Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. 1 is an album by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1987. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group in 1988.
In Leonard Feather’s four-star review, published in The Los Angeles Times shortly after the album’s release, any reservations expressed are confined to the album’s liner notes.
Marsalis twists the time around on “April in Paris,” tries a little tenderness on “Goodbye,” turns bassist Bob Hurst loose on “A Foggy Day” and presents his pianist Marcus Roberts, who senses the beauty of the melody on “Memories of You.” Except for two Marsalis originals (a personalized blues and a delicate, muted “In the Afterglow”) the trumpeter’s mature approach to old pop songs is the focus. Incredibly, the verbose notes by Stanley Crouch manage to plow through some 2,000 words without once mentioning George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Juan Tizol, Ray Noble, Eubie Blake or Hoagy Carmichael. These men merely composed the melodies without which there would have been no standard time.