This recording of "Soon All Will Know" comes from Wynton Marsalis' 1986 album Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. I. Unlike the other tracks on the album, this is an original Marsalis composition rather than a standard from the Great American Songbook. The piece is performed at a medium-up swing tempo of approximately 193 BPM in the key of B-flat major, using the 12-bar blues form. Marsalis is the sole soloist, delivering a commanding thirteen-chorus solo on trumpet that stands as one of the album's most extended and ambitious improvisations. Over the course of this marathon blues statement, Marsalis demonstrates his comprehensive command of the blues idiom, drawing on the full history of jazz trumpet from Louis Armstrong through Clifford Brown to his own modern voice. The 12-bar blues form provides a concise, repeating structure that paradoxically demands the most creative invention, as the short cycle requires the soloist to constantly generate fresh ideas. Thirteen choruses at this tempo represents a substantial creative undertaking, and Marsalis sustains interest throughout by varying his rhythmic approach, dynamics, and melodic vocabulary. The B-flat major blues tonality places the performance in the most fundamental of jazz settings, and Marsalis proves himself more than equal to the challenge.
