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Colgate University 2023 Commencement Address by Wynton Marsalis
Thank you, Marietta Cheng for the humbling introduction. Thank you, President Casey, Dean Cushing, Colgate Trustees, and the faculty and staff of Colgate for having me with you today. My fellow honorees, it’s a pleasure to be up here with you. Keep reading »
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Music, Listening & Human Flourishing with Wynton Marsalis
In today’s episode, we delve into how humans flourish through music and listening with internationally acclaimed musician, composer, and bandleader Wynton Marsalis. At the age of 60, after a long, international career, Marsalis identifies not only as a solo artist and a group leader, but as an educator and a leading advocate of American culture. Keep reading »
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Spark & Fire Podcast - Play to your elevated purpose: Wynton Marsalis on “The Democracy! Suite”
“Everything you do in the arts gives meaning to your way of life.” In a year of pandemic, racial reckoning, and threats to democracy, Wynton Marsalis creates a seven-song cycle that imagines how artists can shape the times we live in. Keep reading »
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Where Does Creativity Come From: Wynton Marsalis’ interview on Freakonomics (Ep. 355)
To learn more, we examine the early years of Ai Weiwei, Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Maira Kalman, Wynton Marsalis, Jennifer Egan, and others. (Ep. 2 of the “How to Be Creative” series.) Keep reading »
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Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, Episode 12: Wynton Marsalis on Jazz, Time, and America
Jazz occupies a special place in the American cultural landscape. It’s played in elegant concert halls and run-down bars, and can feature esoteric harmonic experimentation or good old-fashioned foot-stomping swing. Nobody embodies the scope of modern jazz better than Wynton Marsalis. As a trumpet player, bandleader, composer, educator, and ambassador for the music, he has worked tirelessly to keep jazz vibrant and alive. In this bouncy conversation, we talk about various kinds of music, how they might relate to physics, and some of the greater challenges facing the United States today. Thanks to KentPresents for bringing us together. Keep reading »
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Tribute to Ken Burns by Wynton Marsalis
Monk, in answering the question “What’s happening Thelonious?” replied, “Everything is happening all the time, man.” Funny, but true. In our country alone, we swim a brimming sea of over 320 million people and roughly 200 billion points of view per second, but in the bowels of this cacophony there is startling commonality in our individuality. Keep reading »
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Transcript: Wynton’s Keynote Address at Tulane University’s Commencement 2014
Here at home in New Orleans, we have a tradition of starting important gigs by calling out the names of legendary musicians from the past. In evoking the memory of legendary artists, this roll call inspires a higher level of performance. In 2007, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra went on tour with Odaadaa!, a group from Ghana led by master drummer Yacub Addy. Each concert started with a long roll call of distinguished ancestors chanted and spoken in Ga, their native tongue. At the end of the chant, Mr. Addy would say “Trah trah o manyaba.” Whereupon we would say Yow!
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The Virtuoso: Marcus Roberts - CBS “60 Minutes”
Who’s the greatest American musician most people have never heard of? To me, it’s Marcus Roberts. I’m biased because Marcus worked in my band when he was just starting out. But anybody who’s heard him at the piano usually agrees: he’s a fearsome and fearless player, and a homegrown example of overcoming adversity with excellence.
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Wynton Marsalis on MLK speech 50th Anniversary: We must walk together
CBS News cultural correspondent Wynton Marsalis shares his deeply personal commentary on race relations and our progress on social issues across the U.S., 50 years after Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “I Have a Dream” speech and the March on Washington.
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Transcript and video of Wynton’s Speech at University of Vermont’s Commencement 2013
Wynton delivered the University of Vermont 2013 commencement address with a heartfelt talk that was wise, wry, musical, and throughout—appropriately enough for his son Simeon Marsalis, UVM Class of 2013—fatherly.
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