When you study our greatest artists, you will find that they give us a key to understand how to deal with each other, and that our bloodlines are intertwined. It's not hyphenated America. That there is an America, and it is expressed in those arts. It gives us a key to figure out how to negotiate with each other, and it tells us actually who we are.
Wynton MarsalisI believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.
Wynton MarsalisThere's the tradition in jazz of having the โBattle of the Bandsโ and you do not want to get your head cut when you're playing.
Wynton MarsalisWhen I first came to New York everybody on the scene would treat me like I could play but I couldn't.
Wynton MarsalisThe people are not coming because of me. They didn't come before me. It's because of a lack of education and understanding, so it makes me more motivated. It's like my mother said about having an artistic child - she learned more from him and he gets more attention and more of the love, not less.
Wynton MarsalisAs you get older - for example, in our band we have members of our orchestra, like Carlos Enriquez and Ali Jackson and Walter Blanning. I taught them when they were in high school, and now they teach me.I'll regularly call Ali and say, "Man, can you break this rhythm down for me?" Or Carlos was actually our music director in Cuba, and he's been instrumental in a lot of my education, and I started to develop a saying with them, because they tease me all the time - you get older, you have that familiar relationship - I say, "You have to follow your young leadership, too."
Wynton Marsalis