Wynton Marsalis - Think of One (1983 Japanese CBS/Sony Vinyl LP)

Wynton Marsalis - Think of One | Vinyl LP, 1983 Japanese CBS/Sony (25AP 2658)

• Marsalis’s second album and the record that confirmed his quintet as the most important new group in 1980s jazz, with Branford Marsalis on saxophones, Kenny Kirkland on piano and Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums
• A Monk title track, an Ellington closing, a Kirkland original and four Marsalis compositions, mixing post-bop originals with a respect for the jazz tradition that defined Marsalis’s early career
• Grammy winner for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist, the same year Marsalis won the classical Grammy for his trumpet concertos, making him the first artist to win both categories in a single ceremony

Wynton Marsalis was 21 when this was recorded. His debut album had appeared the year before and announced his talent, but Think of One is where the working band comes into focus. Kenny Kirkland’s piano playing is a revelation across these eight tracks, comping with rhythmic precision and taking solos that are inventive without being showy. Jeff Watts, barely into his twenties, already has his own drum sound and an instinct for shaping each track differently depending on who is soloing. Branford Marsalis (on tenor and soprano, though uncredited on this Japanese pressing) adds a second voice to the front line, and his interplay with his brother on “Later” and “Knozz-Moe-King” shows two musicians who grew up hearing the same music and process it through different temperaments. Two bassists split the album: Phil Bowler on four tracks, Ray Drummond on the other four.

The programme balances Marsalis originals with repertoire that signals where his interests lie. “Think of One” is Thelonious Monk, played with respect for its angularity. “Melancholia” is Duke Ellington, closing the album in under three minutes. “My Ideal” is a standard ballad. Kirkland contributes “Fuchsia”, which several critics singled out as the album’s most original composition. Marsalis’s own pieces, particularly “Knozz-Moe-King” and the nine-minute “The Bell Ringer”, are post-bop constructions that show his writing was developing alongside his playing. The album was produced by Marsalis himself with George Butler as executive producer, recorded and mixed at Mediasound in New York, with liner notes by Stanley Crouch and cover photography by Art Kane (whose 1958 “Great Day in Harlem” photograph is one of jazz’s most famous images). This 1983 Japanese pressing is manufactured by CBS/Sony Inc. Catalogue number 25AP 2658 (original US Columbia catalogue: FC 38641).