PERFORMANCE MUSIC

Down Beat
"Gordon's music is timeless and intelligently presented.  He radiates a heart-on-the-sleeve blues persona."

The New York Times
"Gordon's performance was masterful."

Leisure & Arts, Roxanne Orgill
Wycliffe Gordon, 27 , had few of the advantages of his urban colleagues,  He grew up in the Georgia countryside, where his father was a classical-piano teacher.  They could not afford private trombone lessons, and the band teacher had to look up the trombone slide positions in a reference book.  The firs time Mr. Gordon heard jazz was on a five-record jazz anthology left to the family by an aunt.  “I listened to all 10 slides and my favorite was ‘Keyhole Blues,’ by Louis Armstrong.  There were o nly five instruments in the band but I tried to imitate all of them [on the trombone].” 
 Mr. Gordon was majoring in music education at Florida’s Agricultural and Mechanical University when Mr. Marsalis popped into a rehearsal of the jazz band and Mr. Gordon summoned the courage to audition. 
 Mr. Marsalis was impressed enough to put him in touch with his pianist, Marcus Roberts, who lived nearby.  They had a few conversations, but by the following year, Mr. Gordon wa s discouraged.  “Jazz wasn’t popular.”  he says.  “I had just about given up.  I wasn’t even practicing.  I was working at Pizza Hut when Marcus called: Wynton wants you to come to Texas in two weeks.” 
 Mr. Gordon joined the Wynton Marsalis Septet in 1989, spending three weeks out of every four on the road until the group disbanded last December.  “I didn’t learn as much about the instrument until I started with Wynton.  He introduced me to trombone p layers on the road, including cats with symphonies who came to concerts, and I picked up tips from them.”
 “And I’d look at Wynton and see his ability to play flawlessly with little effort.  I’d say to myself, ‘A trumpet is not a trombone, but what things can I figure out?’  He taught me something about patience, also.  You need to play it slow and then speed the tempo up.  Certain things take years to develop.”
 “Being in the band was like music heaven,” says Mr . Gordon, known as Pine Cone.  “You hear what’s coming out of his horn, and you say, oh, man, I got to practice.”

The Birmingham News / Birmingham Post Herald, Shawn Ryan
Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, as usual, was amazing, expressing joy, amiable personality and sophistication in his playing.  If you didn’t feel a warmth inside during his laughing trombone on “Wild Man Blues” you were a cold soul indeed.  Gordon, who also is part of Wynton Marsalis’ Septet, doesn’t have a solo record contract and that should be a criminal charge.

The Herald, Fernando Gonzalez
Wycliffe Gordon moved past respect and put some muscle and bawdy humor into his trombone parts.

The News & Observer (Raleigh NC), Owen Cordle
Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon scored early in the concert, on “Dippermouth Blues,” with a raggy, blurting solo.  His dirty plunger-muted work on “Wild Man Blues” was another highlight.

North Carolina Spectator, Gene Hynde
The orchestra includes a number of jazz stars, including trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.  Trombonist Gordon added some fine ‘bone work, with hot licks on tunes like “Hotter Than That.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Trombone player Wycliffe Gordon deserves mention for his energy, exuberance, and musical excellence as well.  All the musicians deserve praise.

The Buffalo News , Mary Kunz
And it was a kick, how trombonist Wycliffe Gordon filled in those cunning breaks in King Oliver’s  “Snake Rag”. In “Hotter Than That,” Gordon warmed up even more – yapping, muttering and howling (ow-woo, ow-woo) on that trombone.  It sounded, honestly, as if the instrument were trying to speak.

The Beacon Journal, David Sowd
Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon – like Goines, a former member of Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra founder Wynton Marsalis’ Septet – growled out several plunger-muted choruses in a duel with Delta blues guitarist Don Vappie in an aptly titled Hotter Than That.

Minneapolis Star, David McKee
The real virtuoso of the group seemed to be trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, who made his instrument whimper and roar, snore and whinny, and who executed some pretty amazing musicianship with his mouthpiece alone.  Gordon is the master of an impressive array of effects with his mute – no mere “tricks” either.  He is a budding master, even able to convey the illusion of playing two closely spaced tones at once.

The Ann Arbor News, Bru ce Martin
Gordon, as usual, dazzled in solos, but was even better in sweet, bluesy obligatos for Thais Clark’s Bessie Smith-inspired singing on “I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues.”

The Newark Sunday Star-Ledger, Warren Vache
“Wycliffe Gordon (the trombonist) is just astounding.  He and guitar player Don Vappie have a little improvised duet in the middle of ‘Hotter Than That,’ where Louis did impossible scat singing, that comes off very well”

The Baltimore Sun, Will En glund
Gordon got sounds out of his tarnished trombone, with the help of a mute and toilet plunger, that no trombone was ever thought to produce.

