Wynton Marsalis itunes exclusive

[.:.impossible]

Of course it had to be Wynton, but I was sort of pleased to see advertising dollars go toward a television spot for jazz music.

Are there other examples of this? I've certainly never seen a tv spot pushing jazz music.

[.:.impossible]

up. Has anyone seen this? Nice presentation, I must say. Are there any other examples of jazz music being advertised through television spots? I honestly never thought I'd see something like this.

Someone must think that jazz is a viable market afterall, regardless of format. Very timely considering the recent backlash on CD-R and downloads.

[.:.impossible]

Here's a link, for those of you who haven't been watching tv for the past two days. I've seen this commercial about four times now.

Click heya.

[Alexander]

Nice spot! Good to see jazz on TV. Most importantly, Wynton keeps his horn in FRONT of his mouth!

[Alexander]

BTW,the Eminiem clip is pretty cool too. I especially like the bit where he pushes the obligitory "dancing iPod listener" out of his way...

[Kari S]

On a related note, I saw a print ad of Wynton as Movado Watches' posterboy.

[.:.impossible]

I've seen plenty of print advertising for jazz music though. I've even seen print advertising using jazz musicians as the spokesperson. What was that ad someone brought up a while back... Threadgill and a bottle of booze? I can't remember.

I am wondering if there is any precedent for television advertising of jazz music.

[JSngry]

What was that ad someone brought up a while back... Threadgill and a bottle of booze? I can't remember.

Dewars. It was a "Dewars Profile".

Braxton on Arista, Sun Ra & Ornette on SNL, Threadgill pimping Dewars, yeah.

Those were the days.

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Hey Dmitry, maybe you could pull up footage of Ornette on SNL now that you've found the Ra?

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I just took a look at the itunes site to see how effective the Wynton ad has been. "Sparks" is not on the top 10 downloads list, or the top 100 downloads list, but is has made today's top 10 jazz downloads list. Then again, What a Wonderful World (Single) is on there three times... As far as complete album sales are concerned, the live session featuring "Sparks" tops the list, followed by Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall.

I'd be curious to see some numbers behind the rankings, i.e. sales dollars. The Marsalis could have been downloaded twice, while the other nine on the top ten were all downloaded once. Who knows.

[Alexander]

I downloaded the entire EP. You get three songs ("Sparks," "Oh Row That Boat" and "Quick Ate"), all of which are three minutes long or less. You also get three videos: The "Sparks" iPod commercial, a brief "making of" documentary on the commerical (the title is a bit misleading. It doesn't show the actual "making of" the commercial, but rather it intercuts interview footage of Wynton (mainly talking about how great jazz is) with the recording of the tune), and a fifteen-minute long live video of Wynton's quartet performing the song "The Magic Hour." It only cost three bucks, so I figured what the hell? The live performance is quite nice. I have to say that I'm really enjoying Wynton's recent return to the quartet form. "J Mood" is one of my favorite Wynton albums, so it's nice to see him return to that "stripped down" sound. It's a refreshing change after his septet (which, while good as well, always seemed a bit more...pretentous).