Wynton Marsalis: A Composer’s Retrospective — Black Codes (From the Underground): Part V
Views from the next generation of musicians
Four decades since the release of Black Codes (from the Underground), much of the controversy surrounding Wynton Marsalis as a figure has mostly subsided allowing people to appreciate the music on the record. For younger musicians that were either children during the 1980s or were born years after, their introduction to the album, and Wynton Marsalis as a figure has been less informed by conflict and more by his music and the career he has built in the time since.
When I spoke to musicians from the generations below Wynton Marsalis, every one of them had glowing praise for the album Black Codes. There was a sense that what we consider “modern jazz” began with this album. Trumpeter Keyon Harrold called the album “one of the quintessential albums of modern jazz.” That highlights the importance that context provides.
At a time when much of the jazz scene was oriented toward the future and focused on how fresh or new something sounded, Wynton’s band stood apart with their belief in “playing to the future by studying the past.” In hindsight, and with the context of how jazz would evolve in the following decades, Black Codes can be seen as part of a wave of albums by emerging artists of the Young Lions generation, records that would come to define the sound of jazz for years to come.
Black Codes was one of the standout early albums of this generation, and its strong influence was felt immediately by the next wave of musicians. As drummer Ryan Sands notes, the album “kicked on a lot for Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, and everybody after that. It set the tone for a new ensemble playing.” The influence isn’t just framed as Marsalis’ influence either. The playing of Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Charnett Moffett, and Jeff Watts were all cited as major influences on jazz as well as persona inspiration.
The Nuanced View of Wynton Marsalis
Younger musicians tend to hold a more nuanced view of Wynton Marsalis—one that time has afforded them. Unlike in the 1980s, Wynton now has a forty-year body of work through which both his musical and ideological ideas have evolved. It’s easier for younger artists to recognize the merits of his vision, even if they don’t fully agree with it. Saxophonist Julian Lee recalled his first reaction to Black Codes:
