{"id":2445629,"date":"2019-06-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=307994"},"modified":"2019-06-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T06:00:00","slug":"jazz-aspen-snowmass-june-experience-wycliffe-gordon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/jazz-aspen-snowmass-june-experience-wycliffe-gordon\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Experience: Wycliffe Gordon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WYcliffe Gordon will lead two jazzz brunches and play two evening sets Sunday at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Experience.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Wycliffe Gordon has been named \u201cTrombonist of the Year\u201d by the Jazz Journalists Association 10 times, so it\u2019s fair to say he\u2019s the best of our era.<\/p>\n

This vaunted player, bandleader and educator will headline two shows at the Little Nell on the reconfigured Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Experience\u2019s closing night today. Earlier in the day, he\u2019ll play two seatings of a New Orleans-style jazz brunch in the festival\u2019s VIP tent at the Silver Circle Ice Rink with food by Chef Martin Oswald.<\/p>\n

\u201cJazz teaches people it\u2019s OK to be yourself and to function in the world as is, no matter where you are,\u201d Gordon, 52, told The Aspen Times in 2014. \u201cIf you\u2019re playing New Orleans music, everyone is playing their role, but each role is important to the outcome. It teaches that your voice is important, another color in the whole picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prolifically releasing records since 1996, Gordon\u2019s recent efforts include his \u201cHey Pops! Tribute to Louis Armstrong,\u201d which brought Gordon to the JAS Caf\u00e9 five years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery great singer \u2014 Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett \u2014 they said the way Louis Armstrong phrased, his approach to music, his innovation and improvisation, was an influence,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cHe\u2019s influenced people who don\u2019t even know it because they\u2019re second-generation or third-generation. He was a mighty influence on all of pop music in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong remains the heaviest influence on Gordon as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Louis Armstrong\u2019s solos, his inflections, his songs. I\u2019ve acquired that vocabulary, and I can use some of, all of or none of it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I want to play in the style of J.J. Johnson or Dizzy (Gillespie) or the blues, I can call on that cast of characters. \u2026 The music itself was just exciting. Something about it felt joyous and exuberant. I heard \u2018When the Saints Go Marching In\u2019 \u2014 it was just joyous music.\u201d<\/p>\n

A committed and decorated jazz educator, Gordon teaches and mentors young musicians while doing his part to keep the history of jazz alive. Along with the Louis Armstrong album, he\u2019s recorded tributes to Duke Ellington and the musicians of Storyville.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only way to move the music forward. If you\u2019re not recognizing how the music was developed, you can\u2019t move forward,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cLook at a car \u2014 they\u2019re not made the same way they used to be. But they still have wheels and engines. One doesn\u2019t exist without the other. Making a record in tribute, that\u2019s not moving backward at all. For me, that keeps me current.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon, who grew up in Augusta, Georgia, has been playing trombone since he was 12 when his older brother brought one home. He first broke out on the international jazz scene as a member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to play the music of Ellington, the great composers. But the septet was a close-knit group, spending sometimes 300 days a year on the road,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the vicinity of musicians like that, you develop a closeness onstage and off that\u2019s incomparable.\u201d<\/p>\n

His shows this weekend are billed as \u201cWycliffe Gordon and Friends\u201d segment of his guest performers at Saturday night\u2019s show includes percussionist Jamison Ross \u2014 who headlined Victoria\u2019s on Saturday \u2014 along with bassist Reginald Veal, vocalist Brianna Thomas, pianist Tamie Hendleman, trumpeter Melvin Jones and tap dancer Hillary Marie.<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WYcliffe Gordon will lead two jazzz brunches and play two evening sets Sunday at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Experience.Courtesy photo Wycliffe Gordon has been named \u201cTrombonist of the Year\u201d by the Jazz Journalists Association 10 times, so it\u2019s fair to say he\u2019s the best of our era. This vaunted player, bandleader and educator will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 04:08:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}