Wynton Marsalis: Jazz Is More Than Music

Wynton Marsalis is not one to blow his own horn, but he doesn’t hold anything back when he champions the art form of jazz.

The Grammy Award-winning trumpeter is determined to be the standard bearer for the traditional sound.

“I’m not trying to put down other styles of music. People should check out all of it,” he said, backstage in DeVos Hall Thursday night. “But jazz is the only true music of America.”

The Wynton Marsalis Quintet presented a strong argument for upholding the old guard by giving a dynamic show that lasted an hour and 15-minutes, often earning spontaneous applause from the crowd of about 1,300.

“I didn’t even know we had jazz fans in Grand Rapids,” Marsalis told his audience. “We hope you’ll continue to support jazz – what little bit is left of it.”

Marsalis, with Grammy award-winning recordings in both jazz and classical, doesn’t believe that the musical form has to die along with artists like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Fats Navarro.

Calling jazz “the most misunderstood art form,” he realizes it’s not likely to ever become very popular.

“That’s just the way society is,” he said. “In America, we try hard not to appreciate art. We call art elitist. So in its place we adopt pop culture. We live a life of fads. It’s the same reason why people don’t listen to symphonic music anymore.”

Marsalis admitted that some people in Thursday’s audience might have had difficulty grasping a full appreciation of his music.

“People don’t understand jazz, but they have to realize they don’t have to understand it to like it,” he said. “Just listen to the textures and the sound of the music.

“Man, we don’t even understand it sometimes and we’ve been studying it practically all our lives.”

If traditional jazz is on the way out, Marsalis thinks it’s the musicians themselves who are to blame. More and more acts, he contends, are adopting pop standards for the sake of commercialism.

“It would be the same if Beethoven, Mozart and Hadyn had decided they could earn more money making Muzak than classical music,” he said.

Although he enjoys pop music, he says he can’t really take it seriously. Too much of it, he insists, dwells on mindless, sexual pursuits.

“Something can only be great and only have a profound effect if it has just as much mind as soul,” he said. “The message we’re bringing is totally different. It’s based n realism, not escapism.

“I want to create music that makes a lasting impact, not be a hit today and gone tomorrow.”

Thursday’s concert was opened by Fast Tracks, a talented quartet that played a fusion of bebop, reggae, funk and rock, which won quite a few new fans for the Ann Arbor-based band.

Marsalis, dressed in a stylish suit, opened his show with one of his own compositions, “Knozz-Moe-King,” a bravura dash of brass. He followed it with the cool sophistication of compositions by Wayne Shorter and George Gershwin.

Perhaps the best tune of the night, though, was the standard, “Lazy Afternoon,” a ballad that breathed grace and beauty in its quiet, passionate articulations.

Backed ably by a fine outfit that included brother Branford, on tenor and soprano saxes, pianist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Charles Fambrough and drummer Jeff Watts, Marsalis colored his playing with remarkable restraint, allowing dramatic shifts in volume and tempo changes to occasionally mark the phrasing.

The tune, “Lazy Afternoon,” is one of several ballads included on Marsalis’ next jazz album to be released in September. It will also include such standards as “When You Wish Upon A Star,” “Stardust” and “I’m Confessin.”

“The arrangements will have strings, but it’s not corny-sounding,” he said. “We didn’t do it to have them crossover onto easy-listening radio stations.”

He’s also finished another classical album, this one featuring music from the baroque period.

But for Marsalis, jazz will always remain his first love. Aspiring to follow in the footsteps of the greatest, though, has its inherent pressure.

“I think that’s what scares people about jazz,” he says. “There’s been so many great musicians. Me, I didn’t think these cats were human.”

Still only 22 years old, Marsalis gives the impression on stage that playing jazz came easily for him.

“Nothing comes easy,” he said. “World class sprinters aren’t born. They may have the aptitude, but they still have to develop it into speed. If I’m not still learning, then I should be doing something else.”

No accolades will ever convince Marsalis to rest on his laurels.

“All I have to do is to put on a Louis Armstrong record and I’ll know that I won’t ever be that good,” he said.

Originally published July 13, 1984.