-
Marsalis: Playing as Much as Possible
In a powerful indication of how far he has advanced since his first cautious steps as a leader only six years ago, Wynton Marsalis will lead his quintet for two full weeks, starting tonight, at the Westwood Playhouse. There will be no other artists on the bill. Keep reading »
-
The Wynton Marsalis Interview: 1987
We last interviewed Wynton Marsalis in 1984. Since that time his popularity and notoriety have, if anything, grown and, as can be seen in the following interview, he views his position with the utmost responsibility and seriousness. Keep reading »
-
Marsalis Aims for Pride and Purity
When I was a child, my music teacher told me I could best learn the names of the notes on the lines of the staff by keeping in mind that Every Good Boy Does Fine. After all these years, I finally am able to visualize that paragon of exemplary musical behavior climbing up the staff. He is Wynton Marsalis, who may be the most self-disciplined jazzman in the history of that volcanic art. Keep reading »
-
Wynton Marsalis: music can speak
LEONARD FEATHER: Would you classify yourself as conservative, the way Francis Davis said in his book (In the Moment)? WYNTON MARSALIS: Oh no, I’m not conservative. The reason he said that is because I wear suits. He’s thinking more in terms of image than substance. Keep reading »
-
Diligence. The most celebrated figure of new jazz speaks his mind: on journalists, money and soul… and Monk, Duke and Clifford
It’s beginning to get like a smokescreen with all this stuff. I wanted to hear a trumpeter, playing jazz and classical music, a great trumpeter, and these days I Seem to be getting a man who talks up a fearsome polemical storm and has his playing shuttled off to some sideline where critics can take it or leave it. Keep reading »
-
Angry Young Man With A Horn
Wynton Marsalis leans forward, peers through his glasses and says with his usual fervor, “People actually want to discuss music with me. Me! Their knowledge of music is so limited that I don’t understand how they even think they can converse with me in my own idiom That’s like me wanting to discuss the space program with a rocket scientist. That kind of arrogance is foreign to me.” Keep reading »
-
Wynton Marsalis: Smashing The Stereotypes
Wynton Marsalis is a taste maker beyond his influence as a musician. You see it in his life style, his personal appearance and his influence on young people, particularly young black people. Keep reading »
-
Hounding Out The Jazz Traitors
In his foreword to the new edition of The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Jazz, trumpeter WYNTON MARSALIS invokes the spirit of Louis Armstrong and lambasts the “primitives” and “jazz rockers” who have betrayed the truth and the tradition of the music. Keep reading »
-
A Gentlemen With a Mean Horn
Wynton Marsalis fingers a cornet. America’s wunderkind from New Orleans is a modest, mellow and articulate fellow, and he’ll be 25 next month. What’s more, his fifth CBS jazz record, “J Mood,” is in the stores, and he’s in the mood to chat. Keep reading »
-
YOUNG MEN with the golden horns
Adept technicians or brilliant young masters? Cold fish or hot cats? RICHARD COOK suggests that the Marsalis brothers are more than the latest thing in tired old Jazz music. Keep reading »