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Don’t play Duke Ellington like Haydn Trumpet Concerto, says Wynton Marsalis
As the first musician ever to have been signed simultaneously to the jazz and classical divisions of Columbia Records, Wynton Marsalis is intimately familiar with the differences and similarities between the two worlds. We spoke to him over the phone, during a tour stop in Boston, and asked what he thought about treating jazz like classical music. Keep reading »
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Young man with a horn
A couple of months ago I got a phone call from a writer working on an article about Jazz at Lincoln Center. The program, announced in the spring of 1991, has gotten a lot of media attention. It’s undeniable that Lincoln Center’s giving jazz a regular home has “legitimized” it in the eyes of some cultural elites, including foundations and philanthropists, here in the land of its birth-one of the last places the music has won that respect. Keep reading »
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Wynton’s Decade: Creating a Canon
Ten years ago, young players in crispy pressed suits were not yet being signed by major labels; Lincoln Center in New York was not yet presenting an 11-month jazz season; the Ravinia Festival near Chicago had not yet begun its ground-breaking Jazz. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis Versus Elvis, Queen Latifah, and Madonna
Every twentieth-century generation has had a jazz trumpet player to call its own. The twenties had Louis Armstrong, the forties, Dizzy Gillespie, and the sixties, Miles Davis. For the 1980s and into the ‘90s, Wynton Marsalis occupies that position. Since blasting onto the scene at 18 years of age with Art Blakey’s acclaimed band, the Jazz Messengers, in the late 1970s, he has become emblematic of the young players who take jazz seriously. Keep reading »
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The Young Lions’ Roar : Wynton Marsalis and the ‘Neoclassical’ Lincoln Center Orchestra
Halfway through condemning the electronic jazz-funk Miles Davis played in his later years, Wynton Marsalis stops himself. “Don’t print that, all right?” the trumpeter says suddenly. “When (Miles) was alive, I made it clear what I felt about what he was doing, and now that he’s dead I don’t feel I have to say any more about it. Keep reading »
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Marsalis trumpets virtues of early recognition
At only 30 years of age, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has already been called an “elder statesman of jazz.” It is a label he disputes, saying he is simply grateful to have achieved acclaim so young. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis Raises a Joyful Noise
When Wynton Marsalis, the 30-year-old trumpeter and most celebrated jazz musician of his generation, hits the stage at Lincoln Center on Wednesday night, he’ll be playing in a style that, for the most part, can’t be heard on his recordings. Keep reading »
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A few words — and a lot of music
Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis doesn’t mince words. With him, one-word answers often suffice. His hobby? “Basketball” Advice to young players trying to make it? “Practice.” His thoughts on trumpet great Miles Davis? “Dead.” Keep reading »
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Marsalis: The Jazz Missionary
A decade ago, the doomsayers were proclaiming the death of jazz. In a music world saturated with rock cliches, in a marketplace newly dominated by musically unsophisticated teenagers, the cynics argued that jazz had no place. Keep reading »
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Blues Alley Cat Wynton Marsalis
WYNTON MARSALIS has enjoyed an unusual relationship with the Blues Alley nightclub over the years. Not only has the jazz trumpeter recorded a live album there and conducted numerous workshops with the Blues Alley Youth Orchestra, but he continues to play in the Georgetown club every December even though he now has the commercial clout to headline at Wolf Trap and other theaters. Keep reading »