Good advice: Learning English is like jazz

Wynton Marsalis brings his jazz mastery to North Jersey
Monday, March 16, 2009
BY ALFA GARCIA
NorthJersey.com
Staff Writer



For Wynton Marsalis, improvising jazz is just as good as speaking English. At New York University’s commencement ceremony in 2007, the trumpet virtuoso’s keynote address was a 10-minute impromptu number that brought the crowd to a raucous standing ovation. After the final note, he simply bowed and returned to his seat.


During the last 10 minutes of an interview, he bent over a piano in a hotel room in Minneapolis, wedged a cellphone between his jaw and shoulder and started playing a pared-down version of Robert Johnson’s blues tune “Come on in My Kitchen” while imparting some choice lessons on improvisation.


“It’s exactly like learning how to speak English,” said the New Orleans native. “You hear somebody else talk, and at first, you’ll hesitate. Then [you speak] broken words, then phrases, then sentences. But first you have to listen to people doing it on instinct.” Now his playing began to differ from the melody, complex chords and a bright rhythm taking over.


To press his point, he set the phone down, picked up his trumpet and played “Little Liza Jane,” a two-chord American traditional with a simple melody. Before long, he had layered harmonies on a swing version of the tune and breezed through a “fiddle” version with elongated notes before closing with a staccato bebop rendition of the same progression. Oh yes – we bet improvisation is just that easy.


“You can’t get frustrated with yourself,” he said between excerpts. “Don’t think that it’s something you’re going to learn overnight.”These words from a man who started his career at 14 playing solo with the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra, and who, at 18, ditched two years of classical study at Juilliard to play jazz with Art Blakey.


Now 47, Marsalis is the artistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center and the musical director for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the 15-piece resident big band whose members vary in age and experience.


Some are veterans of the jazz scene, like sax/clarinet player Joe Temperley, who played in the bands of Woody Herman and Humphrey Lyttelton, while most of the younger members Marsalis has known since they were in high school.


“We challenge each other with our arrangements so we write really difficult, kind of virtuosic arrangements for these gigs,” Marsalis said. “We kind of mess with each other.”


JLCO is on tour with a repertoire as diverse as its nationwide audience. Thrown in are Thelonious Monk’s compositions, nursery rhymes, classic tunes from Blue Note Records and some of Marsalis’ originals and arrangements. On occasion, excerpts from Marsalis’ upcoming album, “He & She” (to be released March 24), make their way into the set.


“We do a wide range that encompasses all the history of jazz, from really, really modern to classics that everybody might know,” Marsalis said.


More important, the tour, which makes two North Jersey stops, brings “all different types of people” into the jazz fold, even some who are just getting into the sound. “Musicians will come and have been longtime fans of the music, some people are just getting into the music. Some people are interested in bringing people that have never been to a concert,” he said.
In this sense the tour has so far been successful. Marsalis believes that jazz should be as accessible in American “cultural consciousness” as the English language and just as relevant in matters of self-identity.


“If you come to this country and you want to participate in its culture, you should come from jazz,” he said. “It allows you to understand the country and the history of the country.
“It’s a blueprint for coming together.” E-mail: garciaa@northjersey.com

For Wynton Marsalis, improvising jazz is just as good as speaking English. At New York University’s commencement ceremony in 2007, the trumpet virtuoso’s keynote address was a 10-minute impromptu number that brought the crowd to a raucous standing ovation. After the final note, he simply bowed and returned to his seat.


Wynton Marsalis: “If you come to this country and you want to participate in its culture, you should come from jazz."


During the last 10 minutes of an interview, he bent over a piano in a hotel room in Minneapolis, wedged a cellphone between his jaw and shoulder and started playing a pared-down version of Robert Johnson’s blues tune “Come on in My Kitchen” while imparting some choice lessons on improvisation.


“It’s exactly like learning how to speak English,” said the New Orleans native. “You hear somebody else talk, and at first, you’ll hesitate. Then [you speak] broken words, then phrases, then sentences. But first you have to listen to people doing it on instinct.” Now his playing began to differ from the melody, complex chords and a bright rhythm taking over.


To press his point, he set the phone down, picked up his trumpet and played “Little Liza Jane,” a two-chord American traditional with a simple melody. Before long, he had layered harmonies on a swing version of the tune and breezed through a “fiddle” version with elongated notes before closing with a staccato bebop rendition of the same progression. Oh yes – we bet improvisation is just that easy.


“You can’t get frustrated with yourself,” he said between excerpts. “Don’t think that it’s something you’re going to learn overnight.”These words from a man who started his career at 14 playing solo with the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra, and who, at 18, ditched two years of classical study at Juilliard to play jazz with Art Blakey.


IF YOU GO


WHO: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.

WHAT: “We Are the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra” tour.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday, Englewood. 8 p.m. Saturday, Morristown. WHERE: bergenPAC, 30 N. Van Brunt St., Englewood, 201-227-1030 or bergenpac.org; Community Theatre at Mayo Center, 100 South St., Morristown, 973-539-8008 or mayoarts.org.

HOW MUCH: Englewood: $29 to $99. Morristown: $70, $80, $90.

LISTEN: myspace.com/jazzatlincolncenterorchestra or jalc.org. Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is on tour with a repertoire as diverse as its audience.
Now 47, Marsalis is the artistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center and the musical director for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the 15-piece resident big band whose members vary in age and experience.


Some are veterans of the jazz scene, like sax/clarinet player Joe Temperley, who played in the bands of Woody Herman and Humphrey Lyttelton, while most of the younger members Marsalis has known since they were in high school.


“We challenge each other with our arrangements so we write really difficult, kind of virtuosic arrangements for these gigs,” Marsalis said. “We kind of mess with each other.”
JLCO is on tour with a repertoire as diverse as its nationwide audience. Thrown in are Thelonious Monk’s compositions, nursery rhymes, classic tunes from Blue Note Records and some of Marsalis’ originals and arrangements. On occasion, excerpts from Marsalis’ upcoming album, “He & She” (to be released March 24), make their way into the set.


“We do a wide range that encompasses all the history of jazz, from really, really modern to classics that everybody might know,” Marsalis said.


More important, the tour, which makes two North Jersey stops, brings “all different types of people” into the jazz fold, even some who are just getting into the sound. “Musicians will come and have been longtime fans of the music, some people are just getting into the music. Some people are interested in bringing people that have never been to a concert,” he said.
In this sense the tour has so far been successful. Marsalis believes that jazz should be as accessible in American “cultural consciousness” as the English language and just as relevant in matters of self-identity.


“If you come to this country and you want to participate in its culture, you should come from jazz,” he said. “It allows you to understand the country and the history of the country.
“It’s a blueprint for coming together.”

SOURCE: http://www.northjersey.com/entertainment/marsalis031609.html