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Wynton Marsalis: Jazzman on the Run
SOMETIME during the last year, those of us who were on the mailing list of Columbia Records ran for cover. It was raining CD’s by Wynton Marsalis. By the end of 1999, Mr. Marsalis had released some 20 hours of music on 15 CD’s, a heroic effort called ‘‘Swinging Into the 21st’’ that still has not emptied Columbia’s vaults of his material. Keep reading »
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Trumpetinghis Mission – Jazz Great Marsalis Wants Folks To Learn To Listen
AT 38, Wynton Marsalis is the most respected trumpet player in jazz. He’s also the most honored. A multi-Grammy winner and artistic director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Program, he’s even won a Pulitzer — in 1997 he was given the prize for his composition “Blood on the Fields,” which addressed racism in the United States. Keep reading »
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Marathon Man. Anything but Conventional
The phone won’t quit ringing, the front door keeps swinging open and the parade of visitors never seems to stop. The scene, however, is not Grand Central Station. But it’s perhaps the second busiest spot in midtown Manhattan: Wynton Marsalis’ high-rise apartment near Lincoln Center, where he directs the most sweeping jazz performance program in the country, if not the planet. Keep reading »
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A New Horn
What was that odd-looking brass instrument you saw in a jazz club or at the symphony? It was David Monette’s reinvention of the trumpet Keep reading »
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Wynton, Not Long Ago
When I asked Wynton Marsalis to define swing last week, he said, with characteristic wit, “It’s a matter of extreme coordination.” The same can be said for how this singular figure manages his remarkably demanding career. Keep reading »
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PBS: An Interview with Wynton Marsalis
People often say that the best improvised music sounds composed and the best compositions sound improvised. Well, Duke Ellington embodied this principle, as his compositions, when played with integrity and soul, have a freshness to them that captures the improvisatory nature of jazz—even the ones that don’t have any improvised sections. Keep reading »
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Ellington At 100: Reveling in Life’s Majesty
IN Duke Ellington’s world, people are smiling, they are dancing and they are making love. They’re having a good time because his music’s most basic concern is uplift of the human spirit. It’s a music that celebrates freedom of expression, freedom of choice. That’s why we love it. It wants us to love being ourselves and to revel in the majesty of life. Keep reading »
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Talkin’ trumpeters with Wynton Marsalis, part II
In our first installment of “Talkin’ Trumpeters With Wynton Marsalis” (May ‘98), we gave the trumpeter an opportunity to accentuate the positive aspects of his fellow hornblowers. His initial list covered Jon Faddis, Terence Blanchard, Wallace Roney, Nicholas Payton, Marcus Printup, Roy Hargrove and Russell Gunn. We ended with a brief mention of Ryan Kisor, a section man in several big bands and repertory orchestras, including Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis On What’s Right And Wrong With Jazz Education
From his formidable pulpit of Jazz At Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis is deep in the shed of jazz education, reaching out to children of all ages, developing curriculum material for teachers, concerned not only with pedagogy but also with audience education. Keep reading »
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A Jazz Success Story with a Tinge of the Blues: At Lincoln Center, Defining the Canon Draws Fire
The scene at the Supper Club on West 47th Street seemed to evoke the glory days of jazz—an ebullient swing band playing classic Ellington tunes as dancers in period costumes rocketed around the dance floor. Keep reading »