Wynton Marsalis Popular Books

Wynton Marsalis Biography & Facts

Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and his oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Marsalis is the only musician to have won a Grammy Award in both jazz and classical categories in the same year. Early years Marsalis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1961, and grew up in the suburb of Kenner. He is the second of six sons born to Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and Ellis Marsalis Jr., a pianist and music teacher. He was named after jazz pianist Wynton Kelly.Branford Marsalis is his older brother and Jason Marsalis and Delfeayo Marsalis are younger. All three are jazz musicians. While sitting at a table with trumpeters Al Hirt, Miles Davis, and Clark 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.Although he owned a trumpet when he was six, he did not practice much until he was 12. He attended Benjamin Franklin High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He studied classical music at school and jazz at home with his father. He played in funk bands and a marching band led by Danny 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 performed Joseph Haydn's trumpet concerto with the New Orleans Philharmonic. Two years later he performed Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Bach. At seventeen, he was one of the youngest musicians admitted to Tanglewood Music Center. Marsalis applied to only two music colleges, the Juilliard School and Northwestern University. He was accepted to both schools and chose to attend the former. Career In 1979, he moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School for a Bachelor of Music in trumpet performance, leaving in 1981 without earning a degree. He intended to pursue a career in classical music. In 1980, he toured Europe as a member of the Art Blakey big band, becoming a member of The 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. He recorded for the first time with Blakey and one year later he went on tour with Herbie Hancock. After signing a contract with Columbia, he recorded his first solo album. In 1982, he established a quintet with his brother Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Charnett Moffett, and Jeff "Tain" Watts. When Branford and Kenny Kirkland left three years later to record and tour with Sting, Marsalis formed another quartet, this time with Marcus Roberts on piano, Robert Hurst on double bass, and Watts on drums. After a while, the band expanded to include Wessell Anderson, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed, Herlin Riley, Reginald Veal, and Todd Williams.When asked about influences on his playing style, he cites Duke 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, and Adolph Hofner. Other influences include Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, and Adolph Herseth.Marsalis has established himself as a lecturer and musical ambassador, having spoken and performed on every continent except Antarctica. Jazz at Lincoln Center In 1987, Marsalis helped start the Classical Jazz summer concert series at Lincoln Center in New York City. The success of the series led to Jazz at Lincoln Center becoming a department at Lincoln Center, then to becoming an independent entity in 1996 alongside organizations such as the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Marsalis became artistic director of the center and the musical director of the band, the Jazz 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.In 2011, Marsalis and rock guitarist Eric Clapton performed together in a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert. The concert was recorded and released as the album Play the Blues: Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center. Other work In 1995, he hosted the educational program Marsalis on Music on public television, while during the same year National Public Radio broadcast his series Making the Music. Both programs won the George Foster Peabody Award, the highest award given in journalism.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. Following this, Marsalis also appeared in an iPod TV ad with his song "Sparks" in 2006.In December 2011, Marsalis was named cultural correspondent for CBS This Morning. He is a member of the CuriosityStream Advisory Board. He serves as director of the Juilliard Jazz Studies program. In 2015, Cornell University appointed him A.D. White Professor-at-Large.In addition to Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis has also worked with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a composer for modern classical music. The orchestra premiered a Violin Concerto he composed in 2015, and a Tuba Concerto of his in 2021.Marsalis was involved in writing, arranging, and performing music for the 2019 Daniel Pritzker film Bolden. Debate on jazz Marsalis is generally associated with straight-ahead jazz, jazz that kept to the original instruments used in jazz and eschewed electronica that gained prominence in the 70s and 80s. In The 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 to Ornette Coleman. Jazz critic Scott Yanow regards Marsalis as talented but criticizes his "selective knowledge of jazz history" and has said Marsalis considers "post-1965 avant-garde playing to be outside of jazz and 1970s fusion to be barren" and the unfortunate result of the "somewhat eccentric beliefs of Stanley Crouch". In The New York Times in 1997, pianist Keith Jarrett said Marsalis "imitates other people's styles too well ... His music sounds like a high school trumpet player to me".Bassist Stanley 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."When he met Miles Davis, one of his idols, Davis said, "So here's the police ...".... Discover the Wynton Marsalis popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Wynton Marsalis books.

Best Seller Wynton Marsalis Books of 2024

  • The American Experiment synopsis, comments

    The American Experiment

    David M. Rubenstein

    THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLERThe capstone book in a trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Lead and The American Story and hos...

  • Playing Changes synopsis, comments

    Playing Changes

    Nate Chinen

    One of jazz’s leading critics gives us an invigorating, richly detailed portrait of the artists and events that have shaped the music of our time. Grounded in authority and brimmin...

  • The Wind in the Reeds synopsis, comments

    The Wind in the Reeds

    Wendell Pierce & Rod Dreher

    2016 Christopher Award WinnerFrom acclaimed actor and producer Wendell Pierce, an insightful and poignant portrait of family, New Orleans and the transforming power of art.  ...

  • Das Jazzbuch synopsis, comments

    Das Jazzbuch

    Joachim-Ernst Berendt & Günther Huesmann

    Von New Orleans bis ins 21. Jahrhundert das vollständig überarbeitete Standardwerk über den Jazz von den Anfängen über den Dixieland, Bebop, Free Jazz zum Neoklassizismus und post...

  • Wynton Marsalis - Omnibook synopsis, comments

    Wynton Marsalis - Omnibook

    Wynton Marsalis

    35 Marsalis songs transcribed for Bflat instruments exactly from his recorded solos, with solo analysis sections and a complete discography. Includes: Au Privave Black Bottom Stom...

  • Suite for Human Nature synopsis, comments

    Suite for Human Nature

    Diane Charlotte Lampert

    From the legendary songwriter Diane Lampert, based on a musical piece she wrote with Pulitzer Prize and ninetime Grammy–winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, comes an exquisitely ...

  • Diary of a Radical Cancer Warrior synopsis, comments

    Diary of a Radical Cancer Warrior

    Fred Ho, Magdalena Gomez & Cynthia G. Franklin

    When American saxophonist and social activist Fred Ho was diagnosed with stage 3b colorectal cancer in 2006 he underwent immediate surgery to remove the tumor and began preparing f...

  • Jazz synopsis, comments

    Jazz

    Geoffrey C. Ward & Wynton Marsalis

    Con ingenio y ternura, Wynton Marsalis nos muestra cómo una verdadera comprensión del jazz, equilibrio perfecto en el escenario entre la expresión artística individual y el sacrifi...