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Wynton Marsalis: The 2006 TIME 100
My friend Wynton Marsalis comes from a rich musical-family tradition in New Orleans that I share with my family. From that core of talent and tradition has sprung an amazing young man who has worn many hats in his career: musician, composer, ambassador, activist, arts administrator and more. He’s an original in so many ways and has a tremendous influence on the popularity of modern jazz and its deep roots in New Orleans history. We share a love for our universally beloved hometown and were shattered by its recent destruction.
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Saving America’s Soul Kitchen
Now the levee breach has been fixed. The people have been evacuated. Army Corps of Engineers magicians will pump the city dry, and the slow (but quicker than we think) job of rebuilding will begin. Then there will be no 24-hour news coverage. The spin doctors’ narrative will create a wall of illusion thicker than the new levees. The job of turning our national disaster into sound-bite-size commercials with somber string music will be left to TV. The story will be sanitized as our nation’s politicians congratulate themselves on a job well done. Americans of all stripes will demonstrate saintly concern for one another. It’s what we do in a crisis.
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Horns of Plenty - TIME Magazine
Miles Davis is onstage, but the young man in the dark blue Versace jacket couldn’t care less. He is concentrating on the one thing other than a trumpet mouthpiece that is capable of riveting his attention to the point of near obsession: a basketball hoop. For some reason, there is a basket in the open backstage area of New York’s Jones Beach Theater, and Wynton Marsalis is pumping balls into the net from every angle. Suddenly, he dribbles out 30 ft. from the goal and announces, “I bet $100 I can sink one from here. Keep reading »