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Shock of the new
Wynton Marsalis is 10 minutes into an angry denunciation of hip-hop and he’s just hitting his stride. “I call it ‘ghetto minstrelsy’,” he says. “Old school minstrels used to say they were ‘real darkies from the real plantation’. Hip-hop substitutes the plantation for the streets. Now you have to say that you’re from the streets, you shot some brothers, you went to jail. Rappers have to display the correct pathology. Rap has become a safari for people who get their thrills from watching African-American people debase themselves, men dressing in gold, calling themselves stupid names like Ludacris or 50 Cent, spending money on expensive fluff, using language like ‘bitch’ and ‘ho’ and ‘nigger’.”
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Wynton’s 10 great places to get jazzed about great jazz
Swing your way through Black History Month with jazz. Rooted in African folk music traditions and the American soil, jazz was invented in the USA. Trumpeter/composer Wynton Marsalis shares his picks of top jazz clubs with Kathy Baruffi for USA TODAY. Marsalis is artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, the first complex ever built specifically for this indigenous music form. The state-of-the-art spaces include the cozy Dizzy Club Coca-Cola (jalc.org), where top talent is served together with great food and knockout views of the skyline.
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Marsalis’ stunning opus transcends race and epochs
The New York Philharmonic messed up rhythms, the singers struggled to find their cues and conductor Kurt Masur begged for last-minute clarifications in a score that never had been performed before.
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Meanwhile, composer Wynton Marsalis paced the stage of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, attempting to answer 1,001 questions lobbed at him by instrumentalists, singers, technicians and practically everyone else within earshot. -
Hot corporations know how to swing
Leading a company is often compared to conducting an orchestra. But organizing a jazz band may be a more appropriate analogy. That’s because business leaders increasingly want to set free the creative juices of individuality while maintaining the discipline to make music, not noise. USA TODAY’s Del Jones went to Wynton Marsalis, 45, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, who was named one of America’s Best Leaders in 2006 by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and U.S. News & World Report.
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Wynton talks about the new cd: From the Plantation to the Penitentiary
Wynton is recording in studio during these days. This is a text of an interview that he gave to Associated Press about his new CD:
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Wynton on Ed Bradley - Interview for CBS
The day after Ed Bradley passed away, 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft interviewed jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in New York City. Marsalis, a friend of Ed’s, is artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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The Herald of Our Swinging Heritage
It sounds like a scene from the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. The teenage Wynton Marsalis is walking home from school in New Orleans, carrying his books and papers in a blue American Tourister suitcase. Neighborhood kids hoot, because, really-a teenager carrying his books in a suitcase?
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Wynton playing for Velocity Broadcasting tonight
Tonight, jazz fans—at least a select few—will get to hear Marsalis when Pittsburgh-based Velocity Broadcasting airs a 90-minute concert and commentary session with Marsalis and his quintet live from WQED. The event also will feature a performance from Matt Savage, a 14-year-old pianist with autism, and Omega Love, a Pittsburgh-based group that released a self-titled album earlier this year.
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Wynton interviewed about Louis Armstrong by WYNC Radio
Wynton has been interviewed by New York Public Radio about his concert on Louis Armstrong and Hot Fives.
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A lovely discussion about Louis’s way of playing and expressing his feelings. -
Wynton with Oprah Winfrey on XM Satellite Radio
Wynton Marsalis will be guest at “Oprah and Friends”, on the air Thursday on XM Satellite Radio channel 156.
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