Wynton Marsalis

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Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American jazz and classical trumpeter and composer. He is Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted the appreciation of Classical and Jazz music, often focusing on young audiences.

As a Jazz performer and composer he is noted for his erudition and extensive knowledge about jazz and jazz history and for being a classical virtuoso. As of 2006, he has made sixteen classical and more than thirty jazz recordings, has been awarded nine Grammys in both genres, and was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize for Music for a jazz recording.

Life and career

Marsalis was born to Dolores (née Ferdinand) and Ellis Marsalis, Jr., a New Orleans-based music teacher and pianist. He is the second of six sons: Branford (1960), Wynton (1961), Ellis III (1964), Delfeayo (1965), Mboya Kinyatta (1971), and Jason (1977). Branford, Delfeayo, and Jason are also jazz musicians. Ellis is a poet, photographer and network engineer based in Baltimore. Mboya was born with autism.[1]

At an early age Marsalis demonstrated an aptitude and interest for music. Al Hirt gave a six-year-old Marsalis his first trumpet. At age eight he performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band led by banjoist, Danny Barker. At fourteen he was invited to perform with the New Orleans Philharmonic. During his high school years attending Benjamin Franklin High School, Marsalis was a member of the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, under the direction of Peter Dombourian, 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. Two years later in 1980, he joined the Jazz Messengers to study under drummer and bandleader, Art Blakey, during which time Marsalis gleaned from Blakey how to lead a band and how to how perform with intensity and consistency. 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. During his career Marsalis has played with Jazz artists including, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Edison, Clark Terry, and Sonny Rollins.

Marsalis assembled his own band and performed over 120 concerts every year for ten consecutive years. Through an extensive series of performances, lectures, and music workshops, Marsalis helped generate interest in an art form that had lost much of its artistic substance. As he focused attention on older jazz musicians, many record companies had re-issued out-of-print recordings from their catalogues. Students of Marsalis's workshops and collaborators have included James Carter, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, Harry Connick, Jr. (Marsalis plays on Connick's album 30, and Your Songs), Nicholas Payton, Eric Reed and Eric Lewis. Marsalis has been commissioned to compose for dance companies including Garth Fagan Dance, Peter Martins at the New York City Ballet, Twyla Tharp for the American Ballet Theatre, and also 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 his epic oratorio on slavery, Blood on the Fields, became the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize in music.

In 2006, Marsalis's 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 is a bachelor with sons by Candace Stanley and another son with actress Victoria Rowell.[4]

Musical accomplishments

Marsalis compositions and playing is 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, a set of albums released in 1999-2000 featuring original compositions and standards, from jazz to classical to ballet, including Jelly Roll Morton, Igor Stravinsky and Thelonious Monk along with Marsalis. Marsalis will also compose new cadenzas for violinist, Anne Akiko Meyers, in Mozart's Concerto in G Major, #3.

At the Octoroon Balls contains Marsalis's first string quartet, performed by the Orion Quartet, a work commissioned by the Lincoln Center, and premiered in 1995 in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The composition has been recorded by the Harlem Quartet. 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, a narrated work about a musician who sells her soul to a record producer. It premiered on April 23, 1998, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A version without narration was appeared on the album At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1. Reeltime is Marsalis's score for John Singleton's film Rosewood. This original music, featuring vocals by 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 was premiered in New York city by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Zhong Mei Dance Company.

On 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."[citation needed] The album features the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Newman, and was produced by Steven Epstein.

Criticism

Marsalis's has been criticized as a minor trumpeter who promulgates controversial and pedantic opinions on jazz. Down Beat magazine's website states that Marsalis is viewed by many as a savior of pure jazz from "pop fusion and noise", while others have regarded his music and notions regarding jazz as "regressive."

Several jazz figures have disparaged Marsalis's merit as a musician as well as his views on jazz. Critic Scott Yanow praised Marsalis's talent, but questioned his "selective knowledge of jazz history considering post-1965 avant-garde playing to be outside of jazz and 1970s fusion to be barren."[5] 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."[6] 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.[7] In 1997 pianist Keith Jarrett criticized Marsalis saying "I've never heard anything Wynton played sound like it meant anything at all. Wynton has no voice and no presence. His music sounds like a talented high-school trumpet player to me."[8] Pierre Sprey, president of jazz record company Mapleshade Records, said in 2001 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."[9] In his autobiography Miles Davis hedged his praise of Marsalis by strongly suggesting that he was unoriginal and too competitive, saying "Wynton thinks playing music is about blowing people up on stage." In 1986, in Vancouver, Marsalis angered Davis when he tried to join him on stage uninvited. Davis said "Wynton can't play the kind of shit we were playing", and twice told Marsalis to leave the stage saying "Get the fuck off." [10]

Ken Burns' Jazz

Marsalis has also been criticized for his role in the Ken Burns documentary Jazz (2001), which promoted a classicist view of jazz similar to his own. The documentary focused primarily on Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong among others, while failing to mention jazz artists from the period Marsalis has disparaged.

