Wynton Marsalis Biography, Photos and Posters

Wynton Marsalis

Biography

Born: October 18, 1961
City and Country of Origin: New Orleans, Louisiana
Music Training: son of a music teacher; performed in the Fairview Baptist Church band at age 8; during high school he was a member of the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, New Orleans Youth Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony; attended Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center at 17; Juilliard School of Music
Awards: Doctor of Philosophy in Arts - Ph.D. Art; Doctor of Arts - D.Art; Doctor of Music - D.Mus.; Doctor of Humane Letters - LH.D; Doctor of Fine Arts - D.F.Art; Pulitzer Prize for Music; Grammy 1999 Best Spoken Word Album For Children, Listen To The Storyteller; 1987 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group, Marsalis Standard Time - Volume I; 1986 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group, J Mood; 1985 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist, Black Codes From The Underground; 1985 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group, Black Codes From The Underground; 1984 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist, Hot House Flowers; Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist Or Soloists (With Orchestra), Wynton Marsalis-Edita Gruberova-Handel, Purcell, Etc,; 1983 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist, Think Of One; Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist Or Soloists (With Orchestra), Haydn: Trumpet Concerto In E Flat/L. Mozart: Trumpet Concerto In D/Hummel: Trumpet Concerto In E Flat
Top Recordings: Wynton Marsalis, 1983 Trumpet Concertos (Haydn, Leopold Mozart, Hummel) Think of One, 1984 Haydn: Three Favorite Concertos (with Yo-Yo Ma and Cho-Liang Lin) Baroque Music for Trumpet (Purcell, Handel, Torelli, etc.) Hot House Flowers, 1985 Black Codes (From the Underground), J Mood, 1987 Carnaval, 1989 Copland/Vaughan Williams/Hindemith (Eastman Wind Ensemble) Crescent City Christmas Card The Majesty of the Blues, 1992 Baroque Duet - with Kathleen Battle, 1992 Citi Movement, 1997 Liberty! Jump Start and Jazz Blood On The Fields, 2000 The London Concert The Marciac Suite, 2001 Classical Hits Popular Songs: The Best Of Wynton Marsalis, 2002 All Rise Trumpet Concertos Classic Kathleen Battle: A Portrait, 2004 The Magic Hour Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, 2007 From the Plantation to the Penitentiary
Wynton Marsalis Biography: American composer and trumpet player, Wynton Marsalis is one of the most prominent contemporary jazz and classical musicians. With an impressive knowledge of jazz and jazz history to augment his virtuosity as a classical trumpeter, Marsalis is known for his sophisticated yet earthly personal style. The son of Dolores Ferdinand and Ellis Marsalis, Jr., Wynton is the second of 6 sons. His father Ellis is a pianist and music teacher and a fixture in the New Orleans jazz scene. His brother Branford Marsalis is a well-known saxophonist and his brothers Delfeayo and Jason are also notable musicians. He is also the Musical Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. As of 2006, he has made sixteen classical and more than thirty jazz recordings, has been awarded nine Grammys, between the genres and the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

He played in several New Orleans groups while in high school, then became the youngest musician ever to attend Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center. In 1978, while studying at Julliard in New York he began to pick up gigs around the city and his talent garnered much attention. He joined the Jazz Messengers to study under master drummer and bandleader, Art Blakey in 1980. It was Blakey who taught him the relationship between jazz and America. No America no jazz. It was from Blakey that Wynton acquired his concept of bandleading bringing intensity to every performance. He was invited to perform with many jazz greats like: Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Edison, Clark Terry and Sonny Rollins.

Fianlly, Marsalis assembled his own band. He hit the road performing over 120 concerts a year. he has also worked on his composition skills creating works for Garth Fagan Dance, Peter Martins at the New York City Ballet, Twyla Tharp for the American Ballet Theatre, and for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. He collaborated with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1995 to compose the string quartet, At The Octoroon Balls, and again in 1998 to create a response to the Stravinsky: A Soldier's Tale with his composition, A Fiddler's Tale. in 1997 he became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music, for his epic oratorio, Blood on the Fields, on the subject of slavery.

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