Wynton Marsalis/Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Victoria Suite (2 CDs) Emarcy ****

Victoria Suite (2 CDs) Emarcy ****

It’s sometimes suggested that Marsalis’s opinions stir people more than his playing, but this blend of elements of flamenco and Basque traditional music with jazz and blues is a rousingly swinging example of his Lincoln Center big band. The trumpeter wrote and orchestrated this 12-part suite and featured some Spanish talent, including guitarist Paco de Lucia and pianist Chano Dominguez, with the LCO.

It’s in no sense comparable to the old Miles Davis-Gil Evans Spanish ventures; essentially conservative (there’s even a Ducal flavour here and there), it’s well crafted and superbly played, and recorded by an orchestra brimming with solo talent, including Ryan Kisor and Marcus Printup (trumpets), Ted Nash, Joe Temperley, Victor Goines and Walter Blanding (reeds), Elliot Mason (trombone) and Dan Nimmer (piano), with Marsalis soloing on three movements. Enjoyable.