-
Famous trumpet player Wynton Marsalis spreads gospel of committment to young people through music
Practice. As in dedication. Also see: integrity. Every time he gets a chance, Wynton Marsalis lays a message on young people that requires no fancy instrument, just a solo commitment. The jazz and classical trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer got that chance recently at a Passport to Manhood program in the gym of the Boys & Girls Club of New Rochelle. He shot some hoops — hitching up his suspenders and complaining that he hadn’t worked on his game in the two years it took to write his last symphony. He shared a meal of dirty rice, fried fish and potato salad, then delivered the challenge. Keep reading »
-
“Life’s Work: Wynton Marsalis” An Interview for the Harvard Business Review
Wynton Marsalis grew up in a family of New Orleans jazz musicians and received his first trumpet as a sixth birthday present from bandleader Al Hirt. At 14 he debuted with the Louisiana Philharmonic; at 17 he moved to New York, where he attended Juilliard, joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, assembled his own band, and began a prolific composing and recording career. In 1987, Marsalis founded Jazz at Lincoln Center, which has grown into the world’s biggest arts organization dedicated to Jazz.
Keep reading » -
Wynton Interviewed by Poet Gene Myers
Wynton Marsalis grew up in a family that is considered to be New Orleans royalty (Pianist Ellis Marsalis is his father; sax player Branford Marsalis is his brother.). He has recorded over 40 albums; made trumpeting cool again, revived acoustic jazz and is one of the loudest advocates for traditional jazz.
Keep reading » -
Lunchtime keynote address by Wynton Marsalis at Barbican Centre
Wynton Marsalis looked on, slightly bemused. The man with thirty-one honorary degrees from American universities including Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Howard and Yale, nine Grammy awards, a Pulitzer prize, an honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music, the National Medal of Arts, a statue in bronze in Marciac, the title of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour Keep reading »
-
Winners of 15th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition
Wynton Marsalis Septet
Keep reading » -
Wynton on Downbeat: Jazz is life music
In the past thirty years, I have had the good fortune to teach thousands of bands and an incalculable number of students in diverse settings. Though each situation is unique, students share many of the same concerns in pursuit of a more profound relationship with music and with life through music. Every style of music presents distinct challenges which demand the development of different skills. Jazz requires creativity, communication and community.
Keep reading » -
Wynton Marsalis’s Enduring Opus
Toddlers filled a classroom one recent Saturday morning inside Frederick P. Rose Hall. Most sat in a circle brandishing toy shakers, some wandered off in the stagger of the newly walking. Welcome to WeBop!, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s program for children 8 months to 5 years old, at which singer Patrice Turner cleverly fit the words to the children’s book “Goodnight, Moon” into John Coltrane’s “Central Park West.”
Keep reading » -
At the White House, a Blend of Jazz Greats and Hopefuls
It was not the full-force, let-a-thousand-saxophones-bloom, this-is-our-music festival that some might have wished from a White House where the language of jazz seems to have a place, at least in the president’s iPod. But it was a good start. On Monday afternoon, Michelle Obama invited about 150 high school jazz students to the White House for a program called Jazz Studio. There was a student clinic including five members of the Marsalis family and the clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, and then a short concert introduced by the first lady. Keep reading »
-
Video: Nancy Hanks Lecture at Kennedy Center
On March 30, 2009, Wynton Marsalis dazzled and inspired his audience with a moving lecture mixed with performance titled The Ballad of the American Arts. The 22nd Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts & Public Policy was presented to a capacity crowd at the Kennedy Center on the eve of Arts Advocacy Day. Wynton’s lecture addressed the essential value of culture in the recalibration of American identity. After two standing ovations Marsalis wrapped up the evening with a lively performance with members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Chris Crenshaw, trombone; Victor Goines, saxophone; Carlos Henriquez, bass; Ali Jackson, drums; and Dan Nimmer, piano).
Keep reading » -
Wynton speaks before a Congressional Committee
On March 31, 2009, Arts Advocacy Day, Americans for the Arts gathered a panel of acclaimed artists and experts to call on Congress for continuing and additional support and funding for the arts and arts education in America. This hearing, entitled “The Arts = Jobs,” focused on congressional support of strong public policies for the arts, appropriating increased public funding for the arts and supporting arts workers. Josh Groban and Wynton Marsalis were among the artists who testified before a Congressional Committee to champion the benefits of arts and arts education.
Keep reading »