Newark Star-Ledger, George Kanzler
…and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon kindled that spirit in their rollicking solos.  In fact, soloists often enlivened merely competent ensemble proceedings, providing needed sparks as in the Gordon (valve trombone) and Ron Westray (slide trombone) dialogue/chases on J.J. Johnson’s “Say When”…

Charlotte Observer, Dean Smith
Wycliffe Gordon drove the crowd wild with his sassy and inventive trombone (not to mention sousaphone!).

Atlanta Press, Jill Jordan Sieder
As they did throughout the concert, Marsalis, Georgia natives Wycliffe Gordon (on trombone) and Marcus Printup (on trumpet), Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson (on sax and clarinet) and other members of his impossibly talented band traded solos, witty vocals, and loose, ain’t-we-tight patter in perfect time as they brou ght their musical engine on a hard-driving journey from west to east, taking plenty of detours, full of tension, sensuality, and merriment.

Knoxville News Sentinel, Wayne Bledsoe
An early highlight of the show was “The Woogie”, composed by trombonist-tuba player Wycliffe Gordon, who led the trombone section through some lyrical trade-offs on some traditional jazz riffs.

Tennessean, Tom Roland
The trombone section used mutes and plungers at the same time in a quasi-boogie , The Wookie.  The three players passed solos between themselves, each trying to one-up the other with silly plunger moves, and they were rewarded with laughter and smiles by the audience…Trombone player Wycliffe Gordon was a natural showman, often lightening the proceedings with his tongue-in-cheek solos.

Sun-Sentinel, Matt Schudel
Cheers rang out for Wycliffe Gordon’s extroverted trombone solos.

El Mundo (San Juan), Carlos A. Iramain, M.D.
Ha trascendido que podria n interpretar , dentro de una linea,… “The Woogie” (de Wycliffe Gordon, trombonista de la orquestra), entre otras.

New York Times, Peter Watrous
The concert, put on by Jazz at Lincoln Center, concentrated on Duke Ellington and on pieces written by either Mr. Marsalis or Wycliffe Gordon, one of the band’s trombonists.  Both Mr. Marsalis and Mr. Gordon are extending the work of Ellington and working in the territory that is the exclusive province of American art music, located somewh ere between the functionality of pop and the esthetic richness of music made less for the audience and more for the composer’s sake. 

Orange County Register, Steve Eddy
The soloists are nonpareil, deeply talented musicians who have taken Ellington music to heart.  Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon brought Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton’s humorous style vividly to life.

The Denver Post, Jeff Bradley
Marsalis and every other member (of the LCJO) was of the caliber to have play ed with the Duke, including trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, whose muted “Solveig’s Song”was incredible.

Gazette, John Kenyon
The longest song of the night proved one of the best.  “Stompy Jones,” was long enough to allow for a solo by nearly every member of the group – including an inspired scat-singing break by trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.

Chicago Tribute, Howard Reich
The band (LCJO) quickly gained its equilibrium in “Black and Tan Fantasy,” with trumpeter Marsalis’ pl unger-muted, blues drenched growls answered in kind by trombonist Wycliffe Gordon’s wah-wah, jungle-music eruptions.

Columbus Dispatch, S. R. B. Lyer
“Black and Tan Fantasy” is authentic Ellington.  The tempo, the flavor of the trumpet section, the growled exchanges between Marsalis and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon: These excursions into the antique past should sound contrived and unreal, but they don’t.

Ann Arbor News, Bruce Martin
After a flashy blues “dialogue” with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon (and Marsalis) to introduce “Black and Tan Fantasy”…  Goines (saxophone) and Gordon turned in hair-raising solos on the stately blues march “The Mooche.”

Cleveland Plain Dealer, John Soeder
The bluesy piece featured a musical conversation - or was that an argument? - between Marsalis and trombone player Wycliffe Gordon.  Using plungers as mutes, the two horn players made their instruments chatter, coo and shout.

The Washington Post, Richard Harrington
“Harlem,” a vibrant love poem to the composer’s beloved home, a richly detailed tapestry conjuring a myriad of social rituals and interactions.  Particularly outstanding was the elegant interlude in which Gordon’s trombone and Goines’ clarinet achingly evoked the mourning and grief surrounding a funeral.

Boston Herald, Bob Young
And “the Mooche”, with Wycliffe Gordon having a great time for himself on trombone, was testament to just how modern sounding this 7-de cade-old Ellington classic remains. 

Boston Globe, Richard Buell
Especially the orchestra’s trombone section – Wayne Goodman, Wycliffe Gordon, and Ron Westray – which not only has a firm grasp of what their one-of-a-kind predecessors were up to, but can actually add to it. 

Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY), Daniel Aloi
…Wycliffe Gordon, one of the best trombonists and educators in jazz.

Baltimore Sun, J.D. Considine
It boasts a wide range of gifted soloi sts, including …  trombonist Wycliffe Gordon…

New York Times, Ben Ratliff
And he wasn’t alone: the trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, in short solos throughout the evening, made his instrument chatter with mutes and articulation effects…