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Wynton was born 18 October 1961 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. As a native of New Orleans he has assimilated much of the city’s musical heritage into his style, emphasizing the trumpet playing of Lois Armstrong as well as the technique of his father Ellis (also a native of New Orleans). Wynton grew up in a very musical family. In addition to his father being an acclaimed jazz pianist he also has three siblings that are involved in music: Branford (saxophonist), Delfeayo (trombonist), and Jason (drummer). Throughout his adolescence he participated in various musical mediums such as church, jazz, and funk bands as well as various symphonies and orchestras.
Marsalis attended Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center and held the reputation as being the youngest student to be admitted into the school. On top of that he was also presented the Harvey Shapiro Award for his outstanding work as a brass instrumentalist.
In 1979 he was accepted into the prestigious Juilliard School of Music and shortly afterwards was awarded a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. His success only continued to blossom and just a brief time later he became protege to trumpet mastermind Woody Shaw. This was just one of the many legendary jazz figures with whom Marsalis worked. Others included Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, and Herbie Hancock.
Marsalis made his first recordings as a member of the Art Blakey Big Band. In 1981 he struck up a recording contract with Columbia and issued his 1st album as a group leader. A year later he developed a quintet featuring his brother Branford on sax. This line up eventually disintegrated in 1985 due to friction between the brothers. Branford left to to become a touring member of Sting’s band and Wynton continued cranking out multiple award winning classical and jazz albums.
The proceeding group Marsalis put together was an alternating septet consisting of Marcus Roberts (piano), Robert hurst (bass), Watts (drummer), Wycliffe Gordon (trombone), Wes Anderson (alto), Todd Williams (tenor), Reginald Veal (bass), Herlin Riley (drums), and Eric Reed (piano). This configuration lasted until 1995 and from time to time Marsalis still collaborates with several of these musicians.
By 1997 Marsalis became the first person to win a Pulitzer Prize for a jazz recording. The recording which was endowed with this lofty award was his 3 CD release “Blood on the Fields”. After this release Marsalis’ prestige as a jazz trumpeter continuously became ingrained in the public’s mind, despite many protests (ex. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and influential pianist Keith Jarrett).
Marsalis put out his first Blue Note recording, “The Magic Hour” in 2004 and after a string of other album releases issued his 2nd offering for Blue Note “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary” in 2007. A year later he unexpectedly released the joint effort “Two Men with the Blues” with country star, Willie Nelson. Marsalis has also teamed up with artists such as Norah Jones and Eric Clapton among countless others.
When Wynton Marsalis first picked up the trumpet at a young age there was no doubt that he was a musical prodigy. As a teenager he performed with the New Orleans Philharmonic and during his college years he was educated at Juliard where he honed his craft. Wynton Marsalis has come a long way since his beginnings and still continues to accomplish many feats through the blow of his trumpet. Wynton Marsalis is a well versed jazz musician having come from a very large musical family. His father Ellis Louis Marsallis, Jr. is a highly regarded jazz pianist who helped define the New Orleans Jazz style, so there is no question that some of his style influenced Wynton Marsalis’ technique. Every note that comes out of Wynton’s trumpet is loaded with emotions. The tone he gets is very warm and mellow, resonating with the audience in a serene way. His sound can be very energetic at times, creating tones that are similar from the swing jazz you would expect to hear in the roaring twenties. Wynton Marsalis’ music mainly consists of traditional sounding music, rather than experimentations into hard bop jazz or in depth improvisation. He seems to be a perfectionist and tends to stick to his musical script, but every note he plays is presented exactly how it should be presented. He often tours with a very talented backing band, consisting of members who play the upright bass, trombone, drums, and saxophone, which gives him the appropriate instrumentation to play Swing music.
Wynton Marsalis has made a huge impact on jazz music. He has been awarded nine Grammys for his work and is one of the only artists to win a Grammy for both Jazz and Classical music. His skills as a musician have been respected by many fellow musicians and he has shared the stage with many great performers such as Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, and Dizzy Gillespie. His setlist is usually a diverse mix of songs consisting of some of his originals as well as some covers of such traditional jazz standards and some rock and roll covers like “Layla” from Derek and the Dominos. Wynton Marsalis has truly proven himself a master at his craft and seeing him live will clearly convey his talent.
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