' Wynton Learson Marsalis' (b.
October 18,
1961) is an
American trumpeter and
composer. He is among the most prominent
jazz musicians of the modern era and is also a well-known instrumentalist in
classical music. He is also the Musical Director of
Jazz at Lincoln Center. A compilation of his series of inspirational letters to a young jazz musical student, named Anthony, has been published as ''To a Young Jazz Musician''.
Marsalis has made his reputation with a combination of skill in jazz performance and composition; a sophisticated, yet earthy and
hip personal style; an impressive knowledge of jazz and jazz history; and virtuoso classical trumpeter. As of
2006, he has made sixteen classical and more than thirty jazz recordings, has been awarded nine
Grammys, between the genres and the
Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first time it has been awarded for a jazz recording.
Biography
Wynton Marsalis (pronounced: mär-''SAHL''-ĭs) was born on
October 18 1961, to Dolores Ferdinand and
Ellis Marsalis, Jr.[1] He was the second among six sons:
Branford, Wynton, Ellis, III (1964),
Delfeayo, Mboya Kinyatta (1971), and
Jason. Branford, Delfeayo, and Jason are also jazz musicians. Ellis is a poet, photographer, & network engineer based in
Baltimore. Mboya has autism.
His dad Ellis, a music teacher and pianist, is a longtime fixture on the New Orleans jazz scene, and several of Wynton's brothers, particularly saxophonist
Branford Marsalis, trombonist
Delfeayo Marsalis, and drummer
Jason Marsalis, are also notable musicians.
At an early age, Marsalis exhibited a keen interest and aptitude in music, coupled with a strong desire to contribute to American culture. At age six, Marsalis was given his first trumpet by a friend of his father, the legendary
Al Hirt. At age eight he performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band led by legendary banjoist,
Danny Barker. At fourteen he was invited to perform with the New Orleans Philharmonic. During high school Marsalis was a member of the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, New Orleans Youth Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony and on weekends he performed in a jazz band as well as in the popular local
funk band, the Creators.
He moved to New York City to attend the
Juilliard School of Music in 1978 and quickly garnered a lot of attention.
Two years later in 1980, he joined the Jazz Messengers to study under master drummer and bandleader,
Art Blakey. It was from Blakey that Marsalis acquired his concept for bandleading and for bringing intensity to each and every performance. In 1981, Marsalis toured with the
Herbie Hancock quartet throughout the USA and
Japan, as well as performing at the
Newport Jazz Festival with Herbie. In the years to follow, Marsalis was invited to perform with
Sarah Vaughan,
Dizzy Gillespie,
Harry Edison,
Clark Terry,
Sonny Rollins, and many other jazz legends.
Marsalis eventually assembled his own band and hit the road, performing over 120 concerts every year for ten consecutive years. His objective was to learn how to play, and to comprehend how best to give to his audience. Through an exhaustive series of performances, lectures, and music workshops, Marsalis rekindled widespread interest in an art form that had been largely abandoned and redefined out of what he saw as its artistic substance. Marsalis invested his creative energy as an advocate for a relatively small era in the history of jazz. He garnered recognition for the older generation of jazz musicians and prompted the re-issuance of jazz catalog by record companies worldwide. A quick glance at the better known jazz musicians today reveals many students of Marsalis's workshops and members of his formations:
James Carter,
Christian McBride,
Roy Hargrove,
Harry Connick Jr.,
Nicholas Payton,
Eric Reed and
Eric Lewis.
Not content to focus solely on his musicianship, Marsalis devoted equal time to developing his
compositional skills. The
dance community quickly embraced his works, and he received commissions to create major compositions for
Garth Fagan Dance,
Peter Martins at the
New York City Ballet,
Twyla Tharp for the
American Ballet Theatre, and for the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
Marsalis collaborated with
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1995 to compose the string quartet, ''At The
Octoroon Balls'', and again in 1998 to create a response to the ''
Stravinsky:
A Soldier's Tale'' with his composition, ''A Fiddler's Tale''.
In 1997 he became the first jazz musician to win the
Pulitzer Prize in music, for his epic oratorio, ''
Blood on the Fields'', on the subject of
slavery.
In 2006, Marsalis'
US$833,686 annual salary as Artistic Director of
Jazz at Lincoln Center drew negative attention in an article published by ''Reader's Digest'' magazine regarding overspending by non-profit organizations.
