wynton Marsalis: One note from his trumpet will blow you away. community and family, concepts that are supposedly the core of country music. At one point, The Chicks brought out their opener and longtime collaborator Patty Griffin for a duet. Their iconic rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” which was first recorded when Maines was pregnant, featured her now-grown son on guitar in an emotional full-circle moment. Poignantly enough, “Landslide” was the single they were promoting when their ca- reer was, for lack of a better word, canceled by conservative country listeners. But as the song alludes, time did make them bolder and they are less afraid than ever to chal- lenge such groups. “March March” is a Gaslighter single and protest anthem that was warmly received but didn’t make much of a commercial im- pact. The reason? It begs to be witnessed live. The understated outlaw country pro- duction (an unsung career high for pro- ducer Jack Antonoff ) propped up the protest footage, depicting signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “End White Si- lence” overlaid with a constant stream of the names of victims of police brutality and hate crimes, beginning with George Floyd and ending with Emmett Till. Country music has come a long way since 2003, but there is still an undeniably reac- tionary, conservative part of its base. During “March March” and their cover of Beyoncé’s “Daddy Lessons,” one person could be heard saying, “Oh my god. Shut the fuck up.” Others walked out. (We can’t help but won- der why those people came at all. Did they somehow not know?) As stated earlier, The Chicks did not re- hash the controversy that started all of this. There’s really no need to address it ever again as the penultimate song in their set, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” says everything there is to say. The 2006 hit boldly doubles down on the infamous statement and stands firm in not “[doing] what it is you think I should.” In other words, they don’t give a damn about their bad reputation. 1 dallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | DALLAS OBSERVER MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 OCTOBER 20-26, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com
