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| Wynton Marsalis Signs with Boosey & Hawkes Wynton Marsalis has been hailed as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation, as well as one of the world's top classical trumpeters. Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis is a big band leader in the tradition of Duke Ellington, a gifted composer, a devoted advocate for the Arts, and a tireless and inspiring educator. In addition to being the first jazz artist to receive the Pulitzer Prize in music for his work Blood on the Fields, Marsalis has garnered nine Grammy awards, France's Grand Prix du Disque, the Edison Award of the Netherlands, National Medal of Arts, named Musical America's Musician of The Year and has been elected an honorary member of England's Royal Academy of Music. Says Boosey & Hawkes General Manager, Marc Ostrow: "I am honored to work with such a brilliant American cultural icon. Marsalis's music, like those of the other legendary composers we represent, transcends any label, and its honesty and humanity are instantly felt by the listener. The music of Wynton Marsalis should live alongside the masterworks of Bartok, Bernstein, Copland, Stravinsky, as well as those of Andrew Hill and Charles Mingus. Says Mr. Marsalis: "I am delighted to be published by Boosey & Hawkes and to be in the company of such distinguished classical and jazz composers." B&H Jazz Boosey & Hawkes launched its jazz initiative in 2006 by hiring its first-ever jazz expert, Adina Williams, and now represents composers David Benoit, Chick Corea, Andrew Hill, and Wynton Marsalis, as well as the works of Charles Mingus through Jazz Workshop, Inc. Boosey & Hawkes also proudly serves as worldwide agents for the historic Second Floor Music catalogue, which features some of the best-known compositions of the bop and post-bop eras. Boosey & Hawkes anticipates additional signings to its esteemed jazz roster in the near future. For upcoming news and announcements please visit the B&H jazz page at boosey.com/jazz. Wynton Marsalis is the Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, Mr. Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at age 12 and soon began playing in local bands of diverse genres. He entered The Juilliard School at age 17 and joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Mr. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and since he has recorded more than 40 jazz and 11 classical recordings, which have won him nine GRAMMY Awards. In 1983, he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz GRAMMY's in the same year and repeated this feat in 1984. Mr. Marsalis's rich body of compositions includes Sweet Release, Jazz: Six Syncopated Movements, Jump Start, Citi Movement/Griot New York, At the Octoroon Balls, In This House, On This Morning, and Big Train. In 1997, Mr. Marsalis became the first jazz artist to be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, which was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 1999, he released eight new recordings in his unprecedented “Swinging into the 21st" series, and premiered several new compositions, including the ballet Them Twos, for a June 1999 collaboration with the New York City Ballet. That same year he premiered the monumental work All Rise, commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic along with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Morgan State University Choir in December 1999. Sony Clas! sical released All Rise on CD October 1, 2002. Recorded on September 14 and 15, 2001 in Los Angeles in those tense days following 9/11, All Rise features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Morgan State University Choir, the Paul Smith Singers and the Northridge Singers. On March 6, 2007 he released From the Plantation to the Penitentiary on Blue Note Records, the follow-up CD to his Blue Note Records releases The Magic Hour and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, the companion soundtrack recording to Ken Burns' PBS documentary of the great African-American boxer, and Wynton Marsalis: Live at The House Of Tribes. Mr. Marsalis is also an internationally respected teacher and spokesman for music education, and has received honorary doctorates from dozens of universities and colleges throughout the U.S. He conducts educational programs for students of all ages, and hosts the popular Jazz for Young People concerts and the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center. Mr. Marsalis has also been featured in the video series Marsalis on Music and the radio series Making the Music. He has also written four books: Sweet Swing Blues on the Road in collaboration with photographer Frank Stewart, Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life with Carl Vigeland, Marsalis on Music which was the companion book for the PBS television series of the same name, and recently released To a Young Musician: Letters from the Road with Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, published by Random House in 2004. He was also one of three contributing authors to a children's book called Listen to the Storyteller and, in October 2005, Candlewick Press released Marsalis's Jazz ABZ, an A to Z collection of 26 poems celebrating jazz greats, illustrated by poster artist Paul Rogers. In 2001, Mr. Marsalis was appointed Messenger of Peace by Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and he has also been designated cultural ambassador, in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center touring, to the United States of America by the U.S. State Department through their CultureConnect program. Mr. Marsalis was instrumental in the Higher Ground Hurricane Relief concert, produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center, which has raised over $3 million for the Higher Ground Relief Fund to benefit the musicians, music industry related enterprises and other individuals and entities from the areas in Greater New Orleans who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina. He helped lead the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center's new home - Frederick P. Rose Hall - the first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz, which opened in October 2004. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |