Musician Wynton Marsalis visits with UM students

By: Ian Black

Posted: 3/19/07

This Thursday, Wynton Marsalis returned to Hill Auditorium with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, to play a concert of Songs we Love. The concert series coincides with Marsalis' most recent album release, From the Plantation to the Penitentiary. The Orchestra's myriad talents were on display for a packed house, and with the tireless efforts of Chris Genteel, representing both the BBSA and the new Arts Enterprise Club, several students had the unique opportunity to attend the Orchestra's sound check and to meet Mr. Marsalis backstage after the concert.

Mr. Marsalis was born and raised in New Orleans. He grew up as a prodigal trumpet player and one of six children of the famous pianist Ellis Marsalis. Marsalis is still involved in local arts education and funding in the New Orleans area, despite living in New York City, since graduating from the Juilliard School of Music in the late 70s. In addition to his strong musicianship, the 45-year old Marsalis has built his career on formalizing Jazz as an art form. By creating a library, or "canon" of jazz classics, spanning from the 1920s to the 1960s, he has been able to bring the art form to a wider audience. The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra is the institutional expression of that life's work and a source of pride for musicians and the black community. As noted in this 2004 Newsweek article by clarinetist Don Byron, "We've got the Philharmonic, the various opera and ballet orchestras, none of whom have even 25 percent African-American participation. And none of them have a music director who's African-American. In a major city, [Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra] is the only legitimate gig that's run by a leader who's black, so how bad is that?" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6212853/site/newsweek)

In trying to bring his brand of jazz to a wider audience, Marsalis has stepped on numerous toes: music critics, musicians and politicians. Marsalis isn't terribly concerned with critics who say his vision of jazz is narrow (an example of Marsalis' influence can be seen in Ken Burns' documentary on the history of Jazz, which Marsalis consulted on,) but he is concerned about the media's portrayal of him as a black leader downing other blacks. In the 2006 mayoral race in New Orleans, Marsalis supported the Lt. Governor, Mitch Landrieu, to the chagrin of the black incumbent, Ray Nagin. Marsalis pulls no punches, saying that he has tried to do more than just raise $3 mln for Katrina relief, while Nagin wasted a lot of the musician's time and "when the people at the top are stupid, there isn't much you can do."

Despite doing much to popularize Jazz in the past three decades, including winning nine Grammy's and the first Pulitzer Prize by a jazz musician, Marsalis has not been able to buoy Jazz sales: the genre accounts for roughly 3% of all record sales, equal to classical music and well below rock, rap and country, which have 35%, 13% and 12% market shares, respectively. Today, there is less than a handful of Gold and Platinum Jazz recording artists and this understandably bothers Marsalis.

Chris Genteel, representing both the Arts Enterprise Club and the Black Business Students Association, wondered openly whether the digital revolution could help jazz expand its audience further, building on the foundation created by Marsalis. While some members of the Orchestra welcome the advent of blogging and digital music sales, Marsalis reminded students that using Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) can make music sound like a lot of different things, but it can't cover bad musicianship: "You can play a lot of cute music, but to really be a musician is something. You've got to work hard and long and really be committed to it."

After seeing Marsalis and his Orchestra practice together to master Sweet Georgia Brown and change up the tempo on My Favorite Things, it is clear Marsalis is a serious musician, a rock of artisanship in a sea of unrest, who leaves students with a single, powerful thought: "Whether its business or music, you've got to have integrity. Not a lot of people have that in either. In all my years, no one has ever asked for more from me; always less."