The real power of Jazz is that a group of people can come together and create improvised art and negotiate their agendas...… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
In the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra we play such a diversity of music, with 10 arrangers in the band, we don't… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
There's the tradition in jazz of having the Battle of the Bands, and you do not want to get your head cut… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
I had to figure out how to survive in New York, and most of my time was occupied in getting an apartment… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
When I was 12, I began listening to John Coltrane and I developed a love for jazz, which I still have more… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Grace Kelly plays with intelligence, wit and feeling. She has a great amount of natural ability and the ability to adapt. That… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
The black hole in democracy is integrity. The great unspoken is integrity. When integrity is not first and foremost, it's quite palpable… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
It's really not a stretch. The checks and balances are the same. The drums are the executive branch. The jazz orchestra is… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Benny Goodman's band was integrated before baseball. Even before it was physically integrated, music was integrated. Everyone listened to Armstrong and Ellington.… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Jazz celebrates older generations and not just the youth movement. When you "sell" only to people of a certain age, you get… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
We created the spirituals. We created so much great music, jazz chief amongst our innovations, teaching us how to prize ourselves and… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
One thing about excellence, it&Mac226;s an exclusive club. And it&Mac226;s only for those who really want to pay dues to the s--.… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
But you listen to Coltrane and that's something human, something that's about elevation. It's like making love to a woman. It's about… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12-bar form that's played by jazz,… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
“And the thing about jazz, through all the business involved in practicing and improvement, it's always sweet: the improvement that you notice… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
When I came to New York, to Brooklyn, I met Alvin Ailey and Stanley Crouch and August Wilson. They were always putting… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Jazz is not just 'Well, man, this is what I feel like playing.' It's a very structured thing that comes down from… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Flexibility is an essential part of Jazz. It's what gives Jazz music the ability to combine with all other types of music… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Musicians like to converse. There's always interesting conversation with musicians - with classical musicians, with jazz musicians, musicians in general. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Jazz music is the power of now. There is no script. It's conversation. The emotion is given to you by musicians as… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Jazz comes from our way of life, and because it's our national art form, it helps us to understand who we are. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
New Orleans had a great tradition of celebration. Opera, military marching bands, folk music, the blues, different types of church music, ragtime,… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
My father is a jazz musician, so I grew up hearing jazz. My parents loved it, but I didn't like it. It… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
If you didn't have the amalgam of Blacks and African-type sensibility and European sensibility, you wouldn't have jazz. Even in the negative… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
People have taken time out of their day and spent their money to come sit down at a concert. And it's jazz… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
I never minded giving my opinions. They are just opinions, and I had studied music and I had strong feelings. I was happy for… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
I always read all these books about the slaves. My mother is very educated. My father would talk to us like we were grown… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
“The best musicians know this music isn't about "schools" at all. Like my father says, "There's only one school, the school of 'Can you… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
And that's the soulful thing about playing: you offer something to somebody. You don't know if they'll like it, but you offer it. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
I'm not a person who writes really abstract things with oblique references. I look at abstraction like I look at condiments. Give me some… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
Many a revolution started with the actions of a few. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. A few hanging together can lead… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
“Today you go into make a modern recording with all this technology. The bass plays first, then the drums come in later, then they… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
In the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra we play such a diversity of music, with 10 arrangers in the band, we don't really worry… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
Commercialism that has absolutely no relationship to quality whatsoever, only quantitative assessment of a thing. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
Instead of imposing your will on every situation...focus on including everyone else, and just that little adjustment of attitude gives you the space to… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
“I noticed that religion gave some people a way to escape dealing with the world: “Things will be better when you die,” the people… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
Trumpet players see each other, and it's like we're getting ready to square off or get into a fight or something. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share
