Wynton Marsalis at 50 premiered October 13, 2011.
Check Local Listings to see when it's airing on your local PBS station.You can watch the full performance online from Friday, Oct. 14 to Friday, Oct. 21.
Live From Lincoln Center, produced by Lincoln Center's John Goberman, makes the world's greatest artists accessible to home viewers in virtually every corner of the United States. It remains the only series of live broadcast performances on American television today. Approximately six major Lincoln Center performances are televised to a national audience of millions each year. In addition to its 13 Emmy Awards and 53 Emmy nominations, Live From Lincoln Center has won two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Grammy Awards, three Monitor Awards, a Television Critics Award and many others.
Wynton Marsalis turns 50 on October 18 and Live From Lincoln Center, which has featured Wynton and his music on a number of previous programs, will salute his milestone birthday with a special concert celebration, Wynton at 50. Joining him and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on stage will be other luminaries from the world of music and dance, including tap dancer Jared Grimes, vocalist Gregory Porter, pianist Marcus Roberts, violinist Marc O'Connor, Yacub Addy and Odadaa!, and Damien Sneed and Chorale Le Chateau. During intermission, Wynton will be interviewed by actor Wendell Pierce.
Keith MajorAcclaimed musician, composer and bandleader Wynton Marsalis.Wynton is the second of six sons born to Ellis and Dolores Marsalis, who may be said to have created a musical dynasty: four sons — Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason — followed in the footsteps of their father with music the dominant force in their lives. Wynton, who began playing the trumpet when he was six, is so indelibly identified with jazz that it may come as a surprise to some to learn that he was thoroughly educated and trained in classical music. By the time he was 14 he had already appeared as a soloist with the orchestra of his native city, the New Orleans Philharmonic, and was a prized member of a variety of New Orleans music establishments. At 17, he became the youngest member ever admitted to the Boston Symphony's summer music academy, the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, where he proceeded to win its prize for outstanding brass student.
Two years later he moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School, one of the world's outstanding music conservatories and a constituent member of Lincoln Canter for the Performing Arts. The buzz began to spread about this remarkable new musician in town, and he was soon expanding his classical music education with studies with the master jazz drummer Art Blakey. Simultaneously, he was forging a career as a classical music solo trumpeter, appearing as soloist with the likes of the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. He also, at the age of 20, began a career as a classical music recording artist; he is the only musician ever to receive Grammy Awards in both the classical and jazz fields in the same year, 1983.
When the New York Philharmonic, which had been absent from the airwaves for nine seasons, returned to national radio in 1975, Wynton Marsalis was an early soloist on its broadcasts. As a guest during the intermission of one of the concerts, he revealed to the program's host and commentator, Martin Bookspan, the startling news that it was likely to be his last as a classical musician: from that time on his life would be devoted to jazz.
Mark BussellLincoln Center for the Performing Arts
In 1981, Wynton formed his own jazz band and toured the length and breadth of the United States, rekindling an appreciation and love for the medium and serving as inspiration for a whole new generation of jazz musicians. Six years later, in collaboration with Lincoln Center, he co-founded a jazz program which proved to be so successful that in 1996 Jazz at Lincoln Center was installed as one of the constituent members of Lincoln Center, alongside the likes of the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the Juilliard School. Wynton is the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The scope of Jazz at Lincoln Center embraces far more than the orchestra's performances: There is a Band Director Academy; a concert series called Jazz for Young People; NEA Jazz in the Schools, a web-based, multimedia curriculum; a Middle School Jazz Academy; a series called WeBop! for children from eight months to five years old; and a yearly High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival.
Live From Lincoln Center is produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., in cooperation with Thirteen/WNET in New York. Please visit http://www.lincolncenter.org/ for more information.
Visit Live From Lincoln Center at the PBS Video Portal to view clips, interviews and more from the program.
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It may be hard for those who discovered jazz in the late 1970's and early 1980's to wrap their heads around it, but trumepter Wynton Marsalis turns 50 years old today. Despite his position as one of jazz's most revered voices and organizers, I always saw him as the new kid on the block.
Clearly that's no longer the case. A look at his discography (jazz, classical, soundtracks, etc) reveals more than 70 releases, an average of more than 2.5 releases a year since his debut in 1982. That's a staggering output, and much of it is fine music. And yet, for all his output, and all his awards - nine Grammy awards and a Pulitzer Prize among them - he is also a lightning rod for controversy. Here's an excerpt from his Wikipedia entry - footnotes and all - that spells out the issue:
Marsalis has been criticized by some jazz musicians and writers as a limited trumpeter who pontificates on jazz, as he did in his 1988 opinion piece in the New York Times "What Jazz Is - and Isn't".[1][2]
Jazz critic Scott Yanow acknowledged Marsalis's talent but criticized his "selective knowledge of jazz history" and his regard for "post-1965 avant-garde playing to be outside of jazz and 1970s fusion to be barren" as the unfortunate result of the "somewhat eccentric beliefs of Stanley Crouch.[3]Trumpeter Lester Bowie said of Marsalis, "If you retread what's gone before, even if it sounds like jazz, it could be anathema to the spirit of jazz."[4] In his 1997 book Blue: The Murder of Jazz, Eric Nisenson argues that Marsalis's focus on a narrow portion of jazz's past stifled growth and innovation.[5] 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."[6] 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."[7] 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!"[8] In his autobiography, Miles Davis – who Marsalis said had left jazz and "went into rock"[9] – hedged his praise of Marsalis by suggesting that he was unoriginal. He also found him too competitive, saying "Wynton thinks playing music is about blowing people up on stage." In 1986, in Vancouver, Davis stopped his band to eject an uninvited Marsalis from the stage. Davis said "Wynton can't play the kind of shit we were playing", and twice told Marsalis "Get the fuck off."[10]
Some critical exchanges have included insults. Besides insinuating that Davis had pandered to audiences, Marsalis said Davis dressed like a "buffoon." Trumpeter Lester Bowie called Marsalis "brain dead", "mentally-ill" and "trapped in some opinions that he had at age 21... because he's been paid to."[2][9] Marsalis in reply said Bowie was "another guy who never really could play."[9]
Marsalis was criticized for pressing his neo-classicist opinions of jazz as producer and on-screen commentator in the Ken Burns documentary Jazz(2001). The documentary focused primarily on Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong among others, while ignoring other jazz artists. David Adler said that "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]
If his playing is a bit staid, and his desire to record - if not recycle - jazz classics on a number of his releases a but redundant, his contribution as a composer, as the director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and in particular his live playing make him a formidable talent. And that's enough for me.
