Wynton sounds off - Marsalis expounds on post-Katrina creativity, the Bring New Orleans Back Commission and all that jazz
Wynton Marsalis, the most prominent New Orleans jazz trumpeter since Louis Armstrong, first toured Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in October. His take on the state of the city? “We’re in bad shape,” he said, “but it was better than I thought it was, based on what I’d heard.”
Still, he realizes a long, hard road lies ahead. He intends to leverage his high profile within the jazz hierarchy — he is the longtime artistic director of New York’s prestigious Jazz at Lincoln Center — to aid the recovery effort.
Marsalis was back in New Orleans for 48 hours last week. On Jan. 16, he delivered a speech at Tulane’s McAlister Auditorium to welcome returning Tulane, Loyola, Xavier and Dillard students. He then performed with his pianist father, Ellis, and his protégé, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, the founder of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.
On Jan. 17, Marsalis and fellow members of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission’s cultural committee released an ambitious 40-page blueprint for a sweeping cultural renaissance in New Orleans.
During an interview the previous afternoon, hours before Mayor Ray Nagin dropped his “chocolate city” bomb, Marsalis sounded off on a variety of topics.
When you were growing up, was the possibility of a devastating storm like Katrina talked about around the Marsalis family dinner table? Did the Big One factor into your thinking?
You’d always hear people bragging on the power of storms. Betsy and Camille were the two that always got talked about: “Oh, you think Camille was bad, but that Betsy, child. . . . I don’t know how we survived that one. Then here come Camille right after her.” They’d be arguing about which storm was the worst.
That argument has pretty much been decided at this point.
Oh, there’s no question as to who wins that. It won’t be discussed that way in the future. Katrina set another standard. They’ll just refer to it as “The Storm. I was there when The Storm hit.”
You were at home in New York as Katrina hit. When did you realize this storm would be a whole different ballgame?
(Former N.O. Mayor) Marc Morial called me early on the morning people first heard that the (levees) broke. He told me, “Man, this is something very, very serious. This is not a joke.” So I knew that, because he’s not a man given to too much over-sentimentalizing.
Irvin Mayfield’s profile is much higher since the storm. He’s become one of the faces representing the New Orleans music community. How has he performed in that role?
He’s doing great. He’s playing great. He’s talking about the issues that need to be talked about. I’m in full support of what he’s doing. And the age that he is, too, is very important. He’s representing his generation very well.
He seems to think that Katrina will provide an artistic inspiration for a long time to come. What do you think is the role of artists in the wake of something like this?
It’s whatever the artist wants it to be. Different things hit people in different ways. It’s important for Irvin to respond in the way it hits him. It’s been a double tragedy for him, losing his father. I can only support what he’s doing.
What about you? Your role so far has been as a fund-raiser and as an administrator with the mayor’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission.
I don’t really deal with topical issues in music.
So you don’t think you’ll write music inspired by Katrina?
I might, but I generally don’t deal with topical issues. It’s not my practice. I’m always (interested in) whatever the human issue is.
But there are profound human issues within this event.
And I will deal with them, but not in the context of the topical issue. Issues of loss, revenge, sorrow, grief, uplift, human issues that have gone on since the beginning of time.
But you likely won’t call it the “Katrina Suite.”
No. That’s not my way. But I’m in support of those who do. I don’t have anything against that, it’s just not my method. Like I might put something on the grill, but I’m not mad at you for putting it in the skillet.
Regarding your work for the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, you haven’t lived here for over 20 years, so you don’t have the same on-the-ground perspective as artists within the community.
I think you utilize the talents of the people you have and their expertise in whatever they know about. We all have different roles. I fulfilled my role to the best of my ability. Those who were here and had a clearer perspective than I had about what to do fulfilled their role. We came up with a document that speaks very clearly and eloquently to what we think needs to be done to bring our cultural community back and aid the city of New Orleans and the citizens of New Orleans.
What was the value of your perspective in this process?
Somebody else on the commission would have to tell you that. I really can’t address that issue. I don’t have a perspective on it.
Is there a benefit to the post-Katrina diaspora of New Orleans culture?
