Here are some albums of ballads, by the artists I've listed, that put Wynton's to shame.

Dave Douglas (trumpet): Charms of the Night Sky (Winter & Winter), In Our Lifetime (New World), A Thousand Evenings (RCA), The Infinite (RCA).

James Carter (saxophones): The Real Quietstorm (Atlantic), Chasin' the Gypsy (Atlantic).

David Murray (sax, bass clarinet): Ballads, Ballads for Bass Clarinet, Shakill's II, The Long Goodbye, and Lovers (all DIW); Morning Song (Black Saint); World Saxophone Quartet Plays Ellington (Nonesuch).

Don Byron (clarinet): A Fine Line and You Are #6 (Blue Note); Bug Music (Nonesuch).

Marty Ehrlich (saxophone, clarinet): Sojourn (Tzadik), Line on Love (Palmetto), New York Child (Enja).

Greg Osby (saxophone): The Invisible Hand and St. Louis Shoes (Blue Note).

For the art of Miles Davis, which Marsalis tries to emulate, see the "marathon" quintet sessions of 1956 (Cookin', Workin', Relaxin', and Steamin', all on Prestige), the earlier Birth of the Cool (Blue Note), or the later Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess, Sketches of Spain, Kind of Blue, Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way (all Columbia), or the ballad numbers on the later-still Miles Live Around the World (Warner Bros.). Not to mention the many, many great ballad albums by such still-living elders as Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, Clark Terry ... the list could go on and on. And these are just horn players. Add pianists and melodic bass players, and it becomes endless.