While an excellent http://www.kalamu.com/bol/2010/11/02/wynton-marsalis-%E2%80%9Cwynton-live%E2%...">Breath of Life posting of Marsalis' live music is no longer available on their website, I have a copy, and am sharing it againfor you to hear. Enjoy.
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WYNTON MARSALIS /
“Wynton Live”
Source: Breath of Life – (BoL Mixtape – November 1, 2010)
02 Wynton Live.mp3 (82.75 MB)
Wynton Marsalis needs no introduction. He is undoubtedly the most recognized name in contemporary jazz. He has more Grammy Awards than any jazz musician living or deceased. (He also has Grammy Awards for classical music.) And the roll call of honors goes on and on: cover of Time Magazine, prestigious music commissions, accolades, a Pulitzer Prize, and other awards too numerous to mention.
Wynton is no longer a young a lion—he was born October 18, 1961 in New Orleans—but I believe he is playing better jazz than he ever has. The opening track demonstrates how he has matured as a ballad player. He no longer plays with pristine precision. Now he is just as likely to employ smears and off-kilter phrasing. What he does with“You Don’t Know What Love Is” is more lusty than romantic, more a deep declaration of carnality rather than a hapless lover lost in heartbreak. Needless to say, I find this fascinating because it sounds so unlike the younger Wynton Marsalis. The aforementioned marathon concluding track (“Sweet Embrace”) is a tour de force of writing as well as performance. I love the band’s singing at the end precisely because it is what it is: instrumentalists doing shout choruses just like the old bands used to do. Not many ensembles could pull off this strenuous workout with both the technical expertise and the emotional sincerity (and joy) that flows from these guys. But for me the real eye-opener (really that should be “ear-opener”) are the three middle tracks taken from Wynton’s new album, From Billie Holiday To Edith Piaf: Live In Marciac, which includes a DVD in addition to the audio CD. It’s a band of young cats channeling styles from earlier eras. Two pianists are listed on the credits and since I haven’t seen the DVD, I can’t tell you which pianist it is that nails that Erroll Garner thing on “Sailboat In The Moonlight” but outside of Mr. Garner himself very few pianist even attempt that approach. The band swings so hard, you’ll get vertigo just nodding your head to the rhythm. Also, I need to give special kudos to saxophonist/clarinetist Walter Blanding whose sound is both robust and seriously smooth, not like in smooth jazz, more like in aged cognac—that shit will knock you out. There is a raucous edge in this band’s sound that tips you off that these cats ain’t just playing at playing jazz. They sound like they getting married to the music til death do them part. What is distinctive is that they don’t come off like they’re trying to play in an old style. Naw, they sound like they are having a ball and that’s just the way they play except young musicians don’t get to this level of swing-ability by luck. In fact, this particular set reminds me of some of the old New Orleans sit down bands, playing in what I call the Buddy Bolden mold, i.e. swinging hard, full of blues and playing like this is the last time they will ever get to play. But there is more, this concert of material associated with Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf also includes special guest accordionist Richard Galliano who more than holds his own.
When Galliano and Marsalis go head to head, their solos both intertwining and challenging each other, it is a masterful display. I’ve heard a lot of accordion (what some people call “the poor man’s organ”) but this is the first cat I could envision playing modern jazz of this caliber as a soloist. But you’ve got ears, you can hear that for yourself. My final note is about Wynton’s take on “Strange Fruit.” This shit is the bomb-digity. My man tears into this oration with nary a nod to propriety. At some points he sounds like he is going to hurt something… or hurt someone. In fact, if you used this one for a blindfold test, most people would never guess Wynton Marsalis. And that’s the beauty: Wynton has gone beyond the limitations of young Wynton.
I know the common misconception is that artists grow more conservative as they grow older. I don’t think that’s the case with artists. Entertainers, for sure end up merely trying to recapture bygone glory, but true artists keep reaching and as they grow older they have a wider palette of experiences to draw on. These middle three tracks are enough to convince me. If you’ve only heard young Wynton you really haven’t heard Wynton. He’s playing with more than technique, here is the authority that only time can bring. Weathering the vicissitudes of life has given him more texture and timbre, a wider range of emotional dynamics; there is both more seriousness and more joy to Wynton Marsalis’ whole approach.
This is the kind of music that makes you want to shout: oh, hell yeah, play that shit! Enjoy the new sound of a mature Wynton Marsalis.
—Kalamu ya Salaam
Live At The House Of Tribes (recorded 2002)
01 “You Don’t Know What Love Is”
From Billie Holiday to Edith Piaf (recorded 2008)
02 “Sailboat In The Moonlight”
03 “L’homme A La Moto”
04 “Strange Fruit”
Live At The Village Vanguard (recorded 1990 - 1994)
05 “In The Sweet Embrace of Life”
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