Wynton Marsalis was
born into a musical family in one of the most musical cities in
the world, New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. Like Louis Armstrong,
another New Orleans native, Marsalis has put his own unique stamp
on jazz as we know it.
As a teenager in the 1970s Marsalis joined Art Blakey’s
Jazz Messengers before launching a successful career as a soloist
and band leader in the 1980s. Seen then as one of the “young
lions” of jazz, he was also credited with helping jazz rediscover
its roots.
Considered a major musical educator, Marsalis is also the director
of jazz at New York City’s Lincoln Center and made history
in 1997 when he became the first jazz musician to win a Pulitzer
Prize for his composition “Blood on the Fields”.
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