Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
01.Listen What Have You Done?
02.Listen Ghost in the House
03.Listen Jack Johnson Two-Step
04.Listen But Deep Down
05.Listen Love & Hate
06.Listen High Society
07.Listen Careless Love
08.Listen New Orleans Bump
09.Listen Trouble My Soul
10.Listen Deep Creek
11.Listen Johnson 2-Step
12.Listen Rattlesnake Tail Swing
13.Listen Weary Blues
14.Listen Troubles My Soul
15.Listen Johnson Two-Step
16.Listen Fire in the Night
17.Listen Morning Song
18.Listen I’ll Sing My Song
19.Listen Buddy Bolden’s Blues
20.Listen Last Bell
21.Listen We’ll Meet Again Someday
Doug Wamble (guitar), Wycliffe Gordon (trombone), Reginald Veal (bass), Wessell Anderson (alto saxophone), Eric Lewis (piano), Herlin Riley (drums), Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (orchestra)
DESCRIPTION
Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ soundtrack to Ken Burns’ documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is a compelling and rootsy mix of blues and swing.
REVIEWS
Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ soundtrack to Ken Burns’ documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is a compelling and rootsy mix of blues and swing. Having worked with Burns on the PBS Jazz series, Marsalis’ Unforgivable Blackness soundtrack seems like a natural progression of a fruitful partnership. Not dissimilar to such past Marsalis projects as the Jelly Roll Morton album Mr. Jelly Lord, the album features Marsalis in various small-group settings along with such longtime Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra regulars as drummer Herlin Riley, pianist Eric Lewis, saxophonist Wessell Anderson, bassist Reginald Veal, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, and others, including guitarist Doug Wamble, who adds his unique blend of old-time blues, folk, and jazz to Marsalis’ own signature updating of ’20s and ’30s jazz. Although four previously released tracks appear here, two off Standard Time, Vol. 6: Mr. Jelly Lord and two from Marsalis’ Reeltime, the majority of the album is newly recorded and all of it sounds of a piece. Ironically, Marsalis’ deepest musical influence and aesthetic nemesis, trumpeter Miles Davis, also recorded an album for a film about the troubled boxing champ Johnson, 1970’s minor fusion classic Tribute to Jack Johnson. However, where Davis’ album seemed to reflect the counterculture and Black Power movements of the time, Marsalis is more traditionally cinematic in his approach, with each track evoking the pride, urbanity, strength, and tragedy of the legendary Johnson.
– Matt Collar,
All Music Guide
