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The Marsalis brothers jazzed up a basketball conversation with Billy Donovan and Sam Presti
Oklahoma City Thunder assistant coach Mark Bryant was walking alongside the basketball court at the team’s practice facility when he passed a legendary face from the jazz world oddly hanging out. Bryant turned around on this September day to enthusiastically introduce himself to Branford Marsalis. The three-time Grammy Award-winning saxophonist was there to talk about the connection between jazz and basketball with Thunder general manager Sam Presti and head coach Billy Donovan. Keep reading »
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Marsalis offers his take on Trump’s tune
When the tycoon-turned-presidential candidate’s name comes up in conversation, the jazz veteran, who as an artist and advocate has long championed great American traditions, is both pointed and nonchalant in his response. Keep reading »
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Video: Wynton and Sandra Day O’Connor discuss jazz music and government
Last January, at JALC, Wynton and The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor filmed short clips discussing the relationship between the U.S. government and jazz music. The result was broadcast on Martin Luther King Day during Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Let Freedom Swing!” concert in Washington D.C., on January 19, 2009. Following you can watch the clips, entitled: *Democracy, Unity and American Art…*
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Let’s treasure the old along with the new
(CNN)—On the dawn of the most historic inauguration of our time, we nervously await “change we can believe in.”
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Politicians and pundits analyze every pre-presidential utterance and come to quick conclusions about what will happen under the new administration. -
Third Screen: An Interview with Wynton Marsalis
Al Hirt may have given Wynton Marsalis his first trumpet. His dad may have stressed the value of meaningful education. New Orleans may have inspired him and surrounded him with the power of music growing up. His “Blood in the Fields” oratorio may have given him the Pulitzer Prize. And Brooklyn, he tells me, may have been the place where he first put together his world view. But no one village could have raised this child. For one thing, he doesn’t stand still. For another—trust me on this—if you think he’s a virtuoso on the trumpet, wait till you hear the virtuosity of the concert he’s doing for Martin Luther King and the Inauguration Monday night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It has jazz greats. It has dance legends. It has Jessye Norman, Angela Bassett, and Courtney Vance. And it has as its centerpiece a live conversation on jazz and democracy between Marsalis and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who, according to Marsalis, “is just a country girl at heart who loves Bob Wells and the Texas Playboys.” I caught up with Marsalis by phone while he was on the road this weekend, somewhere between New York and Charleston, and we, too, talked jazz and democracy ... Keep reading »
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Slate of performers for “A Celebration of America”
JALC and The Rockefeller Foundation today announced the full slate of performers that will take part in “A Celebration Of America” in the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater on the occasion of the Presidential Inauguration and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 19, 2009 at 7 p.m.
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Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance have been confirmed as hosts. -
Wynton and Sandra Day O’Connor to Lead “A Celebration of America”
Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Rockefeller Foundation will present “A CELEBRATION OF AMERICA” in the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater on the occasion of the Presidential Inauguration and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 19, 2009 live on CNN at 7 p.m.
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Bill Clinton touts musical greats
While his former second banana, Al Gore, was stumping for Howard Dean last week, Bill Clinton was busy endorsing John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. Those are just a few of the late jazz legends whose names came up Wednesday night at a symposium that paired the former president and sometime saxophone player with the rather more accomplished trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center, where Marsalis is artistic director, the panel discussion addressed the relationship between jazz, a native American art form, and our politics and culture. Keep reading »
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Marsalis, Clinton and Others Dissect Jazz at Symposium
Wynton Marsalis, the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, has talked for some years about his desire to gather an intellectual community around jazz.
Last night at the Walter Reade Theater at the center, Mr. Marsalis and his organization scored a coup in the name of intellectualism and publicity: a symposium, with an invitation-only audience of about 200, on the subject of jazz and American democracy, including the former president and part-time saxophonist Bill Clinton.
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Jazz at the White House: A Metaphor for Democracy (and a Help to the Boss)
It was everywhere, rustling through conversations the way a breeze moves through trees, in the smirks and jokes of some, in the extended, slightly nervous ovation the President and Mrs. Clinton received as they walked into the East Room of the White House on Friday night for a Millennium lecture on jazz. Keep reading »