Wynton Marsalis has been described as the most outstanding jazz artist and composer of his generation. He has helped propel jazz to the forefront of American culture through his brilliant performances, recordings, broadcasts, and compositions as well as through his leadership as the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC). Wynton Marsalis is the music director of the world-renowned Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, which spends more than half the year on tour. He also hosts the popular Jazz for Young People concerts and helped lead the effort to construct JALC's new home, Frederick P. Rose Hall, the first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz, which opened in October 2004.Wynton Marsalis was born in New Orleans in 1961. He began his classical training on the trumpet at age twelve and entered the Juilliard School at age seventeen. That same year, he joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, the acclaimed band in which generations of emerging jazz artists honed their craft, and subsequently made his recording debut as a leader in 1982. Since then, he has made more than forty jazz and classical recordings, earning nine Grammy Awards. In 1983, he became the first and only artist to win classical and jazz Grammys in the same year and repeated this feat in 1984. His rich body of compositions includes the oratorio BLOOD ON THE FIELDS, for which he was awarded the first-ever Pulitzer Prize in music for a jazz composition.Wynton Marsalis is an internationally respected teacher and spokesperson for music education and has received honorary doctorates from dozens of universities and colleges throughout the United States. Britain's senior conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music, granted Wynton Marsalis honorary membership, the Academy's highest decoration for a non-British citizen. In France, the Ministry of Culture awarded him the most prestigious decoration of the French Republic, the rank of Knight in the Order of Arts and Literature. He also was appointed as a U.N. Messenger of Peace by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1991.JAZZ A B Z is Wynton Marsalis's first book for children. A resident of New York City, he is the father of three boys.
Attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
He has 2 sons with Candace Stanley.
Father, with Victoria Rowell , of son Jasper Armstrong Marsalis.
Named after jazz pianist Wynton Kelly , (1931 - 1971). Received his first trumpet at the age of six from New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt.
Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1996.
Attended Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, in Massachusetts
Attended the Juilliard School of Music in NYC
Grew up in Kenner, Louisiana
Became the 1st musician to win Grammy Awards in both jazz & classical music categories in the same year
Became the 1st jazz artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1997
Son of Ellis Marsalis.
Brother of Delfeayo Marsalis , Branford Marsalis and Jason Marsalis.
He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2005.
Honored by the Congressional Award in Washington, DC with the 2002 Horizon Award. The Horizon Award is a special recognition from the Joint Leadership of the United States Congress and the Congressional Award Board of Directors. The Horizon Award is presented to individuals from the private sectors who have contributed to expanding opportunities for all Americans through their own personal contributions, and who have set exceptional examples for young people through their successes in life.
(October 2004) Has written his first book, To A Young Jazz Musician, a book of practical advice to young artists of all mediums.
(October 2004) Heading the inauguration of a center for music education in New York City.
Friends with Ed Bradley.
(Commenting on the influence Louie Armstrong has on Jazz).
In jazz you have the opportunity to establish your equality - based on,your ability.
The thing in jazz that will get Bix Beiderbecke out of his bed at two o’clock in the morning, pick that cornet up and practice into the pillow for another two or three hours, or that would make Louis Armstrong travel around the world for fifty plus years non stop, just get up out of his sick bed, crawl up on the bandstand and play, the thing that would make Duke Ellington, the thing that would make Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Mary Lou Williams, the thing that would make all of these people give their lives for this, and they did give their lives, is that it gives us a glimpse into what America is going to be when it becomes itself. And this music tells you that it will become itself. And when you get a taste of that, there’s just nothing else you’re going to taste that’s as sweet.
I noticed that religion gave some people a way to escape dealing with the world: “Things will be better when you die,” the people of my grandma’s generation said as they worked themselves to death. “God wants you to forgive and love those who do you wrong,” some people said to shake off the shame of being unable to respond to the abuse they endured. The holier-than-thou faction found comfort in believing, “The rest of y’all are lost because you don’t have a personal relationship with God—our God. ” But art engages you in the world, not just the world around you but the big world, and not just the big world of Tokyo and Sydney and Johannesburg, but the bigger world of ideas and concepts and feelings of history and humanity.
Jazz is democracy in music.
We looked up to our father. He still is much greater than us.
Many a revolution started with the actions of a few. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. A few hanging together can lead a nation to change.
What I really have in my head, my imagination, my understanding of music, I never really get that out.
Through first-class education, a generation marches down the long uncertain road of the future with confidence.
There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division, rob you of your freedom, and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation. .
