Marsalis & Nelson Meet in a Bluesy Middle

To jazz fans of my father's generation, the 1930 recording of "Blue Yodel No. 9" by Jimmie Rodgers was a remarkable mystery: Here was the legendary singing brakeman, accompanied by a trumpet player who sounded remarkably like Louis Armstrong. At that time, a contingent of jazz purists refused to believe that Armstrong, who was even then the most famous figure in jazz, would sully himself by playing on a hillbilly yodeling record. But other jazz fans who also loved country and folk music were keen to establish that Armstrong did, in fact, collaborate, even if only for a single glorious track, with the man whom Johnny Cash later called "the father of country music."

Nearly 80 years later, jazz and country music still don't get together nearly as often as they should — a situation that Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis mean to remedy with the release of their new album, "Two Men With the Blues" (Blue Note).

In the 1950s, there wasn't much talk about the intersection of jazz, which was becoming increasingly academic, and country, which was becoming increasingly mainstream. Northern and urban listeners had experienced little contact with the Western swing bands of a generation earlier, most famously that of Bob Wills, which adroitly combined country and jazz; fewer still knew of Charlie Parker's assertion that he loved to "listen to the stories" that he heard in the great country songs.

Armstrong himself later "covered" several hits by Hank Williams, including "Cold, Cold Heart." Eventually, someone asked the trumpeter directly about the Jimmie Rodgers "Blue Yodel No. 9" and he confirmed that it was him — as if there could be any doubt. Ten months before his death in 1971, Armstrong revisited "Blue Yodel" in the company of Cash, the country-music industry leader of the day, on an episode of Cash's TV variety show (which has recently been released on DVD by Sony Music Legacy). Armstrong's doctor had ordered him to give up playing the trumpet, so this duet marks one of his last known solos on the instrument. Cash can't yodel like Rodgers, but no matter, he makes yodelicious moaning noises while Armstrong puts down his horn and scats along with him.

As with Armstrong and Cash, duets are par for the course for Willie Nelson, who must be the only artist to have recorded with Frank Sinatra, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, and Julio Iglesias. He also is no redheaded stranger to jazz trumpeters: In 1970, Miles Davis named a song in his honor, which was especially remarkable at the time since Mr. Nelson wasn't yet a national "crossover" name and was still pretty much known only in Nashville. Seventeen years later, Mr. Nelson guest-starred with former Charles Mingus brassman Jack Walwrath on a Blue Note album.

As the title of the new album indicates, and as Armstrong, Rodgers, and Cash all knew well: The blues are the common ground where Messrs. Marsalis's and Nelson's idioms meet. "Two Men With the Blues," which was recorded during four performances in January 2007 at the Allen Room in Jazz at Lincoln Center, includes myriad variations on the classic blues form, starting with Jimmy Reed's "Bright Lights, Big City" and the early jazz perennial "Basin Street Blues." On the bouncier "Ain't Nobody's Business," Messrs. Nelson and Marsalis follow Bessie Smith's treatment of the folk theme (rather than that of Mississippi John Hurt). Mr. Nelson also volunteers an older original of his in the basic 12-bar mold, "Rainy Day Blues."

As with the earlier country-jazz hybrids, which occasionally found Rodgers struggling to find his rhythm in Armstrong's jazzy riffs, the most difficult feat for the current duo is finding a compatible cadence; the only time Messrs. Nelson and Marsalis fail to do so is on "Caldonia," a fast novelty blues by Louis Jordan. Even though it's long been part of the jazz world thanks to Woody Herman, Messrs. Marsalis and Nelson can't get the classic jump-boogie number off the ground. Contrastingly, "That's All," a somewhat reactionary (anti-Darwinist) text that composer Merle Travis described as "a good-old common everyday horse-sense song," is a fast-swinging, blues-drenched comedy set piece with a bad attitude.

The two featured ballads are both by Hoagy Carmichael: "Georgia on My Mind," the 1930 standard which has been treated by virtually every singer from the South (soul or country), and "Star Dust." The latter has long been associated with Mr. Nelson, and is here delivered without the verse, which makes it altogether more danceable. Throughout the album, Mr. Marsalis meets Mr. Nelson halfway with some of his most vocalized playing, his trumpet growling like a human voice thanks to a variety of mutes — and the legacy of King Oliver. (Apart from harmonica player Mickey Raphael, the band is Mr. Marsalis's, and the sideman who attracts the most attention is the saxophonist Walter Blanding, who is steadily developing into a big-toned player with a commanding presence.)

The centerpiece of "Two Men With the Blues" is "My Bucket's Got a Hole In It," an old folk blues that was a hit in 1949-50 for both Hank Williams and Armstrong. Here is where both jazz and hillbilly music find a common ground — apparently cowboys and bluesmen can relate equally to this tragic tale of failing to procure any more alcohol. If that doesn't give you the blues, nothing will; even Marsalis himself sings a chorus. In the words of Jimmie Rodgers on another 1930 record, "You've got no business with the blues unless you can sing 'em!"

wfriedwald@nysun.com