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Wynton appears in a new documentary-film to be out in February
The film, ‘‘A Trumpet at the Walls of Jericho: The Untold Story of Samuel Harrison,” chronicles the life of Harrison, a freed slave and a giant in the antislavery movement. It features a soundtrack by jazz pianist Eric Lewis of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and will be shown on PBS stations in February for Black History Month.
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A Trumpet at the Walls of Jericho, portions of which were filmed in Hudson and at Hale’s Farm, is narrated by Ossie Davis. -
A young Wynton Marsalis with Art Blakey on DVD
Out this month is a DVD version of a 1982 concert of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in performance at the Baird Auditorium at the Smithsonian Institution. The hour long concert features a young Wynton Marsalis on trumpet, his brother Branford on baritone saxophone, Bill Pierce on tenor sax, Donald Brown on piano and Charles Fambrough on bass as they swing through “Little Man,” “My Ship,” “New York,” “Webb City” and a closing medley. A brief interview with Blakey is included.
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Unforgivable Blackness is now available on DVD
Unforgivable Blackness, the Ken Burns’ documentary about iconic black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson is now available on DVD.
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Combining photographs and film footage with music provided by Wynton Marsalis, Burns’ portrait of Johnson clicks on at least three levels: as a biography, as a piece of sports history, and, most important, as a lesson on race relations in the early 20th century. -
Wynton’s phone message to the Marines in Tampa
Greg Johnson, a trumpet player and Marine in Tampa, Florida, has known Wynton for several years. He called Wynton before the holidays to see if he could record a phone message to a group of Marines who were shipping out to Iraq shortly. The time also coincided with the Marines birthday.
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Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Featuring Wynton Marsalis: A Love Supreme (2005)
In the last year there’s been a resurgence of interest in John Coltrane’s epochal A Love Supreme. First saxophonist Branford Marsalis’ quartet released a live DVD with an incendiary version of the suite, demonstrating with the same instrumentation how an ensemble could be reverent without being imitative, capturing the essence of the piece without sounding like a weak copy. Keep reading »
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Happy Holidays from Wynton and Jazz at Lincoln Center
From Wynton to all his fans:
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Best wishes for a swinging holiday season and a brilliant new year! -
A Children’s Lesson About Seasons and People
“Suite for Human Nature,” which opened at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater on Thursday night, is a gently jazz-educational cross between the trenchant lessons of ancient myth and the gentler storytelling of children’s suites like “Peter and the Wolf.” Keep reading »
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Wynton honored as State Department’s Culture Connect Ambassador
At a special U.S. Department of State ceremony December 13, Secretary of State Colin Powell honored 13 celebrities in the arts and sports who serve as the Department’s CultureConnect ambassadors, reaching out to young people around the world. The CultureConnect program, created by Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Patricia S. Harrison, recruits men and women acclaimed in their fields who are willing to contribute their time and talent on behalf of youth.
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Wynton Marsalis and Kathleen Battle on JALC Radio
The great soprano Kathleen Battle and Wynton, joined by pianist Cyrus Chestnut, reedman James Carter and bassist Christian McBride To celebrate spirituals and lullabies and of course, Duke Ellington. Battle solos with McBride on “Hush”, then soars on “Come Sunday”; Also Marsalis’ “Spring Yaounde” and Chestnut’s joyous “Come Ye Disconsolate.”
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Marsalis’s ‘Human Nature’: Engaging Fairy Tale
“Suite for Human Nature” seems a terribly dull title for a jazz fable, especially one as whimsical and charming as Wynton Marsalis’s latest extended work, which had its world premiere at the Lincoln Theater on Friday night. The renowned trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer has written more ambitious and complex orchestral pieces, but none more playfully engaging and family-friendly. Keep reading »