Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton
Play The Blues

All in all, many reviews come out about new releases from unknown bands, and this one hasn't been acknowledged by anyone yet.... Let's take care of that right away!

Three years after that great album "Two Men With the Blues," which saw Wynton Marsalis alongside Willie Nelson, this time the most unfriendly trumpet player in the world is joined by his majesty Slowhand (China I'm waiting for the transfer)!

We immediately set off towards New Orleans with King Oliver casting his long shadow over the first track "Ice Cream." Imagine yourself sitting in an armchair while the notes coming from the street climb up the walls and leap through your home's window; lean out and you'll see passing one of the first itinerant orchestras that roamed New Orleans in the '20s. The whole album captures this image well, but beware, here the musicians are not imitating, they are genuinely having fun!

In "The Last Time" a clarinet pops up, it's not a solo, it's telling a joke! And the muted trumpet of Wynton seems to be laughing out loud, and as it's known, when someone in a group starts laughing, the laughter becomes contagious, and so the whole band follows suit!

In reality, this is more a Marsalis album than a Clapton one: the guitarist, with the modesty typical of the greats, limits himself to lending his voice and coloring the tracks with always discreet phrasing and with a calibrated yet very delightful "swing," insinuating himself among the brass and giving a deep blue shade to the already rich palette of Marsalis's orchestra.

Could we miss "Layla"? Here it is, and it's a great listen! The orchestra slowly, carefully, stitches a garment around Eric who, perfectly at ease, begins to move languidly within the harmonic textures with a thrilling solo that paves the way for Marsalis's trumpet, splendidly followed by the soprano sax.

So even a rigorous (and serious) purist of classic jazz like Marsalis laughs and has fun; in this album, he does so greatly and sincerely, despite the grandeur of the names involved. I expected a conventional album... fortunately, that was not the case.