After a desultory, red-light district blast of horns, the Wynton Marsalis-led Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra settles into this funereal rhythm, swaying from side to side as Eric Clapton rips off a few blues-simmered, heartfelt asides.
If you hadn’t checked the liner notes, the song itself — a signature moment for the guitarist as a member of Derek and the Dominos — would remain unrecognizable, almost 1:30 into the tune. It’s only when the band quiets itself for the initial verse — “what will you do when you get lonely,” Clapton sings, to a surprised round of applause from the New York audience — that “Layla” reveals itself.
Marsalis keeps the tempo of the band at lightly swinging dirge throughout, adding a crepuscular mystery to the track, and neatly reframing the misery in Clapton’s anguished cries for a withheld love. Still, as intriguing as this new update is, like the lilting unplugged version from a while back, “Layla” will always feel incomplete without Jim Gordon’s emotionally revealing, agelessly engaging coda.
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