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Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer-winning ‘Blood on the Fields’ returns
Sixteen years ago, newspapers across America riffed on an unexpected theme: For the first time, a jazz composition had won the country’s highest musical honor. “Marsalis swings a Pulitzer” trumpeted USA Today, its message echoing wherever cultural news was reported. Not since Duke Ellington had been snubbed by the Pulitzers in 1965 — prompting two jury members who recommended him for the award to quit — had jazz become so dramatically linked to the award. Keep reading »
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Jazz At Lincoln Center Announces 2012-13 Season
New York, NY (March 6, 2012) Jazz at Lincoln Center celebrates its 25th anniversary with a new season offering festivals, concerts, education events, *Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra* touring, and a diverse line-up of guest artists (“Click here for complete JALC 2012-13 Concert Season
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Wynton’s music scores for big band available for rental
Some of Wynton’s most important jazz and classical compositions for big band are now available for rental from Boosey & Hawkes. New music scores available include:
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Pulitzer changes put the emphasis on American music
In American journalism, the Pulitzer Prize towers over all other honors. In literature and drama, it conveys palpable prestige and often spikes sales.And in music . . . well, to put it kindly, the award has a checkered past. Keep reading »
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Marsalis Unbound
Following a limited number of concert performances, Wynton Marsalis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning composition “Blood on the Fields” has finally arrived on CD, allowing it the wider audience it deserves. Keep reading »
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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 »