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The Story Behind Wynton Marsalis’ Debut Album
The impact of Wynton Marsalis’ self-titled debut is immeasurable. Released 40 years ago, the album introduced the wider jazz world to a preening trumpeter from New Orleans whose playing synthesized the styles of some of the instrument’s greatest innovators, such as Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Fats Navarro, and Lee Morgan. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis personally compiles and produces “The Spiritual Side of Wynton Marsalis”
Rich collection of spiritually inspired works recorded 1988 to 2002, originally released on Columbia Records and Sony Classical, available everywhere October 22.
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Concurrent with 16-city “Abyssinian: A Gospel Celebration Tour,” October 3-27, featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, conductor Damien Sneed, and 70-voice Chorale Le Chateau -
Wynton Marsalis: Swinging Into the 21st
If we call an artist who averages an album per year prolific, what then to say about Wynton Marsalis’ output of 1999-2000? During that period Marsalis released nine albums, each showcasing a different sector within his domain. Marsalis called the series Swinging Into the 21st, and that run of albums has now been compiled into an 11-disc box set that also includes All Rise, Marsalis’ monumental 2002 orchestral/vocal project. Keep reading »
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Review - Wynton Marsalis: Swinging into the 21st
I’ll admit it. When I ripped open a padded envelope last week and found a copy of Wynton Marsalis’ new box set Swinging into the 21st my heart sank. What could be said about Wynton Marsalis that hasn’t already been said? Then I started doing some research and realized that, my god, there is a lot about Wynton Marsalis that I don’t know. Keep reading »
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Released today: The Music of America: Wynton Marsalis
From “Hellbound Highball” to “Happy Feet Blues,” this collection of works is the greatest retrospective of Wynton as a composer.
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For the first time, Wynton Marsalis brings you this self-curated 2-CD set featuring ONLY his compositions.
Performed by a diverse group of artists including musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orion String Quartet, Mark O’Connor, members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Danny Barker. -
Standards & Ballads - A new compilation release for Wynton
The new CD includes 14 classics such as Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust, ” the Gershwins’ “Embraceable You, ” Rodgers & Hart’s “Where Or When, ” Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne’s “I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry, ” Vernon Duke’s “I Can’t Get Started, ” and nine more, including Duke Ellington’s “Flamingo.”
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Downbeat: Wynton’s Empire
It’s the Wynton Marsalis you rarely see. Dressed casually – wire-rim glasses, an untucked blue shirt, jeans and gray-white running shoes – he looks relaxed in the Right Track recording studio in New York. He and pianist Eric Lewis, bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Ali Jackson huddle as if they could be discussing strategy for an upcoming four-on-four basketball game. But this is play time of a different sort: rhythm talk in preparation for take 14 of a new Marsalis composition, “Free To Be”, a song with a sunny bounce and syncopated skip. Keep reading »
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Wynton’s Blues - The Atlantic Monthly (March 2003)
Manhattan is empty during the last week of August, and the kind of emptiness it achieves is like that of the mind during meditation—a temporary, unnatural purity. On a Tuesday evening in late August of 2001 I was wandering around Greenwich Village and ended up at the Village Vanguard.
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For immediate release - Popular Songs: The Best of Wynton Marsalis
The first ‘Best Of’ compilation of his career — with over 73 minutes of originals and standards spanning 1987 to 1999 — is set for June 26th in-store date on Columbia/Legacy Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis: Jazzman on the Run
SOMETIME during the last year, those of us who were on the mailing list of Columbia Records ran for cover. It was raining CD’s by Wynton Marsalis. By the end of 1999, Mr. Marsalis had released some 20 hours of music on 15 CD’s, a heroic effort called ‘‘Swinging Into the 21st’’ that still has not emptied Columbia’s vaults of his material. Keep reading »