Wycliffe Gordon takes the trombone, surely one of the most improbable of instruments, and creates a sound that seems to be extracted, with exquisite care, from deep within the earth. Which is not to say that he doesn't wail. He plays like mad, and it's a glorious thing to behold. I saw him play once: He wore a tuxedo with a perfect white shirt and held his trombone like a delicate object. He played it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, his body bent, his face crinkled, and between numbers he took a white handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his brow.

Molly McCall