Wynton Marsalis and Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra eager for Columbia return

Everyone seems to know Wynton Marsalis. 

The Grammys know Marsalis, and have called his name nine times. 

So does the Pulitzer Prize committee, which honored his "Blood on the Fields," a piece of music focused on stories of slavery and liberation, in 1997.

Barack Obama knows Marsalis, handing him a National Humanities Medal in 2015. Fred Rogers knew him too, inviting Marsalis to the neighborhood way back in 1986.

Even folks who aren't into jazz know the trumpet-playing ambassador, meeting him through classroom curriculum, his work in the classical realm, features he created for CBS News or the Emmy-winning short film that honored his hometown team, the New Orleans Saints, and their 2010 Super Bowl win.

When so many people know you, who you know — and who you want to work alongside — matters more. For Marsalis, that list includes Columbia, a city he's been visiting for nearly 35 years, and a concert series he knows intimately.

He will return to the "We Always Swing" Jazz Series on Wednesday, playing the Missouri Theatre with Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra. 

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Marsalis owns a long history with Columbia

Marsalis first visited Columbia in 1987, while still in his mid-20s, according to the Jazz Series website. He led a quartet date, then returned relatively soon after as part of Art Blakey's iconic Jazz Messengers band.

His most recent visit to the Jazz Series, which established itself in 1995, came with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in December 2016. In a conversation with the Tribune, Marsalis said cities with this much personal and musical history come to feel like an "extended family."

He offered warm praise for the "dedication" and "aspirations" of Jazz Series executive director and Tribune columnist Jon Poses. The quality of his work "speaks for itself," the trumpeter said.

"Presenters create the feeling of community — and he’s always about that," Marsalis said of Poses. "And about quality. And the quality of your audience speaks to the quality of your curation." 

Marsalis knows more than a thing or two about laying the creative cement in which institutions become strong and sound. Jazz at Lincoln Center emerged from the great New York City cultural hub in 1987, the same year Marsalis first swung through mid-Missouri.

He co-founded the program and, as artistic director for its entire life cycle so far, has grown it in a variety of directions. Among the achievements listed on the Jazz at Lincoln Center website: a reach of approximately 2 million people through in-person and online concerts, education initiatives and more; nearly 150,000 students of its recent programs; and concerts radiating from New York City to 41 countries.

Marsalis himself is an American institution, and staying nimble means remaining a lifelong learner. In a recent Q&A with SFJazz, he identified some of his musical teachers as well as the influence of writers such as Albert Murray, Stanley Crouch and Ralph Ellison.

The "level of conversation" was high anytime Marsalis was in the company of these artists, he told the Tribune. They shared history he didn't know, talked about art and music in terms he'd never used, and called on him to consider what William Faulkner, Jackson Pollock or ancient mythology might have to do with modern jazz.

Years later, Marsalis still clearly relishes the way a writer like Ellison discussed decades-old Count Basie gigs, as if he'd just played "last night." These thinkers taught him "how much reality" needed to come to bear on his music "to animate it in a present time," he said. 

Just one of the band

Marsalis might be the name that lights up marquees coast to coast, but he doesn't feel possessive over Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra or see it as his band. This coming week, he will be "holding forth in the back row" as part of the orchestra's trumpet section, the Jazz Series notes.

This is a band full of leaders and writers, Marsalis said, estimating the group has produced 1,200 original arrangements over the last 10 to 15 years. Each arranger with the band calls upon the others to help them get unstuck or shape a few measures through their unique expertise, he said.

"I learned a whole world of music just playing with them," Marsalis added. 

Before heading out on this tour, Marsalis — ever in tune with jazz history and the given moment — knew 2022 audiences needed a particularly personal touch. He asked each member of the group to select the three to five arrangements that meant most to them. The band spins through that ledger when building a setlist each night. 

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This iteration of the orchestra features musicians ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s, Marsalis said. And the 15-piece ensemble features world-class players like reed masters Ted Nash and Sherman Irby and a rhythm section comprised of pianist Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Obed Calvaire.

The band underlines the perpetual truth that no two nights on the bandstand will sound alike. 

"Every night somebody shocks you," Marsalis said.

And that sense of surprise swelling up within the band translates into satisfaction for audiences hungry to leave the house and feel something. 

"Everybody’s happy to just be not at home, be around other people. Listening can be a sacred activity, if you’re sitting in community," Marsalis said.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will animate their music in a present time, performing at 7 p.m. Wednesday; tickets range from $20 to $60. Visit https://www.wealwaysswing.org/ for details. 

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731.