Wynton Marsalis featuring in The Telegraph ahead of Verbier Festival
Photo Credit: Lawrence Sumulong
Wynton Marsalis on classical, jazz and musical ‘sectarianism’
by Ivan Hewett
The Telegraph
July 7, 2023
It can be a burden, wearing the mantle of the great Jazz Tradition. It’s a mantle Wynton Marsalis has taken on willingly for the past four decades, tirelessly promoting jazz as something worthy to stand beside any other form of music. He’s achieved this through his own recordings as a trumpeter and band-leader, through leading the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra since 1996 and running a huge jazz education programme in thousands of schools across the US, and in recent years through his own large-scale compositions such as Blood on the Fields and the recent violin and trumpet concertos.
“We try to show that all jazz music is contemporary, no matter what period it comes from. So we’ll play some original pieces of mine and other band members like the horn (saxophone) player Sherman Irby, trombonist Chris Crenshaw, but we have also music by Dave Brubeck, by Dizzy (Gillespie) by Duke (Ellington) also a piece by Wayne Shorter who passed away this year. So we honour our forebears, but because our music is also improvised we’re fulfilling their wishes in another way, because improvisation was at the heart of what they did, and what we do.”
Wynton Marsalis and Miles Davis in 1985 Photo Credit: WireImage
It’s not just jazz Marsalis has excelled in. He seized the attention of the classical world back in the 1980s with spellbindingly virtuoso recordings of Haydn’s trumpet concerto and Bach’s 2nd Brandenburg Concerto.
When I ask him whether he agrees with the view that classical music and jazz are fundamentally antagonistic, I see a flash of the pugnaciously contentious Marsalis who’s spoken out against the violence and misogyny of some hip-hop. “To me that’s a kind of sectarianism. I don’t want to say racism because it’s deeper than that. Trying to say this kind of music is superior or antagonistic to that is an attempt to show your tribe is better. Also it’s like saying human achievements belong only to one group. Think about the pyramids. People say the Egyptians built them, but to me it’s humans who made this incredible achievement, their nationality or group is a secondary thing. With really great thinkers their achievement can reach across to time and culture to us now.”
Marsalis is clearly enthused by these big themes, but it’s when the conversation turns back to the tour and the JLCO’s upcoming concerts at the Barbican and at the Verbier Festival that he actually smiles. “You know the great thing is we never stop trying to get better. Most nights the players only get to play one solo, that’s their chance and they always seize it. We sometimes do morning concerts in schools, which isn’t so great for our lead trumpeter because he ain’t exactly a morning person, but he still plays with his heart and soul like it’s the biggest gig of his life.
“Sometimes when we’re playing there are moments that are so good I just have to laugh. One of our players Ted Nash does these great arrangements, and there’s a chord in a Dave Brubeck arrangement of his that’s so good we just all smile and look round at each other. We’ve been playing together so many years, but every night we’re still trying to impress each other and go further. It’s been such an unbelievable blessing to play with these incredible musicians, and I just want to make sure the next generation have the same opportunities.”
Read the full article here.