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Two beats
Around three-fifteen on a recent afternoon, the trombone player and music producer Delfeayo Marsalis sat in the control room of a studio in the West Fifties and said to his brother Wynton and eleven other musicians, “We’re rolling, this is Take 68.” The musicians were recording “Tournament Galop,” a Romantic piano piece that was written by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who was born in New Orleans in 1829. Take 67 had been Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 6, also written for the piano but arranged in this case for piano and brass. Both pieces will accompany a new silent film, “Louis,” a fictionalized account of the childhood of Louis Armstrong. When “Louis” is shown, in five cities over seven days at the end of August, Marsalis and the others will perform the score live. They were recording the soundtrack for a CD.
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“Louis” a Silent Movie with Live Accompaniment by Wynton and Jazz Ensemble to Premiere in August
“Louis”, a silent film directed by Dan Pritzker and starring Jackie Earle Haley, Shanti Lowry and Anthony Coleman, will premiere in US cities in late August with live musical accompaniment by Wynton Marsalis, renowned pianist Cecile Licad and a 10-piece all-star jazz ensemble, including Sherman Irby, Victor Goines, Marcus Printup, Ted Nash, Kurt Bacher, Vincent Gardner, Wycliffe Gordon, Dan Nimmer, Carlos Henriquez, Ali Jackson, and conductor Andy Farber. Marsalis will play a score comprised primarily of his own compositions. Licad will play the music of 19th century American composer L.M. Gottschalk.
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Wynton’s soundtrack for The War is out
On September 23, 2007, PBS will air “THE WAR”, a new seven-part documentary series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The new film explores the history and horror of the Second World War from an American perspective by following the fortunes of so-called ordinary men and women who become caught up in one of the greatest cataclysms in human history.
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Wynton writes soundtrack for Ken Burns’ The War
Wynton Marsalis and Ken Burns teamed up again. The War, Ken Burns’ series about the American experience in World War II, will be out in fall 2007, and Wynton wrote, arranged and performed the original soundtrack.
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Unforgivable Blackness is now available on DVD
Unforgivable Blackness, the Ken Burns’ documentary about iconic black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson is now available on DVD.
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Combining photographs and film footage with music provided by Wynton Marsalis, Burns’ portrait of Johnson clicks on at least three levels: as a biography, as a piece of sports history, and, most important, as a lesson on race relations in the early 20th century. -
Marsalis adds brassy clauses to ‘Shannon’s Deal’
Eight-time Grammy-winning musician Wynton Marsalis, who cut his first record at only 18, has at age 27 carved out another facet in his versatile career: scoring television movies. Keep reading »