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Coltrane 101: Echoes of a Giant
JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER’S more ambitious concerts, while playing to an audience impressed by flash and smoothness, never completely lose their pedantic side; they’re always functioning in part as lessons. But sometimes that doesn’t sound so appealing. The cost of living is rising faster than salaries, and now even pleasure is work? And whose jazz history is this, anyway? Doesn’t jazz activate a loose, adaptable kind of intelligence that teaches you to be suspicious of someone else’s agenda? Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis: The Once and Future King of Jazz at Lincoln Center
Hollering the blues, backed by a tambourine and twangy acoustic guitar, Mr. Marsalis was a study in contradictions. He was invoking rustic folk traditions while attired in a Brooks Brothers tuxedo and white tie. And he was sounding a note of abject despair while basking in the glow of 1,400 admirers, some of whom had paid as much as $2,500, as part of the fifth annual spring gala of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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Jazz in America, To the Beat Of a Smooth One-Man Band
‘OH Lord,’’ Wynton Marsalis cried from the stage of the Apollo Theater. ‘‘Oh Lord,’’ he repeated, in an unsteady but soulful voice. ‘‘What have I done?’’ Keep reading »
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Wynton interviewed by The Independent
It doesn’t take much to annoy Wynton Marsalis. Jazz after about 1965? Forget it. Rap? Don’t get him started. But these days the trumpeter is turning his furious attention to some of the US’s biggest issues: corporate ethics, the continued persecution of black Americans and the inadequate government response to Hurricane Katrina. Sholto Byrnes tries, in vain, to calm him down
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Wynton Marsalis: Blowing up a storm
When Wynton Marsalis steps on stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York next month, he will have achieved recognition the likes of which no jazz musician has received before. Others have been honoured with monuments or awards. Dizzy Gillespie famously performed his tune “Salt Peanuts” with Jimmy Carter at the White House. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis: The 2006 TIME 100
My friend Wynton Marsalis comes from a rich musical-family tradition in New Orleans that I share with my family. From that core of talent and tradition has sprung an amazing young man who has worn many hats in his career: musician, composer, ambassador, activist, arts administrator and more. He’s an original in so many ways and has a tremendous influence on the popularity of modern jazz and its deep roots in New Orleans history. We share a love for our universally beloved hometown and were shattered by its recent destruction.
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History joins with melody on Big Easy stage
“More soaring, more powerful,” Wynton Marsalis told the brass section. “I need more freedom in the music.” Keep reading »
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Jazz great laments politics of New Orleans revival
NEW ORLEANS - Wynton Marsalis is an impatient man, so for the jazz trumpeter who’s become a global ambassador for New Orleans culture, the politics of reconstruction in his battered city are frustrating. Through 7-1/2 months of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, issues like bloated reconstruction contracts and loose minimum wage requirements have only added to the frustration, Marsalis said in an interview on Monday. Keep reading »
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‘Congo’ dedicated to New Orleans
Wynton Marsalis has lived in the Big Apple for more than 25 years, but his heart is still in the Big Easy, as befits a New Orleans native whose music is steeped in the rich cultural traditions of his hometown. Keep reading »
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Marsalis mixes it up
Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra celebrate his native New Orleans next week with the premiere of Congo Square, an 80-minute composition co-written and performed with Ghanian drum master Yacub Addy and his nine-piece ensemble, Odadaa!
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