Rooms have been buzzing with the sound of jazz legend Wynton Marsalis’ smooth trumpet playing for over half a century now. The world-renowned musician — a nine-time Grammy Award winner and Pulitzer Prize holder — was given his first trumpet at age 6. He began classical training at just 12 years old. At 22, he became the first musician to win a Grammy in both jazz and classical music in the same year. But Marsalis doesn’t get emotional when reflecting on his many achievements. “I don’t have a sentimental relationship with myself,” Marsalis told “CBS Mornings” co-anchor Gayle King during an int ..read more

How does Wynton Marsalis spend his birthday? On the road, of course. The venerable champion of all things jazzy and traditional celebrated his 63rd birthday onstage in Hong Kong on October 18, the second in a duo of divergent dates leading his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), which taken consecutively felt like two sides of the same coin. At the run’s close there was cake. There was a down dirty trounce through “Happy Birthday,” and there was even a roaring small-group encore of his 1983 banger “Knozz-Moe-King” that might have finally satiated anyone who bought tickets to hear the birt ..read more

Renowned American trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis believes the universal language of jazz can bridge divides with a common story of humanity. Marsalis has charted a decades-long career that has seen him win nine Grammys and tour the world with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The 62-year-old is a passionate educator, often emphasizing the power of jazz as a way to heal social and political woes. “The art of jazz is the art of achieving balance,” Marsalis said. “There’s nothing that the world needs more at this time than to be able to communicate differences of opinion,” he added. B ..read more

Grammy-winning composer and modern jazz pioneer Wynton Marsalis will celebrate his birthday on stage with a Hong Kong audience this week. “I have a good time wherever I go. It’s going to be significant to me because it’s my birthday, but only to me. It’s not significant to you, necessarily,” quips the US trumpeter, who will turn 63 on October 18. Marsalis is in Hong Kong as part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s 2024 East Asia tour – he and his band last performed in the city in 1998 – and will give two evening concerts, on October 17 and 18, at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Art ..read more

American jazz trumpet master Wynton Marsalis recently performed two concerts in Beijing with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, a renowned big band ensemble. One of the concerts featured an innovative piece titled Shanghai Suite. Since his debut in the 1980s, Wynton Marsalis has been a jazz legend for over three decades, earning nine Grammy Awards and becoming widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in American music. This suite, composed by Marsalis after his previous performance in Shanghai, reflects his unique perspective on the city. Divided into nine movements, it captur ..read more

Jazz offers an important lesson on the vital importance of civil discourse, according to jazz great Wynton Marsalis. “If I’m playing in a rhythm and you’re playing a totally different rhythm, we’re not going to agree,” said the acclaimed composer and musician last week at a campus event. “Not only are we not going to agree, we’re not going to sound good. And if we don’t have the same understanding of what we’re trying to do on the bandstand, we’re going to have hard time.” And, he said, when musicians agree less and less on what constitutes their common musical history, they lose the language ..read more

About halfway through the second act on Sunday night at Jazz at Lincoln Center, artistic director Wynton Marsalis told us about Hagar, an Old Testament figure who has a large role in African American religious tradition, and who inspired W.C. Handy’s classic standard of 1920, “Aunt Hagar’s Blues.” Over the course of more than 100 years, the composition’s best-loved vocal version is probably by trombonist and singer Jack Teagarden, who made it one of his signature songs. Then there’s Art Tatum’s version: He recorded a masterpiece solo piano performance in 1949 that, among other things, invented ..read more

LOUIS is a silent film, written and directed by Dan Pritzker and shot by Oscar®-winning cinematographer, the late Vilmos Zsigmond. Pre-eminent jazz musician, Wynton Marsalis and 19th century American composer, Louis Moreau Gottschalk provide the score. LOUIS pays homage to Louis Armstrong, Charlie Chaplin, beautiful women and the birth of jazz. The grand Storyville bordellos, alleys and cemeteries of 1907 New Orleans provide a backdrop of lust, blood and magic for 6-year-old Louis (Anthony Coleman) as he navigates the colorful intricacies of life in the city. Young Louis’s dream of playing the ..read more

On Friday, March 14, 2025, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jader Bignamini release a new recording of Pulitzer Prize and GRAMMY®-winning trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Wynton Marsalis’s epic Blues Symphony (2009) on PENTATONE. The seven-movement symphony was over a decade in the making and is now regarded as one of Marsalis’s most innovative and expansive compositions, representing the scope of America’s musical heritage. Movement V. “Big City Breaks” is now available as an Instant Gratification Track and Movement I. “Born in Hope” will be released on February 21, 2025 ..read more

Wynton Marsalis: Concert for Orchestra – world premiere by WRD Symphony Orchestra in Cologne Wynton Marsalis has always moved confidently between the musical worlds of jazz and classical music – as a trumpeter and as a composer. This is also evident in his Concerto for Orchestra, which he composed on commission from the WDR Symphony Orchestra. Cristian Măcelaru, who has been connected with the composer both musically and as a friend for many years, describes the work: “The idea for the Concerto for Orchestra arose from the many years of collaboration and the many conversations I have had with ..read more