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
As a jazz musician, you have individual power to create the sound. You also have a responsibility to function in the context… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't… — 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
Having heard Clifford Brown play all those fast runs, I used to really practice Clarke trumpet exercises all day long so that… — 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
Don't worry about what others say about your music. Pursue whatever you are hearing... but if everybody really hates your music maybe… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
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
Even if nobody's singing, just when you talk, you're singing. I'll meet somebody and say, "Oh, I'm tone-deaf." I say, "You're not… — 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
Music is the art of all the invisible things that are real. Art, emotion, spiritual essence, consciousness - these things are hard… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
The musicians, Duke Ellington, his thing was not about separating himself from the rest of America. Louis Armstrong - go to the… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
You don't try to duplicate certain things that other cats do, because you could never do it as well as they do.… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
The history of jazz lets us know that this period in our history is not the only period we've come through together.… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Jazz music is America's past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel,… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
“Music was just one of the tools we employed to create excitement. The jazzman’s objective, however, was solely musical: Through his improvisation,… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
I think that virtuosity is the first sign of morality in a musician. It means you're serious enough to practice. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
The first jazz musician was a trumpeter, Buddy Bolden, and the last will be a trumpeter, the archangel Gabriel. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
The reason why the music [jazz] is important is because it's an art form-an ancient art form-that takes in the mythology of… — 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
To say that the Afro American created jazz doesn't mean anything bad about Anglo Americans, and I always teach my younger jazz… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Jazz music celebrates life! Human life; the range of it, the absurdity of it, the ignorance of it, the greatness of it,… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Everything comes out in blues music: joy, pain, struggle. Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance. It's about a man and a woman.… — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
Certain music, jazz in particular, has the ability to make you a better citizen of the world. It helps you expand your… — 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
Louis Armstrong is jazz. He represents what the music is all about. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
Commercialism that has absolutely no relationship to quality whatsoever, only quantitative assessment of a thing. — Wynton Marsalis Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image