[2][3] Marsalis has never been married but has two sons with Candace Stanley and another son with actress Victoria Rowell.
Musical accomplishments
As a composer and performer, Marsalis is also represented on a quartet of Sony Classical releases, ''At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1'', ''A Fiddler's Tale'', ''Reel Time'' and ''Sweet Release and Ghost Story: Two More Ballets by Wynton Marsalis''. All are volumes of an eight-CD series, titled ''Swinging Into The 21st'', that is an unprecedented set of albums released in the past year featuring a remarkable scope of original compositions and standards, from jazz to classical to ballet, by composers from
Jelly Roll Morton to
Igor Stravinsky to
Monk, in addition to Marsalis.
''At the Octoroon Balls'' features the world-premiere recording of Marsalis's first string quartet, performed by the Orion Quartet. The work was commissioned by Lincoln Center, and its premiere by the Orion Quartet in 1995 was presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. ''A Fiddler's Tale'', also commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for Marsalis/Stravinsky, a joint project of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Jazz At Lincoln Center, is work with narration about a musician who sells her soul to a record producer. It was premiered on
April 23 1998, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A version without narration was included on the album ''At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1''. ''Reeltime'' is Marsalis's score for the acclaimed John Singleton film ''
Rosewood''. This original music, featuring vocal performances by best-selling artists
Cassandra Wilson and
Shirley Caesar, was never used in the film. Marsalis also provided the score for the 1990 film ''
Tune in Tomorrow'', in which he also makes a cameo appearance as a New Orleans trumpeter with his band. ''Sweet Release and Ghost Story'' offers another world premiere recording of two original ballet scores by Marsalis, written for and premiered by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the
Zhong Mei Dance Company, both in New York City.
As an exclusive classical artist for Sony Classical, Marsalis has won critical acclaim for the recording ''In Gabriel's Garden'' (SK/ST 66244), featuring Baroque music for trumpet and orchestra. It includes performances of the ''Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 2'' and ''Mouret: Rondeau'', a video of which has been adopted as the new theme for ''PBS Masterpiece Theatre''. The ''San Francisco Examiner'' wrote, "Marsalis continues to define great music making…[the pieces] are all articulated with dazzling clarity and enthusiasm." The album features the
English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by
Anthony Newman, and was produced by Steven Epstein.
Controversy
Marsalis's strongly held views regarding the roots of jazz and its development have generated some negative appraisals from jazz critics and fellow musicians. ''
Down Beat'' magazine's online website says of Marsalis:
For many, Wynton Marsalis saved pure jazz from a morass of pop fusion and noise. Others contend that the trumpeter instilled a regressive notion of the jazz tradition. This debate, not to mention his instrumental proficiency and compositional ambition, has made him one of the most prominent and controversial jazz musicians of the 1980s and 1990s.
Critic
Scott Yanow praises Marsalis's talent, but has questioned his "selective knowledge of jazz history considering post-1965
avant-garde playing to be outside of jazz and 1970s
fusion to be barren."
[4] Trumpeter
Lester Bowie opined of Marsalis's traditionalism, "If you retread what's gone before, even if it sounds like jazz, it could be anathema to the spirit of jazz."
[5] In his
1997 book ''Blue: The Murder of Jazz''
Eric Nisenson argues that Marsalis's focus on a narrow portion of jazz's past is stifling the music's growth and preventing any further innovation.
[6]
Pierre Sprey, president of jazz record company
Mapleshade Records, declares that "When Marsalis was nineteen, he was a fine jazz trumpeter ... But he was getting his tail beat off every night in Art Blakey's band. I don't think he could keep up. And finally he retreated to safe waters. He's a good classical trumpeter and thus he sees jazz as being a classical Music. He has no clue what's going on now."
[7]
Miles Davis stated that Marsalis was "a nice young man, only confused." Davis was also bothered by what he saw as
Columbia Records' promotion of Marsalis's music rather than his own, and this was a factor in Davis's departure from Columbia after several decades.
Marsalis has also been criticized for his role in the
Ken Burns documentary ''
Jazz'', which promoted a classicist view of jazz similar to the views of Marsalis himself. The documentary focused primarily on
Duke Ellington and
Louis Armstrong among others, while failing to mention jazz artists from the period Marsalis views as barren (roughly 1965-the present, with the notable exception of the careers of Marsalis and his protégés). The documentary also angered many with subjective statements, often from Marsalis, about the comparative complexity, popularity, and general worth of the music of a wide variety of artists. As artistic director and co-producer of the project, Marsalis bore the brunt of the criticism of the nonetheless highly acclaimed series, which to many embodied the exclusive, classicist view of jazz for which Marsalis is known.
