Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201240404
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY CAMPBELL
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
THE JAZZ PLAYER
Wynton Marsalis, the most visible, famous and probably the most important jazz musician of the younger generation, builds on tradition."The achievements of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong are not to be run from," says the 30-year-old trumpeter-composer. "You will do something different because you're not them. In jazz improvising, at every moment you're addressing music that never existed in the world.
"I want to lay out enough fundamental material so I can develop for 40 or 50 years - like what Duke Ellington did.
"Already we're making the most modern statement. It is not recognized by the jazz media. It is acknowledged by the public."
Author-critic Gary Giddins, reviewing Marsalis' recent three albums based on standard tunes, says Marsalis' traditionalism "may have robbed jazz of some of its wanton pleasures."
"I play, the main thing, with a certain type of tonal purity," Marsalis says. "My conception of a soulful quality of the music is in the purity of the sound of it."
Giddins isn't crazy about that, either, referring to Marsalis' "self-consciously exquisite sound."
Marsalis is a jazz musician who's willing to talk about his art, so he's often written about. He's credited with increasing the jazz audience and being a positive role model. But he doesn't 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 says. "I love to play. I don't feel like I'm the leader of the generation."
In fact, Marsalis doesn't always see himself as the leader of his seven-piece band.
"Whoever is playing the most music becomes the leader at that moment," he says. "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're smoking me off the bandstand. I actually like that."
The trumpeter walks around the living room of his apartment near Lincoln Center, high over the Hudson 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 Marsalis says represents 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's a grand piano, an ironing board, a short couch, a coffee table, an antique gramophone, a modern dresser and liberal scatterings of music score paper and CDs.
Marsalis wrote the ballet score for Garth Fagan's modern dance company, while on tour last fall. He's 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 says. " `Can you come to this festival?' `Yes, man, I'll be there. When is it?' `Can you read this book I wrote?' `I'll read 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 don't like telling 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, father Ellis a pianist, brothers Branford, Jason and Delfeayo playing saxophone, drums and producing records. Branford is replacing Doc Severinsen as leader of the band when Jay Leno assumes full-time host duties on "The Tonight Show." Wynton attended the Juilliard School. He chooses to record classical music but not concertize.
And he's 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 says. "It's a group music. It's not like they're a back-up band. Their voices are as important as mine in the creation of the music. I'd be in a world of trouble without them. It is hard to be on the road, but it's a lot of fun if you're with the right musicians."
In 1991, Marsalis played more than 200 concerts. A resolution for '92 is having more time. "I'm not complaining," he says. "I thank the Creator. I feel fortunate to have the chance to play this music. A lot of musicians practice and they don't get heard."
Marsalis' most recent albums were three treatments of blues. Next, he says, "I'm going to construct funk grooves that have a relation to jazz music. It's 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 says, 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.
"I liked to have a good time," he says. "If I could play I did. We had a funk band. We would be playing concerts and hanging out. I didn't understand what jazz was. My father? You're 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 didn't want to be listening. We'd go play street football."
As for the instrument he uses, Marsalis says, "I like a horn that's heavy. It doesn't 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 can't change that by buying a horn or getting a different mouthpiece."
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