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Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis Quotes

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Famous Wynton Marsalis Quotes

“I noticed that religion gave some people a way to escape dealing with the world: “Things will be better when you die,” the people of my grandma’s generation said as they worked themselves to death. “God wants you to forgive and love those who do you wrong,” some people said to shake off the shame of being unable to respond to the abuse they endured. The holier-than-thou faction found comfort in believing, “The rest of y’all are lost because you don’t have a personal relationship with God—our God.” But art engages you in the world, not just the world around you but the big world, and not just the big world of Tokyo and Sydney and Johannesburg, but the bigger world of ideas and concepts and feelings of history and humanity.”

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Book:Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life
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“It's really not a stretch. The checks and balances are the same. The drums are the executive branch. The jazz orchestra is the legislative branch. Logic and reason are like jazz solos. The bass player is the judicial branch. One our greatest ever is Milt Hinton, and his nickname is "The Judge."”

ReasonPlayerJudgingBalanceLogicJazzChecksBranchesExecutivesSoloOrchestraBassJudicialNicknamesBass PlayersExecutive BranchLegislative BranchJudicial Branch
Author:Wynton Marsalis
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“When I came to New York, to Brooklyn, I met Alvin Ailey and Stanley Crouch and August Wilson. They were always putting things in a philosophical context. All the great jazz musicians did, too. There was always a sub-context to what they were saying about music even though they would be very down home and earthy. So I started to develop, in addition to my power and ability to simply hear, a way to place myself in a time.”

WayHomeWould BeAbilityNew YorkMetsMusicianPhilosophicalJazzJazz MusicBrooklynAugustWilsonStanleyJazz Musician
Author:Wynton Marsalis
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“I worry more about the marketing that's taken hold since the 70s. The Jazz era, the Swing era, those were huge. Entire decades were named for music. In the 1940s - after World War II - changes in taxation, ballrooms closing, people moving to the suburbs, and the onset of target marketing and the confusion of commerce with art caused some things to happen as a result that have taken us away from jazz and what jazz offers us.”

PeopleWorldArtWarHappensMovingResultsWorryTakenHugeOffersJazzMarketingDecadesConfusionErasWar Of The WorldsTargetWorld War IiSwingsWorld War ICommerceTaxationClosingSuburbsBallroom
Author:Wynton Marsalis
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“Jazz celebrates older generations and not just the youth movement. When you "sell" only to people of a certain age, you get cut off from the main body of experience. The power of couple dancing and courtship, it's elegant, and you wouldn't realize America was once a nation of dancers and singers today. People of all races could dance and sing.”

PeopleBodyAgeTodayAmericaCertainNationsRealizingRaceCuttingGenerationsMovementYouthCoupleSellsDancingJazzSingersCelebrateDancerElegantCourtshipOlder Generation
Author:Wynton Marsalis
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“My father was a teacher, my mama was a community worker, I taught in so many schools. So when you get that experience of how to communicate with younger people, put that hand on them and give them that old-school feeling, the maturity and adult, a lot of our kids just need the feeling of that love, and that's the frame of reference that I teach from and that's the frame of reference that all of our musicians in the Jazz at Lincoln Center.”

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Author:Wynton Marsalis
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“He [Benny Carter] is all that every jazz musician the world over wants to be. He's performed 20,000 nights. How many shoes have been shined? How much mascara put on? Rouge? How many of those impossible bowties have been tied? How many love songs have been sung? How many dances have been danced? How many have passed to the sound of his music? It's been said that a man should not be forced to live up to his art. Benny Carter is one of the rare instances when we wonder whether the great art that a man has created can live up to him.”

MenWorldWantShouldHas BeensArtSaidNightSongSoundWonderImpossibleMusicianArt IsJazzShoesInstanceTiedGreat ArtJazz MusicCarterJazz MusicianMascaraRouge
Author:Wynton Marsalis
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“Jazz music is America's past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel, and understand it. The music can connect us to our earlier selves and to our better selves-to-come. It can remind us of where we fit on the time line of human achievement, an ultimate value of art.”

FeelsHumansArtSelfAmericaPastValuesLinesFitAchievementMusic IsUltimateJazzJazz MusicPlaying Jazz
Book:Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life
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“It's harder to build than destroy. To build is to engage and change. In jazz, we call progressing harmonies changes. Changes are like obstacles on a speed course. They demand your attention and require you to be present. They are coming...they are here..... and then they are gone. It's how life comes. Each moment is a procession from the future into the past and the sweet spot is always the present. Live in that sweet spot. Be present.”

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Author:Wynton Marsalis
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“How great musicians demonstrate a mutual respect and trust on the bandstand can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your life, understanding what it means to be a global citizen in the most modern sense.”

WorldMeanUnderstandingMusicModernCitizensMusicianAspectJazzMusicalMutualOutlookGreat MusicGlobal CitizenMutual RespectGreat MusicianTrust And Respect
Book:Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life
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“As long as there is democracy, there will be people wanting to play jazz because nothing else will ever so perfectly capture the democratic process in sound. Jazz means working things out musically with other people. You have to listen to other musicians and play with them even if you don't agree with what they're playing. It teaches you the very opposite of racism and anti-Semitism. It teaches you that the world is big enough to accommodate us all.”

PeopleIfsWorldMeanLongEnoughPlayBigsProcessSoundTeachDemocracyMusicianRacismOppositesAgreeJazzDemocraticCaptureAccommodateAnti SemitismDemocratic ProcessWorking Things
Author:Wynton Marsalis
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“New Orleans had a great tradition of celebration. Opera, military marching bands, folk music, the blues, different types of church music, ragtime, echoes of traditional African drumming, and all of the dance styles that went with this music could be heard and seen throughout the city. When all of these kinds of music blended into one, jazz was born.”

KindDifferentBornChurchCitiesHeardMilitaryStyleTypeBandTraditionJazzFolksTraditionalCelebrationOperaEchoesNew OrleansFolk MusicDrummingMarching BandRagtimeChurch Music
Author:Wynton Marsalis
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