Center stage: Wynton Marsalis: jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader has produced 44 albums and won nine Grammy Awards

Ebony, June, 2004

Jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader has produced 44 albums and won nine Grammy Awards

WYNTON Marsalis epitomizes music and jazz and class and style. For more than 20 years, the composer, trumpeter, bandleader and jazz statesman and advocate has stayed true to his mission of delivering great music and an equally important message that jazz and the arts are as American as apple pie and are worthy of a national if not universal, effort to advance, preserve and perfect it.

In March, Marsalis released his latest recording, The Magic Hour, on Blue Note Records after establishing an incredible track record with Columbia Records. He has won nine Grammy Awards and is the first African-American and first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music (for his epic 1997 recording Blood on the Fields). A prolific music maestro, he has produced 33 jazz and 11 classical records, and has sold more than 7 million records world-wide, which is a notable feat for a jazz artist.

As artistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center, he is spearheading the building of the $128 million Frederick P. Rose Hall in Time Warner Center in New York, the first concert hall designed specifically for jazz.

"We as Black people need to be more involved and supportive not just of jazz and not just of music, but of the arts in general," says Marsalis, the father of three sons. "Go to the symphony, go to jazz clubs, go see the Romare Bearden exhibit. Get involved in literature and participate in book clubs. We have to constantly get the word out and keep people revolved in the arts."