Wynton Marsalis | |
|---|---|
 Marsalis at the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center Seventh Annual Jazz Festival in 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Wynton Learson Marsalis |
| Born | (1961-10-18)October 18, 1961 (age 63) New Orleans,Louisiana, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz,post-bop,mainstream,dixieland,classical |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, educator, artistic director |
| Instrument | Trumpet |
| Discography | Wynton Marsalis discography |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | Columbia,Sony,Blue Note,Marsalis Music |
| Website | wyntonmarsalis |
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director ofJazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promotingclassical andjazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and hisoratorioBlood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win thePulitzer Prize for Music. Marsalis is the only musician to have won a Grammy Award in both jazz and classical categories in the same year.
Marsalis was born inNew Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1961, and grew up in the suburb ofKenner.[1] He is the second of six sons born to Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis andEllis Marsalis Jr., a pianist and music teacher.[2] He was named after jazz pianistWynton Kelly.[3]Branford Marsalis is his older brother andJason Marsalis andDelfeayo Marsalis are younger. All three are jazz musicians.[4] While sitting at a table with trumpetersAl Hirt,Miles Davis, andClark Terry, his father jokingly suggested that he might as well get Wynton a trumpet, too. Hirt volunteered to give him one, so at the age of six Marsalis received his first trumpet.[5]
Although he owned a trumpet when he was six, he did not practice much until he was 12.[1] He attendedBenjamin Franklin High School and theNew Orleans Center for Creative Arts.[6][7] He studied classical music at school and jazz at home with his father. He played in funk bands and a marching band led byDanny Barker. He performed on trumpet publicly as the only black musician in the New Orleans Civic Orchestra. After winning a music contest at fourteen, he performedJoseph Haydn'strumpet concerto with theNew Orleans Philharmonic. Two years later he performedBrandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Bach.[5] At seventeen, he was one of the youngest musicians admitted toTanglewood Music Center. Marsalis applied to only two music colleges, theJuilliard School andNorthwestern University. He was accepted to both schools and chose to attend the former.[8]
In 1979, he moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School for aBachelor of Music in trumpet performance, leaving in 1981 without earning a degree.[8] He intended to pursue a career in classical music. In 1980, he toured Europe as a member of theArt Blakey band, becoming a member ofThe Jazz Messengers and remaining with Blakey until 1982. He changed his mind about his career and turned to jazz. He has said that years of playing with Blakey influenced his decision.[5] He recorded for the first time with Blakey and one year later he went on tour withHerbie Hancock. After signing a contract withColumbia, he recorded his first solo album. In 1982, he established a quintet with his brotherBranford Marsalis,Kenny Kirkland,Charnett Moffett, andJeff "Tain" Watts. When Branford and Kenny Kirkland left three years later to record and tour withSting, Marsalis formed another quartet, this time withMarcus Roberts on piano,Robert Hurst on double bass, and Watts on drums. After a while, the band expanded to includeWessell Anderson,Wycliffe Gordon,Eric Reed,Herlin Riley,Reginald Veal, and Todd Williams.[4]
When asked about influences on his playing style, he citesDuke Ellington,Miles Davis,Harry Sweets Edison,Clark Terry,Dizzy Gillespie,Jelly Roll Morton,Charlie Parker,Wayne Shorter,Thelonious Monk,Cootie Williams,Ray Nance,Maurice André, andAdolph Hofner.[9] Other influences includeClifford Brown,Freddie Hubbard, andAdolph Herseth.[citation needed]
Marsalis has established himself as a lecturer and musical ambassador, a "21st-century Leonard Bernstein" according to one writer.[10]
In 1987, Marsalis helped start the Classical Jazz summer concert series at Lincoln Center in New York City.[11] The success of the series led to Jazz at Lincoln Center becoming a department at Lincoln Center,[12] then to becoming an independent entity in 1996 alongside organizations such as the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera.[13] Marsalis became artistic director of the center and the musical director of the band, theJazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The orchestra performs at its home venue, Rose Hall, goes on tour, visits schools, appears on radio and television, and produces albums through its label, Blue Engine Records.[11]
In 2011, Marsalis and rock guitaristEric Clapton performed together in a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert. The concert was recorded and released as the albumPlay the Blues: Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center.
In 1995, he hosted the educational programMarsalis on Music on public television, while during the same year National Public Radio broadcast his seriesMaking the Music. Both programs won theGeorge Foster Peabody Award, the highest award given in journalism.[citation needed]
In 2005, Marsalis played at Apple's "It's Showtime" Special Event on October 12, where the new iMac with Front Row, and iPod with Video were introduced.[14] Following this, Marsalis also appeared in an iPod TV ad with his song "Sparks" in 2006.[15]
In December 2011, Marsalis was named cultural correspondent forCBS This Morning.[16] He is a member of theCuriosityStream Advisory Board.[17] He serves as director of the Juilliard Jazz Studies program. In 2015, Cornell University appointed him A.D. White Professor-at-Large.[18]
Marsalis was involved in writing, arranging, and performing music for the 2019Daniel Pritzker filmBolden.[19]
In addition to Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis has also worked with thePhiladelphia Orchestra as acomposer for modern classical music. The orchestra premiered a Violin Concerto he composed in 2015, and a Tuba Concerto of his in 2021.[20][21]
Marsalis is generally associated withstraight-ahead jazz, jazz that kept to the original instruments used in jazz and eschewed electronica that gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. InThe Jazz Book, the authors list what Marsalis considers to be the fundamentals of jazz: blues, standards, a swing beat, tonality, harmony, craftsmanship, and mastery of the tradition beginning with New Orleans jazz up toOrnette Coleman. Tara Hall has written that Marsalis's "selective knowledge of jazz history (considering post-1965 avant-garde playing to be outside of jazz and 1970s fusion to be barren) is unfortunately influenced by the somewhat eccentric beliefs ofStanley Crouch."[22]. InThe New York Times in 1997, pianistKeith Jarrett said Marsalis "imitates other people's styles too well ... His music sounds like a high school trumpet player to me".[5]
BassistStanley Clarke said, "All the guys that are criticizing—like Wynton Marsalis and those guys—I would hate to be around to hear those guys playing on top of a groove!" But Clarke also said, "These things I've said about Wynton are my criticism of him, but the positive things I have to say about him outweigh the negative. He has brought respectability back to jazz."[23]
When he met Miles Davis, one of his idols, Davis said, "So here's the police ...".[5] For his part, Marsalis compared Miles Davis's embrace of rock and pop music (most notably in his 1970 albumBitches Brew) to "a general who has betrayed his country."[5] Marsalis has called rap "hormone driven pop music"[5] and said that hip hop "reinforces destructive behavior at home and influences the world's view of the Afro American in a decidedly negative direction."[24]
Marsalis responded to criticism by saying, "You can't enter a battle and expect not to get hurt."[5] He has said that losing the freedom to criticize is "to accept mob rule, it is a step back towards slavery."[24]
Marsalis is the son of the late jazz musicianEllis Marsalis Jr. (pianist), grandson ofEllis Marsalis Sr., and brother ofBranford (saxophonist),Delfeayo (trombonist and producer), andJason (drummer). Marsalis's son, Jasper Armstrong Marsalis, is a music producer known professionally asSlauson Malone 1.[25]
Marsalis was raisedCatholic.[26]
In 1983, at the age of 22, he became the only musician to win Grammy Awards in jazz and classical music during the same year.[5] At the award ceremonies the next year, he won again in both categories.
After his first album came out in 1982, Marsalis won polls inDownBeat magazine for Musician of the Year, Best Trumpeter, and Album of the Year. In 2017, he was one of the youngest members to be inducted into theDownBeat Hall of Fame.[27]
In 1997, he became the first jazz musician to win thePulitzer Prize for Music for his oratorioBlood on the Fields. In a note to him,Zarin Mehta wrote, "I was not surprised at your winning the Pulitzer Prize forBlood on the Fields. It is a broad, beautifully painted canvas that impresses and inspires. It speaks to us all...I'm sure that, somewhere in the firmament,Buddy Bolden,Louis Armstrong and legions of others are smiling down on you."[28]
Wynton Marsalis has won theNational Medal of Arts, theNational Humanities Medal,[29] and been named anNEA Jazz Master.[30] In 2001, he was also named aUN Messenger of Peace.[31]
Approximately seven million copies of his recordings have been sold worldwide.[32] He has toured in 30 countries and on every continent except Antarctica.[33]
He was given the Louis Armstrong Memorial Medal and the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts. He was inducted into theAmerican Academy of Achievement[34] and was dubbed an Honorary Dreamer by the I Have a Dream Foundation. The New York Urban League awarded Marsalis the Frederick Douglass Medallion for distinguished leadership. The American Arts Council presented him with the Arts Education Award.
He won the DutchEdison Award and the FrenchGrand Prix du Disque. The Mayor of Vitoria, Spain, gave him the city's gold medal, its most coveted distinction. In 1996, Britain's senior conservatoire, theRoyal Academy of Music, made him an honorary member, the academy's highest decoration for a non-British citizen. The city of Marciac, France, erected a bronze statue in his honor for the key role he played in the story of thefestival. The French Ministry of Culture gave him the rank of Knight in the Order of Arts and Literature. In 2008, he received France's highest distinction, the insignia Chevalier of theLegion of Honour.[35] In 2023, he won thePraemium Imperiale.[36]
He has receivedhonorary degrees from theFrost School of Music at theUniversity of Miami (1994),University of Scranton (1996),[37]Kenyon College (2019),New York University,[38] Columbia, Connecticut College,[39]Harvard,Howard,Northwestern,Princeton, Vermont, theState University of New York,[40] and theUniversity of Michigan (2023).[41]
Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group
Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)
Best Spoken Word Album for Children
For the first time in the program's 29-year history, in addition to four individual awards, the NEA will present a group award to the Marsalis family, New Orleans' venerable first family of jazz.
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