University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, January 15, 1992
11B
Traditional jazz is foundation for Wynton Marsalis' music
Trumpeter models himself after the old greats
The Associated Press
"The achievements of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong are not to be run from," said the 30-year-old trumpet-p composer. "You will do something different because you are not them. In jazz improvising, at every moment you are addressing music that never existed in the world.
NEW VORK — Wynton Marsalis, the most visible, famous and probably the most important jazz musician of the younger generation, builds on tradition.
"I want to lay out enough fundamental material so it can develop for 40 or 50 years."
"Already we are making the most modern statenent. It is not recognized by the jazz media. It is acknowledged by the public."
Author-critic Gary Giddins reviewed Marsalis's recent three albums based on standard tunes. He said Marsalis' traditionalism "may have robbed jazz of some of its wanton pleasures."
Marsalis said: "I play, the main thing, with a certain type of tonal purity. My conception of a souful quality music is in the purity of the sound of the
Giddins is not crazy about that either, referring to Marsalis' 'self-consciously exquisite sound.'
ly I c o s e s t l f y e s z
Marsalis is a jazz musician who is willing to talk about his art, so he is written about often. He is credited with increasing the jazz audience and being a positive role model. But he does not see himself as the leader of the jazz players of his generation. He sees them following their own pathways.
"In art, everybody has a different perspective," he said. "I love to play. I do not feel like I am the leader of the generation."
Infact, Marsalisdoes not always see himself as the leader of his seven-piece band.
"Whoever is playing the most music becomes the leader at that moment," he said. "I know when I come to work I better play or it might be alto-saxophonist Wes Anderson's band that night. Sometimes it goes days with it being his band. Those nights they are smoking me off the bandstand. I actually like that."
The trumpeter walks around the living room of his apartment near Lin... Center, high over the Hudson
“
The achievements of Duke Ellington and Louis
Armstrong are not to be run from."
Wynton Marsalis musician
River. On the white walls are a painting of Louis Armstrong, a painting of a dancer strutting from the bell of a trumpeter's instrument and a Romare Bearden collage, which Marsali said represented aspects of modern living — "romance, insularity, spiritual, intellectual complexity, simplicity, different grooves."
A copyist at a small round table works on Marsalis' first ballet score. There is a grand piano, an ironing board, a short couch, a coffee table, an antique gramophone, a modern dresser and scatterings of music score paper and compact discs.
Marsalis wrote the ballet score, which is for Garth Fagan's modern dance company, while on tour last fall. He is artistic director of jazz at Lincoln Center, which has an August festival and year-round programming. His biggest problem in 1991 was time.
"I overscheduled myself," he said.
"Can you come to this festival?" Yes, man. I'll be there. When is it? "Can you read this book I wrote?" I'll读 it. "Can you come talk to my students?" I'll be there. "Can you write some music?" I'll write a couple of tunes. Whatever it is.
"I guess I do not tellting people no. I like to be part of a lot of different stuff. I always go to a club after a gig, no matter how tired I am, and sit in with the guys."
Marsalis came from a New Orleans family of musicians. His father, Ellis, is a pianist; brothers Branford, Jason and Delleayo play saxophone, drums and produce records. Branford will replace Doc Severinsen as leader of
the band on "The Tonight Show." Wynton attended the Juilliard School. He chose to record classical music.
And he is known for his seriousness and dignified image. The band is ready on time. The music and the suits are sharp. No nodding out on booze or drugs.
"I get a lot of publicity, but they do a lot of work," he said. "It is a group music. It is not like they are a back-up band. Their voices are as important as mine in the creation of the music. I would be in a world of trouble without them. It is hard to be on the road but it is a lot of fun if you are with the right musicians."
In 1991, Marsalis played more than 200 concerts. One of his resolutions for 1992 is to have more time. "I am not complaining," he said. "I thank the Creator. I feel fortunate to have the chance to play this music. A lot of musicians practice and they do not get heard."
Marsali's most recent albums were three treatments of blues. Next, he said, "I am going to construct funk grooves that have a relation to jazz music. It is a combination of improvised and dance music. I feel jazz is at its greatest in the dance hall, not in the concert hall."
When he was a kid, he said, he was influenced mainly by Miles Davis, and to some extent by John Coltrane, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, his father and other New Orleans musicians.
"Iliked to have a good time," he said.
"If I could play, I did. We had a fun band. We would be playing concerts and hanging out. I did not understand what jazz was. My father? You are not that involved in your parents' agenda except in passing. He and older musicians would have intellectual conversations. They would try to inject us into this. Branford and I would say, 'Let's go.' We did not want to be listening. We would go play street football."
As for the instrument he uses, Marsalis said, "I like a horn that is heavy. It does not change your sound. I like the feel of a trumpet in my hands. I like to feel something with some weight on it.
"Ultimately, you blow your personality through the horn. You cannot change that by buying a horn or getting a different mouthpiece."
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