A guy called me from Detroit and said one of the people from New Orleans stood up in the church and it was so soulful, that they bring such a beautiful feeling to that community. I’m sure that kind of thing is happening all over the country. With our cooking, our music, with our way of being and our way of intelligence, all of the things that we have that are New Orleans things. People who never left home have an opportunity to get away from home. It’s a terrible condition for them to do that, but I’m sure they’re learning things.
Your brother Branford and Harry Connick Jr. have teamed up with Habitat for Humanity to build houses for displaced musicians. Does that seem like a worthwhile venture to you?
It’s great. We have that as an example in our plan.
You are on the board of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. What does this upheaval mean for NOJO?
The leadership of the organization has to step up. Irvin and (CEO) Ronald Markham, . . . they have plans. I think everything is going to work out fine. We’ll have to do a lot of work, and they’re up to doing the work. It’s important for New Orleans to have an orchestra out representing the city and making people feel good about who we are. Right now music and the arts are very important. It is our identity.
Just before Katrina, you announced plans for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra to premiere a newly commissioned piece about Congo Square in Armstrong Park in late April. The free concert would be the culmination of four days of workshops. Is that still on?
We’re still planning on doing it, as far as I know. I believe in, let’s go ahead. We’re still here. Let’s keep going. Let’s do it. We don’t have to talk about it. Let’s be about it.
In September, you hosted a Katrina benefit concert at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall that PBS broadcast. Afterward, an amazing, star-studded jam session took place at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.
Oh, yeah, I remember that. Cassandra (Wilson) got up and sang, Marcus Roberts was playing unbelievable piano. My father played, Jason (Marsalis) played. It was an unbelievable feeling, people who had donated their time. We got together and just did our thing. That happens all the time in the club. Not with musicians of that magnitude, but it happens all the time. And it’s been happening for years. When we travel places, we go to jam sessions.
You’ve played at Vaughan’s in Bywater.
We’ve played in clubs all over the world, in that same way. We bring that feeling with us. It’s just what we do, really.
When we spoke after you won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for your three-hour oratorio “Blood on the Fields,” you confessed that you had never sat down and listened to a three-hour piece of music. On your 2004 studio album “The Magic Hour” and 2005’s “Live at the House of Tribes,” your playing seems lighter, more joyful…
Not to me. I feel like I’m playing like I always play. We’ve made a Mingus record, a John Coltrane “Love Supreme” record, a record with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra that Brooks Brothers has out in their stores. That live record was one night we played in a club. In that year, there might have been 60 or 70 nights that I played like that. They just weren’t recorded.
So it shouldn’t be taken as representative of any sort of…
…Direction? No. We record live, so when I make a record, it’s just what I played at that time. And I’m not topical: “I’m happy today, so let me play happy music.” No. Every time I make a record, I try to play something different than what I played before.
At the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2002, you played some second-line music. Will you emphasize traditional New Orleans music more, post-Katrina?
I’ve (always) been about playing New Orleans music. In spite of being critiqued about it: “Don’t play the music people used to play” and all of that kind of imbecility. It doesn’t make a difference to me. I play my thing, I do what I want to do, I continue to try to develop and become a better musician. But I use my own taste to determine where I go. I don’t have a device. It’s what it is.
So Katrina won’t affect your artistic output at all? Not even an effort to subtly highlight the New Orleans elements in what you do?
I’m always trying to do that. Before Katrina, I was working on a record called “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary.” I’d been thinking about these ideas for years. When it comes out, you might think it was because of this or that. But it’s not.
You stood alongside New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to drop the ball on New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Did that confirm your identity as a New Yorker?
I’ve been in New York for 20-something years. I love New York. To work in the education system in the city and be a part of the city has been an honor for me. I’ve lived all over the city and participated in the life of the city, working with different cultural and arts institutions, doing whatever I could do to help the city — as I want to do for New Orleans.
Dropping the ball in Times Square is a quintessential New York moment.
I enjoyed it. I’ve seen the mayor (Bloomberg) a lot in his tenure. I played at his first inauguration; we always joke with each other. I was happy to be there, especially because he dedicated that to bring attention to New Orleans and to the rebuilding effort. That was a great gesture on his part, something he certainly was not obligated to do. It brought us into this new year letting people all over the world think about New Orleans, and that we’re rebuilding — that this is a new year and we’re going to renew our efforts to bring our city back. I felt very happy about that.
By Keith Spera
Source: The Times-Picayune