Wycliffe Gordon

Along with his work with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, among other high-profile gigs, Wycliffe Gordon tends to use his albums as a leader to indulge his primary musical passion: hot jazz in the pre-swing style, as exemplified by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five. Gordon, a trombonist with Jack Teagarden's bawdy New Orleans style in his soul and a vocal style owing much to Armstrong's knowing growl, can write astonishingly accurate originals in 1920s style, such as the opening one-two of the vocal novelty "Shhh!!! (The Band Is Trying to Play)" and the bouncy, onomonopoeaic "Yaht Doo Daht Ditt." However, Gordon is no mere one-note revivalist in the Squirrel Nut Zippers mode, and Cone's Coup also includes reinterpretations of familiar post-bop tunes like John Coltrane's "Mr. P.C." and "Blues for Alice's Freight Train," an exhilarating mash-up of familiar Tommy Flanagan and Charlie Parker tunes that recalls some of Rahsaan Roland Kirk's takes on jazz history. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide