Wynton Marsalis

I never minded giving my opinions. They are just opinions, and I had studied music and I had strong feelings. I was…

— Wynton Marsalis

I always read all these books about the slaves. My mother is very educated. My father would talk to us like we…

— Wynton Marsalis

“The best musicians know this music isn't about "schools" at all. Like my father says, "There's only one school, the school of…

— Wynton Marsalis

Louis Armstrong is jazz. He represents what the music is all about.

— Wynton Marsalis

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…

— Wynton Marsalis

Ethics are more important than laws.

— Wynton Marsalis

I'm not a person who writes really abstract things with oblique references. I look at abstraction like I look at condiments. Give…

— Wynton Marsalis

Many a revolution started with the actions of a few. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. A few hanging together…

— Wynton Marsalis

“Today you go into make a modern recording with all this technology. The bass plays first, then the drums come in later,…

— Wynton Marsalis

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

Commercialism that has absolutely no relationship to quality whatsoever, only quantitative assessment of a thing.

— Wynton Marsalis

Instead of imposing your will on every situation...focus on including everyone else, and just that little adjustment of attitude gives you the…

— Wynton Marsalis

I'm not afraid of you being yourself. That's America.

— Wynton Marsalis

“I noticed that religion gave some people a way to escape dealing with the world: “Things will be better when you die,”…

— Wynton Marsalis

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

I dress up a certain way because I respect the music.

— Wynton Marsalis

There's always the cliche of the choir shouting and clapping. OK, you have to do that, but there's also introspective parts, parts…

— Wynton Marsalis

A musician's whole life is to listen.

— Wynton Marsalis

I hope it might help players have confidence in our own ways, and not to be afraid of them, as Bernstein showed…

— Wynton Marsalis

Music is always for the listener, but the first listener is always the musician

— Wynton Marsalis

The arts speak across epochs. If you think that people started to build a cathedral in 1315 and the people worked on…

— Wynton Marsalis

Duke Ellington always had a style: original, clean with interesting color combinations. He had an artist's eye.

— Wynton Marsalis

Jazz music celebrates life! Human life; the range of it, the absurdity of it, the ignorance of it, the greatness of it,…

— Wynton Marsalis

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

When I first came to New York everybody on the scene would treat me like I could play, but I couldn't.

— Wynton Marsalis