Political activism
New Orleans
Marsalis emerged as one of the most notable New Orleans civic leaders in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina. In a number of public speeches and television ads, he tried to increase public awareness of the importance of rebuilding New Orleans. Marsalis also urged people to visit
Louisiana as soon as possible.
Marsalis organized a large benefit at
Jazz at Lincoln Center for musicians and other New Orleaneans affected by Hurrican Katrina. The benefit, called Higher Ground, featured many famous musicians, both traditional and contemporary, such as
Cassandra Wilson,
Diana Krall,
Dianne Reeves,
Norah Jones,
Victor Goines,
Herbie Hancock, and
McCoy Tyner.
Marsalis was one of the participants in Movie Director
Spike Lee's documentary ''.
In the
New Orleans mayoral campaign of 2006, Marsalis endorsed Lieutenant Governor
Mitch Landrieu over mayor
Ray Nagin. Both candidates were
Democratic party members. Nagin was reelected on the second ballot runoff.
International politics
Marsalis has helped raise awareness of
Aung San Suu Kyi and human rights violations in
Burma through concerts working with the
Freedom Campaign and the
US Campaign for Burma. Past music events have also included
R.E.M.,
Damien Rice, and the
the Black Eyed Peas.
Awards and recognition
Marsalis is an
Eagle Scout and his brother Branford is a Life Scout in the
Boy Scouts of America.
[8] Marsalis has been awarded the
2005 National Medal of Arts of the
United States, the
Grand Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy and the Edison Award of the
Netherlands, and was elected an honorary member of the
Royal Academy of Music in
Britain. He has received several honorary
doctoral degrees, and a variety of other recognitions from
Brandeis University,
Brown University,
Columbia University,
Denison University,
Haverford College,
Johns Hopkins University, the
Manhattan School of Music,
Princeton University, the
University of Miami,
Southern Methodist University(
SMU) and
Yale University.
[9]
Marsalis has toured 30 countries on every continent except Antarctica, and nearly five million copies of his recordings have been sold worldwide. As of 2006,
United Artists is considering releasing a feature film biopic on Marsalis, with
Will Smith widely purported to be in consideration for the role.
Accolades
★
Johns Hopkins University -
George Peabody Medal
★
Royal Academy of Music - Honorary Member
★
Teachers College, Columbia University - Medal for Distinguished Service
★
Southern Methodist University(
SMU) -
Algur H. Meadows Award For Excellence in the Arts
[10]
Doctor ''honoris causa''
Music Awards
'
Pulitzer Prize for Music'
★
1997 ''Blood on the Fields'',
oratorio
'
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group'
★
1985 ''Black Codes From the Underground''
★
1985 ''J Mood''
★
1985 ''Marsalis Standard Time - Volume I''
'
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)'
★
1983 Raymond Leppard (conductor), Wynton Marsalis & the
National Philharmonic Orchestra for ''
Haydn: Trumpet Concerto in E Flat/
L. Mozart: Trumpet Concerto In D/
Hummel: Trumpet Concerto in E Flat''
★
1984 Raymond Leppard (conductor), Wynton Marsalis & the
English Chamber Orchestra for ''Wynton Marsalis, Edita Gruberova:
Handel,
Purcell,
Torelli,
Fasch,
Molter''
'
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo'
★
1983 ''Think of One''
★
1984 ''
Hot House Flowers''
★
1985 ''Black Codes From the Underground''
'
Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children'
★
2000 ''Listen to the Storyteller''
Discography
★ 1981 ''Wynton Marsalis''
★ 1982 ''Fathers and Sons'' Columbia Records #FC 37972.
