Wynton Marsalis: Jazz Genius
Artist-In-Residence at Monterey Jazz Festival releases new book, CD
Apr 3, 2009
Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, has been appointed as the Artists-in-Residence for the 52nd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival. Marsalis, the multiple award- winning composer, trumpeter, and bandleader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will also participate at the Next Generation Festival, The MJF Summer Jazz Camp, and at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Featured members of the JALC include saxophonist Sherman Irby, trumpeter Sean Jones, trombonist Vincent Gardner, and drummer Ali Jackson. Presented by Verizon, the festival takes place September 18-20, 2009 in Monterey, California, USA.
Co-Founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center
Wynton Marsalishas been hailed as one of the most outstanding jazz musicians and trumpeters of his generation. As a big band leader in the tradition of Duke Ellington, the brilliant composer carries this distinction well. Although Marsalis’ creative accomplishments are documented within a distinguished array of endeavors, it is his co-founding and leadership of the jazz program at Lincoln Center that continues to be his most high-profiled artistic endeavors.
The first season in 1987 consisted of three concerts. Today, under Marsalis’ leadership the program has developed an international agenda with up to 400 events annually in 15 countries. The programming is rich and diverse and includes performances, debates, film forums, dances, television and radio broadcasts, and educational activities.
Prolific Author and Composer Releases New Book and CD
In his book, Moving To Higher Ground and How Jazz Can Change Your Life, Marsalis states: “Jazz gives us soulful insights into history and the human condition. Jazz also demonstrates that great art can be for everybody. It’s both down-home and sophisticated. It deals with elite ideas but is not elite.”
He follows this concept in his fifth release for Blue Note records titled He and She. The CD indicates He and She is about that eternally compelling and most elemental of subjects, the relationship between a man and a woman. The 22-track CD contains all new material on which Marsalis narrates several poems that introduce jazz waltzes that sway with the same elegance and ease as the metaphors Marsalis and his quintet use.
Early Jazz Inspiration, Awards, and Humanitarianism
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana Marsalis attended Juilliard before joining Art Blakely and the Jazz Messengers. It was from Blakey that Wynton acquired his concept for band-leading, for bringing intensity to each performance and for developing a sound inspired by the basic principals of democracy. According to Marsalis, what you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.”
Wynton Marsalis has won nine coveted Grammy Awards. In 1983 he earned the distinction of being the only artist ever to win Grammy Awards for both jazz and classical records - (an accomplishment he astonishingly repeated in 1984) and he is the only artist ever to have won Grammy Awards in five consecutive years (1983-1987).
In October 1995 PBS premiered a series of educational television shows on jazz and classical music. The series was written and hosted by Marsalis and was enjoyed by millions of parents and children. Wynton’s radio and television series were awarded the most prestigious distinction in broadcast journalism, the George Foster Peabody Award (1995).
In 1997, Wynton Marsalis won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Blood On The Fields, a 3-hour oratorio that uses all of the elements of jazz and its antecedents to tell a story of American slavery. In November 2005 Wynton Marsalis was awarded The National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government.
However, the most distinguished characteristic of Wynton Marsalis is not his accomplishments, but his humanitarianism. He finds endless ways to give of himself and has selflessly donated his time and talent to non-profit organizations throughout the world. For more information about Wynton Marsalis, please visit his website at www.wyntonmarsalis.com
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