Wynton Marsalis bites back with The Ever Fonky Lowdown

Acclaimed US trumpeter Wynton Marsalis releases an epic new album, The Ever Fonky Lowdown, exclusively on digital platforms on 21 August on the Jazz at Lincoln Center imprint, Blue Engine Records.

The work is another potently socio-political one for Marsalis – and follows his Grammy Award-winning Black Codes (From the Underground) in 1985, Blood on the Fields (the first jazz composition ever to win a Pulitzer Prize) in 1996, All Rise in 2002 (performed by Symphonic Orchestras the world over to great acclaim), and From the Plantation to the Penitentiary in 2007. Featuring Jazz at J@LCO and vocalists Camille Thurman, Ashley Pezzotti, Christie Dashiell, plus guitarist Doug Wamble, the album’s darkly mischievous narration is provided by The Wire’s Wendell Pierce who voices the provocative, devil’s advocate of a character, ‘Mr Game’.

Written in 2018 to address the widespread issue of human exploitation and suffering, with a specific focus on how those matters have played out in America, recent acts of police violence and the social inequities exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic have given the work a new poignancy and timeliness. Described as a ‘funky jazz parable for 2020’, Marsalis described his inspirations for the work: “Usually I research and learn a lot of new material for longer pieces. For this one, I went with music and mythology that I have lived. From the music my father and great New Orleans drummer and composer James Black played in the 60’s, to the funk we played in the 70’s, to the modern jazz we have been blessed to play, teach and shape over these last decades, The Ever Fonky Lowdown is an antidote to the poisonous (and largely unquestioned) cultural mythology that continues to infect our general quality of life.”

For more info visit wyntonmarsalis.org/discography/title/the-ever-fonky-lowdown