Wynton Marsalis

(b. 1961)

Trumpet virtuoso, composer, and the most prominent advocate for jazz as a serious American art form of the past half-century. Artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center since its founding. In 1997 he became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields. He has won nine Grammy Awards across jazz and classical categories — he recorded both simultaneously early in his career, an almost unprecedented feat.

Connection

Herbert reaches Wynton Marsalis through Frank Barrett, who is himself a jazz pianist. (How Frank knows Wynton: to be filled in.)

Cross-Connections

• Ellis Marsalis – father and formative musical mentor
• Branford Marsalis – brother; the two have collaborated and occasionally sparred over jazz's direction