Wynton Marsalis on how jazz connects democracy and liberation

Winton Marsalis made history the same year when he became the first musician to win a Grammy Award in Classical and Jazz. He talks to BBC’s Katty Kay about his unique connection to the liberation of jazz and how his father and music shaped his approach.

Legendary musician Wynton Marsalis is not a man who doesn’t know what history is making. But he also reflects history as he brings a unique blend of classical and jazz to his viewers everywhere.

The exterior of It will affect Katty KayMarsalis shares that every time he plays, he understands that he is leading his family legacy into the spotlight along with him. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, the 63-year-old star was surrounded by performers from the start. His father, Ellis Marsalis Jr., was a jazz pianist and his mother, Dolores Marsalis, a singer.

“I didn’t want to be famous. I wanted to learn how to play. My standard was all the musicians my dad and I grew up with respect and loving,” Marsalis tells Kay during the time of showing off his trumpet and playing her several bars. His humility has a sense of humor in his signature. He tells Kay that he doesn’t want to play the instrument that makes him famous at first. “I didn’t want to play the trumpet because I didn’t want to get that ring around my lips. I thought the girl wouldn’t kiss you.”

As the first and only musician to win a Grammy Award in the classical and jazz categories in the same year, Marsalis is open about how to jump across genres and create truth for herself. He celebrates his growing up in the American South and his unique blend while witnessing firsthand the separation and change.

After starting to take music more seriously at the age of 12, he became the only black musician at the Civic Orchestra in New Orleans, performing at the New Orleans Philharmonic. Its early success was jarring to anyone who saw his father struggling. He played at the biggest stages of his hometown, but Marsalis wasn’t sure he had the chops to compete with professional musicians in the wider field.

“Did I have to take a step back and readjust like what I could do? Will I actually be enough to play jazz? That’s what I want to play. I wanted to be a jazz musician, but there were very few people who played the type of jazz I wanted to play,” says Marsalis.

When Marsalis joined Juilliard, the prestigious 17-year-old New York City music school, he was surrounded by an entirely new group of performers and introduced a new style of music. When he found his footing in the music scene, he also found a passion for social justice. He points out that, frankly, it seemed to come as naturally as a trumpet.

“I grew up in quarantine and was shaped by the need to integrate into a school that wasn’t necessarily wanted. You didn’t want it,” he says. “I was a postkill right, so I was talking about things people wouldn’t talk about, and I was also very serious about those.”

He then shifted his focus from classical music to jazz before signing a deal with Columbia Records. This is thanks to tours with Herbie Hancock and the Art Blakey Band from Europe. Through it he felt jazzy in everything he had experienced. Touring rather than formal education is to show him that his musical style and performance is important.

“Anything that has harmonic progression and melody can be heard of jazz,” he says.

Marsalis points out that unlike other genres, jazz makes performers work together without dominating a single voice. Instead of stealing the spotlight, jazz musicians need to find balance.

“Sometimes, you don’t like what people are doing because you don’t understand what they are doing. Sometimes you don’t like what they are doing because you want to control everything that’s going on. That’s not our music. We’re playing together,” he says.

This is also the sloop line he sees between jazz and social justice. When everyone commits to a common cause, whether it is their racial equality or musical harmony, they exclude the ego from the equation.

“Our music is serious because it frees people. But it’s very difficult to learn how to play and play well because you need to balance with someone else. That’s what I want to be,” he says.

Looking back at what he is doing to help the musician follow in his celebratory footsteps, Marsalis is simple about his approach. He wants to be the person he wanted when he rose to rank.

“I try not to make the mistakes that all musicians feel they’ve made towards me,” he says of mentoring others. Jazz, Marsalis is not one place for promotion.

“Jaz is the opposite. We raise you up. Let me share my space with you. Keep quiet and let me talk. Leave space for your soul,” he says.