Willie Nelson has been singing, and recording, the blues since the 1960s, as an integral part of his country sound. Wynton Marsalis, born into a musical family, has been playing and recording blues, jazz, and classical music since 1980. Between Nelson and Marsalis, you can hear dozens of albums’ worth of classic blues and long-loved standards. Finally, Willie and Wynton have come together and recorded “Two Men with the Blues“, released July 8, 2008 by Blue Note Jazz, Marsalis’s label.
Recorded January 12th and 13th, 2007 during a Jazz at Lincoln Center event, “Two Men with the Blues” highlights the best of the show’s performances, when both Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis were at their best. Back-up and other solos come from the Wynton Marsalis Quintet regulars, with Mickey Raphael, a long-time cohort of Nelson, on harmonica and Willie, of course, providing his own guitar solos.
While not every song on “Two Men with the Blues” works as well as Caldonia, every note of this album displays the joy that these two men take in playing classic New Orleans jazz together. Willie Nelson romps through tracks like My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It and Ain’t Nobody’s Business while Wynton Marsalis demonstrates how smooth and sassy combine to make the trumpet the instrument for this style of the blues. When people who share a passion and an deep enjoyment of music get together, you know that the results will be magic. Nelson and Marsalis are just such people, and this album proves the point.
