It may seem like an odd pairing: a trumpet virtuoso best known for his work in jazz and a septuagenarian singer-songwriter whose roots are deepest in the soil of country music. But the title, "Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis Play the Music of Ray Charles", explains it. The late Ray Charles, though perhaps best known as the de facto creator of soul music, was genuinely beyond category, combining gospel, blues, jazz, and country to form one of the most original styles in 20th-century music. Joined by Norah Jones on several of the 15 tunes in this 90-minute show (recorded in 2009 at New York's Lincoln Center), Marsalis and Nelson use Charles's songs to tell the tale of love that's found, then lost, and then found again.
Most of the material is familiar ("Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Hit the Road Jack," "Crying Time," "Busted," "What'd I Say," "Unchain My Heart"), but there are a few surprises, like the deep blues "Losing Hand." And while the songs are performed more or less in Charles's style, the arrangements, many of them with a New Orleans flavor, are uniformly fresh and dynamic, leading to some transcendent performances. Marsalis's solos are brilliant, combining chops, taste, and humor, and in the band saxophonist Walter Blanding and drummer Ali Jackson are particularly good, although everyone's at the top of their game.
If there's a weak link here, it's Nelson, whose laid-back singing never comes close to generating the passion of Brother Ray's. In fairness, no one else's does, either. But ol' Willie tends to play fast and loose with the melodies, flattening them out to limited variations on the blues, and his guitar playing, while soulful, just can't measure up to the great musicians around him. Jones is frustratingly laid-back as well; her duets with Nelson will remind no one of the incendiary duels between Charles and Margie Hendricks. In fact, it's Marsalis, never known as a vocalist, who provides the hottest moments at the mike. Bonus material includes a behind-the-scenes featurette. "--Sam Graham"