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.[citation needed]

As artistic director and co-producer of the project, Marsalis was an object of many of the criticisms of the series, which was also highly acclaimed. Many critics thought that Marsalis's classicist view of jazz was a detrimental influence. Critic David Adler has suggested his production role was a conflict of interest with his high onscreen profile: "Wynton's coronation in the film is not merely biased. It is not just aesthetically grating. It is unethical, given his integral role in the making of the very film that is praising him to the heavens."[11]

Political activism

New Orleans

Marsalis emerged as a New Orleans booster in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by making public speeches and television ads to increase public awareness of the importance of rebuilding New Orleans, and also to encourage tourism of Louisiana. Marsalis also organized a large benefit at Jazz at Lincoln Center for musicians and other New Orleanians affected by Hurricane Katrina. The benefit, called Higher Ground, featured Cassandra Wilson, Diana Krall, Dianne Reeves, Norah Jones, Victor Goines, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Fantasia.

Marsalis was interviewed in Spike Lee's award-winning documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.

In the 2006 New Orleans mayoral election, Marsalis endorsed Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu over incumbent Ray Nagin. Both Democratic Party members, Nagin and Landrieu were the top contenders after the jungle primary. Neither gained a simple majority, and in a runoff election Nagin won. Landrieu returned to the office of Lieutenant Governor the following year.

Wynton sits on the Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors of The Jazz Foundation of America. [12] Wynton has continued to work with the Jazz Foundation to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians including musicians that survived Hurricane Katrina. His organization Jazz at Lincoln Center has raised funding through “High Ground Campaign” [13] to assist the Jazz Foundation of America in aiding musicians affected by Katrina giving a total of $3,000,000 since 2001.

International politics

Marsalis has helped raise awareness of Aung San Suu Kyi and human rights violations in Burma, also known as Myanmar, 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

Statue dedicated to W. Marsalis in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

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, Harvard University, Haverford College, Johns Hopkins University, the Manhattan School of Music, New York University, Northwestern University, Princeton University, the University of Miami, Southern Methodist University(SMU) and Yale University.[14]

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

Music Awards

Pulitzer Prize for Music

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)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo

Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children

  • 2000 Listen to the Storyteller

Discography

References

  1. ^ Marsalis family jazzes it up for autism, Herald Sun, March 27, 2007, hsoted at autismconnect.org.
  2. ^ "Jazz at Lincoln Center". Charity Navigator. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  3. ^ Michael Crowley (2006). "That's Outrageous-Charity Chiselers". Reader's Digest. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  4. ^ "All about Jazz - Chapter One: Yes, Yes". Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  5. ^ Scott Yanow. "Wynton Marsalis Biography". allmusic. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
  6. ^ "Blowing up a storm". The Guardian. 25 January 2003. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
  7. ^ Nisenson, Eric (1997). Blue: The Murder of Jazz. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312167857.
  8. ^ Excerpts from an article by Andrew Solomon in the New York Times Magazine, Feb. 9, 1997
  9. ^ Jeffrey St. Clair (28 February 2001). "Now, That's Not Jazz". Gerry Hemingway. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  10. ^ Davis, Miles and Quincy Troupe. Miles: The Autobiography. Simon & Schuster. 1990. ISBN 0671725823
  11. ^ David R. Adler. "Ken Burns' "Jazz": The Episode Ten Fiasco". AllAboutJazz.com. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  12. ^ jazzfoundation.org. 2009-13-10. URL: http://www.jazzfoundation.org/Gala_Sponsorship_Packages.pdf. Accessed: 2009-13-10. (Archived by jazzfoundation.org at http://www.jazzfoundation.org/Gala_Sponsorship_Packages.pdf)
  13. ^ wyntonmarsalis.org. 2009-13-10. URL: http://www.wyntonmarsalis.org/2008/03/05/playing-our-parts-concert/. Accessed: 2009-13-10. (Archived by wyntonmarsalis.org at http://www.wyntonmarsalis.org/2008/03/05/playing-our-parts-concert/)
  14. ^ "Contemporary Black Biography Wynton Marsalis, Jazz Musician". Pomona College Hart Institute. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  15. ^ Recipients Of The Algur H. Meadows Award For Excellence In The Arts
  • The Music of Black Americans: A History. Eileen Southern. W. W. Norton & Company; 3rd edition. ISBN 0-393-97141-4

External links

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