★ 1983 ''Trumpet Concertos'' (Haydn, Leopold Mozart, Hummel) ''Think of One''
★ 1984 ''Haydn: Three Favorite Concertos'' (with Yo-Yo Ma and Cho-Liang Lin) ''Baroque Music for Trumpet'' (Purcell, Handel, Torelli, etc.) ''Hot House Flowers''
★ 1985 ''Black Codes (From the Underground)'', ''J Mood''
★ 1986 ''Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. I'' ''Live at Blues Alley'' ''Tomasi: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra'' (Tomasi, Jolivet)
★ 1987 ''Carnaval''
★ 1988 ''The Majesty of the Blues''
★ 1988 ''Best of Wynton Marsalis'' ''Portrait of Wynton Marsalis'' ''Baroque Music for Trumpets''
★ 1989 ''Copland/Vaughan Williams/Hindemith'' (Eastman Wind Ensemble) ''Crescent City Christmas Card'' ''The Majesty of the Blues''
★ 1990 ''Tune In Tomorrow... The Original Soundtrack'' ''Standard Time Vol. 3: The Resolution of Romance''
★ 1991 ''Thick In The South: Soul Gestures In Southern Blue, Vol. 1'' ''Uptown Ruler: Soul Gestures In Southern Blue, Vol. 2'' ''Levee Low Moan: Soul Gestures In Southern Blue, Vol. 3'' ''Standard Time Vol. 2: Intimacy Calling''
★ 1992 ''Concert for Planet Earth'' ''Blue Interlude'' ''Baroque Duet'' - A film by Susan Froemke
★ Peter Gelb
★ Albert Maysles
★ Pat Jaffe
|
★ 1992 ''Baroque Duet'' - with Kathleen Battle
★ 1992 ''Citi Movement''
★ 1993 ''On the Twentieth Century…: Hindemith, Poulenc, Bernstein, Ravel''
★ 1994 ''In This House, On This Morning'' ''Greatest Hits: Handel''
★ 1995 ''Why Toes Tap: Marsalis on Rhythm'' ''Listening for Clues: Marsalis on Form'' ''Tackling the Monster: Marsalis on Practice'' (VHS) ''Sousa to Satchmo: Marsalis on the Jazz Band'' ''Greatest Hits: Baroque'' ''Joe Cool's Blues (with Ellis Marsalis)''
★ 1996 ''In Gabriel's Garden''
★ 1997 ''Liberty!'' ''Jump Start and Jazz'' ''Blood On The Fields ''
★ 1998 ''Classic Wynton'' ''The Midnight Blues: Standard Time, Vol. 5''
★ 1999 ''Reeltime'' ''Mr. Jelly Lord: Standard Time, Vol. 6 '' ''Listen to the Storyteller'' ''Sweet Release and Ghost Story: Two More Ballets by Wynton Marsalis'' ''At the Octoroon Balls - String Quartet No. 1; A Fiddler's Tale Suite'' ''Franz Joseph Haydn'' ''Los Elefantes (with Arturo Sandoval)'' ''Big Train'' (The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra) ''Marsalis Plays Monk: Standard Time, Vol. 4''
★ 2000 ''The London Concert'' ''The Marciac Suite''
★ 2001 ''Classical Hits'' ''Popular Songs: The Best Of Wynton Marsalis''
★ 2002 ''All Rise'' ''Trumpet Concertos'' ''Classic Kathleen Battle: A Portrait''
★ 2003 ''Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio: In Full Swing''
★ 2004 ''The Magic Hour'' ''Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson''
★ 2005 ''Live at the House of Tribes''
★ 2007 ''From the Plantation to the Penitentiary''
|
With Irvin Mayfield
References
1. Ancestry of Wynton Marsalis Robert Battle
2. Jazz at Lincoln Center
3. That's Outrageous-Charity Chiselers Michael Crowley
4.
Wynton Marsalis Biography Scott Yanow
5. Blowing up a storm
6. Blue: The Murder of Jazz, , Eric, Nisenson, St. Martin's Press, 1997,
7.
Now, That's Not Jazz Jeffrey St. Clair
8. Marsalis Family
9. Contemporary Black Biography Wynton Marsalis, Jazz Musician
10. http://smu.edu/newsinfo/releases/m2017a.html
★ ''The Music of Black Americans: A History''.
Eileen Southern. W. W. Norton & Company; 3rd edition. ISBN 0-393-97141-4
External links
★ Wynton Marsalis
Official website
★ Wynton Marsalis at the
Sony website
★ Wynton Marsalis
jazz instruction
★ Wynton Marsalis at the
Lincoln Center
★
★ Wynton Marsalis
post Katrina Tulane University Speech
★
2002 feature by Tom Meek, The
Gainesville Sun.
★
Bio and photo of Wynton Marsalis — Crain's New York Business 40 under 40 — 1998
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