Marsalis Shows Off Heavy Mettle : WYNTON MARSALIS “Jump Start and Jazz: Two Ballets” Sony Classics * * * 1/2

Wynton Marsalis won a Pulitzer Prize for his jazz oratorio “Blood on the Fields.” That the award was neither a fluke nor an overreaction to Marsalis’ high visibility is amply certified by the stunning music in these two ballet scores, performed by Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. “Jazz” was premiered by the New York City Ballet in 1993, with choreography by Peter Martins; “Jump Start” was debuted in 1995 by choreographer Twyla Tharpe’s company.

It is, of course, programmatic music, as ballet music must be. Many of the segments in both ballets are self-explanatory: “Express Crossing,” “Ragtime” and “Fiddle Bow Real” in “Jazz”; “Boogie Woogie Stomp,” “Slow Drag,” “Habanera” and “Bebop” in “Jump Start.” In each case it is a measure of Marsalis’ creative imagination that he unfolds such an extraordinary array of settings without sacrificing the feeling or the character of jazz. And he does so with music that speaks to the qualities of each ballet: suggestively programmatic in “Jazz,” more typically dance-like for “Jump Start.”

Despite the necessary frameworks demanded by the ballet settings, especially in “Jazz,” there are plenty of intriguing solo spots--some improvised, some via interpretations of Marsalis’ melodies--by Marsalis, alto saxophonist Wessell Anderson, pianist Eric Reed and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. In an amiable gesture to the jazz past, Marsalis wraps everything up with a closing, swing-styled “Jump” featuring the inimitable trumpet of Harry “Sweets” Edison. It’s all marvelous music, perfectly illustrating Marsalis’ greatest skill--the capacity to create jazz that is both timely and timeless.

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