Wynton Marsalis on how jazz connects democracy and liberation

Wynton Marsalis made history when he became the first musician to win classical and jazz Grammy Awards in the same year. He tells the BBC’s Katty Kay about jazz’s unique connection to liberation and how his father’s relationship with music shaped his approach.

Legendary musician Wynton Marsalis is no stranger to making history. But as he brings his one-of-a-kind blend of classical and jazz to audiences everywhere, he’s reflecting on history, too.

During an appearance on Influential with Katty Kay, Marsalis shares that every time he plays, he understands that he’s bringing his family’s legacy into the spotlight 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 did not want to be famous. I wanted to learn how to play. My standard was my father and all the musicians that I grew up respecting and loving,” Marsalis tells Kay, between showing off his trumpet and playing her a few bars. His humility is tinged with a signature sense of humour. He tells Kay that at first he didn’t want to play the instrument that would make him famous. “I did not want to play trumpet because I did not want to get that ring around my lips. I figured the girls would not kiss you.”

As the first musician – and still the only one – to win a Grammy Award in classical and jazz categories in the same year, Marsalis is open about the ways he jumps between genres to create something true to himself. He credits his unique blend to growing up in the American South during segregation and witnessing change firsthand.

After he began to take music more seriously at the age of 12, he would go on to become the only black musician in the New Orleans Civic Orchestra, and played with the New Orleans Philharmonic. That early success was jarring to someone who saw his father struggle. While he’d played on some of the biggest stages in his hometown, Marsalis was unsure that had the chops to compete with professional musicians in the wider field. 

“I had to step back and recalibrate, like what am I going to be able to do? Am I going to be good enough to actually play jazz? That is what I wanted to play. I wanted to be a jazz musician, but it was so few people playing the type of jazz I wanted to play,” Marsalis says.

Once Marsalis joined the prestigious New York City music school Julliard aged 17, he was surrounded by a whole new group of performers – and introduced to new styles of music. As he found his footing in the musical scene, he also found a passion for social justice. He notes that being outspoken seemed to come just as naturally as the trumpet.

“I was shaped by growing up in segregation and having to be integrated into schools where you were not necessarily wanted. You were not wanted,” he says. “I was post-civil rights. So, I was speaking about things that people do not speak about, and I was also very serious about those things.” 

Later, he would sign a contract with Colombia Records after shifting his focus from classical music to jazz – thanks in part to touring with Herbie Hancock and the Art Blakey band in Europe. Through it all, he felt jazz in everything he experienced. Touring, not a formal education, would be the thing to show him that his style of music and performing mattered. 

“Anything that has a harmonic progression and a melody, you can hear jazz in,” he says.

Marsalis notes that, unlike other genres, jazz makes its performers work together without any singular voice dominating. Instead of stealing the spotlight, jazz musicians must find a balance.

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

This, too, is the throughline he sees between jazz and social justice. When everyone commits to a common cause, whether its racial equality or musical harmony, it takes leaving egos out of the equation.

“Our music is serious because it liberates people. But it is very difficult to learn how to play and to play well, because it requires you to be in balance with somebody else. That is a hard thing to want to be,” he says.

Reflecting on what he’s doing to help the musicians following in his storied footsteps, Marsalis is straightforward about his approach. He wants to be whom he hoped to have as he rose in the ranks.

“I try not to make the mistakes I feel all the musicians made towards me when I was younger,” he says, of mentoring others. Jazz, Marsalis notes, is not a place for one-upmanship.

“Jazz is the opposite of all that. We will elevate you. Let me share my space with you. Let me be quiet and let you talk. Let me leave space for your soul,” he says.