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Jazz at the Center
When Wynton Marsalis received the Pulitzer Prize recently for his three-and-a-half slavery oratorio, Blood on the Fields, he was the first jazz composer ever so recognized (Duke Ellington was specifically rejected by the board). But Marsalis - whose success at 35 as a composer, popularizer, teacher and institution-builder is unrivaled—is still an angry young man, albeit a charming and eloquent one. Keep reading »
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Blood Brothers
SLAVERY: NOW THAT’S A THEME TO SINK YOUR TEETH INTO. WYNTON MARSALIS THOUGHT SO, and he has - emotionally, mentally, spiritually and musically. With his current “epic oratorio” Blood On The Fields, featuring the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and singers Miles Griffith, Cassandra Wilson and Jon Hendricks, the intrepid Marsalis has taken a personal look into one of the most ignominious chapters in our nation’s history Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis is first jazz musician to win Pulitzer Prize
Wynton Marsalis says becoming the first jazz artist to win a Pulitzer Prize is not about him—it’s about the music. Marsalis won the prestigious prize for music for his epic jazz opera. Blood on the Fields, which focuses on the tragedy of slavery in America. Until now, the Pulitzer Prize for music has traditionally recognized classical compositions. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis: Interview by Ted Panken
The Reigning Genius of Jazz to his admirers, the Emperor With No Clothes to his debunkers, Wynton Marsalis has attracted public attention and provoked ferociously divergent responses like few musicians in the music’s history. Since his emergence in the early 1980’s as a trumpet virtuoso and composer-bandleader, the result of Marsalis’ choice and treatment of material and his penchant for salty public statements is a public persona akin to a massive lightning rod or magnet that absorbs and repels the roiling opinions and attitudes informing the contemporary Jazz zeitgeist. Keep reading »
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Let Freedom Swing
From coast to coast, newspapers trumpeted the same remarkable tune: A jazz artist had won a prestigious award hitherto given only to classical musicians. “Marsalis swings a Pulitzer,” noted USA Today, evoking the jazz idiom with its choice of verb. Keep reading »
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Pulitzer Prizes Hit a New Note
Jazz got a Pulitzer for the first time yesterday when Wynton Marsalis got the prize for “Blood on the Fields,” an oratorio that follows the agonizing journey of two slaves, Jesse and Leona, from capture and the terror of the Middle Passage to their sale in a New Orleans marketplace and into the hardships of plantation life. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis has turned the hardships of slavery into sublime jazz
A three-hour oratorio about the history of slavery where the audience comes out whistling the tunes has to count as some kind of a triumph. Blood on the Fields by Wynton Marsalis - who wrote both the music and the libretto, and who performs the work at the Barbican on Tuesday with his Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra and the three featured vocalists of John Hendricks, Miles Griffith and Cassandra Wilson - is an extraordinary achievement by any standards. Keep reading »
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Marsalis’ Gamble
With a cast of roughly two dozen musicians, a running time of nearly three hours and a forthcoming recording that will fill a three-CD boxed set, it is the single biggest project of Wynton Marsalis’ career to date. Keep reading »
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The Freedom to Create
Wynton Marsalis learned plenty while writing ‘Blood on the Fields,’ a jazz oratorio reflecting on the slave era. But perhaps the most important lesson was about himself. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis: Speaking from the Melody
Trumpeter, composer, author, leader, public figure, educator, father–musician…. Wynton Marsalis is a man of many hats, too many to list here. Keep reading »