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They took me in like I was their son’: Wynton Marsalis on jazz’s great tradition
At the end of his performance at the Barbican with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis made a little speech. The next piece, he announced, was a number that Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers used to play. Marsalis then recalled how he himself had played with the Jazz Messengers as an 18-year-old trumpet prodigy. He described how much he had learned from the drummer, who was then approaching 60, and especially about ‘the sacrifices you have to make to play this music’. Then the band roared into ‘Free for All’ by Wayne Shorter.
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Marsalis & JLCO Dance Among the Gravestones
Jazz at Lincoln Center traffics in ghost stories as a matter of course, fashioning living memorials to long-gone masters of America’s indigenous art form. So it was no great shock that the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis seemed at home on June 11 playing amid the gravestones of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis Live Annotates a Duke Ellington Song
What better guide to the music of Duke Ellington than Wynton Marsalis? And here he is doing it live, improvised on WNYC. On Monday’s show, Marsalis was on to discuss the history of NYC Jazz (and why so many Jazz greats are buried at Woodlawn Cemetary), and Brian played him a bunch of great music by local legends. Here’s our favorite moment, when Wynton walks us through Duke’s “Concerto for Cootie” and lead trumpeter Cootie Williams’ inimitable style. You’ll also hear from Woodlawn historian Susan Olson. Be sure to listen to the full segment here. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis on Woodlawn Cemetery’s “Jazz Corner”
Jazz great after Jazz great has requested to be buried near “Duke” Ellington. So now, Miles Davis, Celia Cruz, Lionel Hampton, Max Roach, and many others can all be found in Woodlawn Cemetery’s unofficial “Jazz Corner.” A concert at Woodlawn is being held tonight in celebration of these Jazz giants. Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter, composer, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Susan Olson, Woodlawn Cemetery historian, weigh in on their legacy and NYC’s jazz history. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis & Indra K. Nooyi - The Dialogues - Connecting Leaders - Specials - Egon Zehnder
Indra K. Nooyi came to the USA from her native India as a young woman. In addition to her many other talents, a gift for closely observing people helped her get a quick handle on the culture of her new country and launch a career that took her to the very top at food and beverage giant PepsiCo. Endowed with a sharp eye, she noticed something special at a concert by the celebrated jazz musician Wynton Marsalis Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis’ return to 60 Minutes
Almost 20 years ago, Wynton Marsalis sat across from Ed Bradley to discuss his jazz career. Now Marsalis returns to 60 Minutes—as the correspondent
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Interview: Ellis and Wynton Marsalis
Ellis Marsalis, Jr. — the paterfamilias of the jazz-playing Marsalis clan — says he was “never big on family bands.” Maybe that’s why even after the Marsalis family performed together for the first time during a retirement celebration for Ellis in 2001, they still don’t play as a family all that often. The sole date on their online schedule is their Clowes Hall show. And then they’ll go their separate ways: Wynton with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; Ellis, Branford and Jason with their respective quartets; Delfeayo with the Uptown Jazz Orchestra; spoken word artist Ellis III to wherever it is that he issues his oracular judgments on American life (Wynton will have more on that in a minute). Keep reading »
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Dr. Jazz has a soft side
As the seconds pass before Wynton Marsalis picks up the phone in his Portland, Ore., hotel room, the mind sends a decree to the body: Be on guard. Keep reading »
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Trumpet and coffee in hand: Marsalis visiting Phillips Brooks House
Marsalis, others sketch New Orleans during morning at Phillips Brooks House
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Faust/Marsalis: The art of learning
Anxiety abounds concerning the demands of our rapidly changing and ever more complicated world and about the ability of our educational system to respond. Yet the education we are fashioning for our children and their children seems ill-suited for the lives they will lead. We hear widespread calls for “outcomes” we can measure and for education geared to specific employment needs, but many of today’s students will hold jobs that have not yet been invented, deploying skills not yet defined.
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