Wynton Marsalis

Description In this beautiful book, Pulitzer Prize--winning musician and composer Wynton Marsalis draws upon lessons he's learned from a lifetime in jazz-lessons that can help us all move to higher ground. With wit and candor he demystifies the music that is the birthright of every American and demonstrates how a real understanding of the central idea of jazz-the unique balance between self-expression and sacrifice for the common good exemplified on the bandstand-can enrich every aspect of our lives, from the bedroom to the boardroom, from the schoolroom to City Hall. Along the way, Marsalis helps us understand the life-changing message of the blues, reveals secrets about playing-and listening-and passes on wisdom he has gleaned from working with three generations of great musicians. Illuminating and inspiring, Moving to Higher Ground is a master class on jazz and life, conducted by a brilliant American artist.

Geoffrey Ward; Wynton MarsalisIn this book I hope to reach a new audience with the positive message of Americas greatest music, to show how great musicians demonstrate on the bandstand a mutual respect and trust that can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your lifefrom individual creativity and personal relationships to conducting business and understanding what it means to be American in the most modern sense. Wynton Marsalis In this beautiful book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and composer Wynton Marsalis explores jazz and how an understanding of it can lead to deeper, more original ways of being, living, and relatingfor individuals, communities, and nations. Marsalis shows us how to listen to jazz, and through stories about his life and the lessons he has learned from other music greats, he reveals how the central ideas in jazz can influence the way people think and even how they behave with others, changing self, family, and community for the better. At the heart of jazz is the expression of personality and individuality, coupled with an ability to listen to and improvise with others. Jazz as an artand as a way to move people and nations to higher groundis at the core of this unique, illuminating, and inspiring book, a master class on jazz and life by a brilliant American artist.

La emoción de estar en un club de jazz o en concierto escuchando cómo se fragua esa música es un lujo habitual para la mayoría de aficionados. Pero ¿y si se pudiera profundizar aún más, ir un poco más lejos, estar alli, en la oscuridad de la noche, cuando nace una melodia? ¿O en el autocar, en plena gira, cuando la banda arranca a tocar espontaneamente? ¿O tras el escenario, cuando el publico pide un bis? ¿Y si nos pudieramos sumergir en el mundo del musico de jazz para el cual la creacion de la musica y su interpretacion es una tarea tan profunda y rutinaria como respirar?Cuando el escritor Carl Vigeland fue invitado a la gira de Wynton Marsalis y su septeto en el que seria el ultimo viaje que emprenderian juntos, hizo justamente eso. Las agudas observaciones de Vigeland nos permiten entrar en el universo de una banda de la que llego a formar parte virtualmente, siendo testigo de su relacion con el publico, de su arte y su amistad. Por su parte, Marsalis nos lleva al corazon mismo del jazz con reflexiones intimas sobre la vida personal, la familia, la creacion y la interpretacion en directo, pensamientos que transcribe con la misma cadencia de su sonido inimitable. Ya sea en un escenario, en los estudios de grabacion o en ciudades grandes y pequeñas de todo el mundo, este relato refleja, con toda la riqueza de su textura, el alma del jazz, explorando de donde viene ese tipo de musica y como se hace hoy en dia.

Con ingenio y ternura, Wynton Marsalis nos muestra cómo una verdadera comprensión del jazz, equilibrio perfecto en el escenario entre la expresión artística individual y el sacrificio por el bien comun, puede enriquecer todos los aspectos de nuestra vida, desde los mas intimos hasta los empresariales, en las aulas escolares y en los ayuntamientos. A traves de las paginas de este libro Marsalis nos ayuda a entender el siempre cambiante sentimiento del blues; nos revela los secretos que implica tocar y escuchar musica y nos transmite la sabiduria adquirida a traves de los años despues de trabajar con tres generaciones de musicos.Una leccion magistral sobre el jazz y la vida impartida por uno de los mas brillantes artistas americanos.

In this book I hope to reach a new audience with the positive message of Americas greatest music, to show how great musicians demonstrate on the bandstand a mutual respect and trust that can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your lifefrom individual creativity and personal relationships to conducting business and understanding what it means to be American in the most modern sense.Wynton MarsalisIn this beautiful book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and composer Wynton Marsalis explores jazz and how an understanding of it can lead to deeper, more original ways of being, living, and relatingfor individuals, communities, and nations. Marsalis shows us how to listen to jazz, and through stories about his life and the lessons he has learned from other music greats, he reveals how the central ideas in jazz can influence the way people think and even how they behave with others, changing self, family, and community for the better. At the heart of jazz is the expression of personality and individuality, coupled with an ability to listen to and improvise with others. Jazz as an artand as a way to move people and nations to higher groundis at the core of this unique, illuminating, and inspiring book, a master class on jazz and life by a brilliant American artist. Advance praise for Moving to Higher GroundAn absolute joy to read. Intimate, knowledgeable, supremely worthy of its subject. In addition to demolishing mediocre, uniformed critics, Moving to Higher Ground is a meaningful contribution to music scholarship.Toni MorrisonI think it should be in every bookstore, music store, and school in the country. Tony Bennett Jazz, for Wynton Marsalis, is nothing less than a search for wisdom. He thinks as forcefully, and as elegantly, as he swings. When he reflects on improvisation, his subject is freedom. When he reflects on harmony, his subject is diversity and conflict and peace. When he reflects on the blues, his subject is sorrow and the mastery of ithow to be happy without being blind. There is philosophy in Marsaliss trumpet, and in this book. Here is the lucid and probing voice of an uncommonly soulful man.Leon Wieseltier, literary editor, The New RepublicWynton Marsalis is absolutely the person who should write this book. Here he is, as young as morning, as fresh as dew, and already called one of the jazz greats. He is not only a seer and an exemplary musician, but a poet as well. He informs us that jazz was created, among other things, to expose the hypocrisy and absurdity of racism and other ignorances in our country. Poetry was given to human beings for the same reason. This book could be called How Love Can Change Your Life, for there could be no jazz without love. By love, of course, I do not mean mush, or sentimentality. Love can only exist with courage, and this book could not be written without Wynton Marsaliss courage. He has the courage to make powerful music and to love the music so, that he willingly shares its riches with the entire human family. We are indebted to him. Maya Angelou

Con ingenio y ternura, Wynton Marsalis nos muestra cómo una verdadera comprensión del jazz, equilibrio perfecto en el escenario entre la expresión artística individual y el sacrificio por el bien comun, puede enriquecer todos los aspectos de nuestra vida, desde los mas intimos hasta los empresariales, en las aulas escolares y en los ayuntamientos. A traves de las paginas de este libro Marsalis nos ayuda a entender el siempre cambiante sentimiento del blues; nos revela los secretos que implica tocar y escuchar musica y nos transmite la sabiduria adquirida a traves de los años despues de trabajar con tres generaciones de musicos. Una leccion magistral sobre el jazz y la vida impartida por uno de los mas brillantes artistas americanos.

In To a Young Jazz Musician, the renowned jazz musician and Pulitzer Prizewinning composer Wynton Marsalis gives us an invaluable guide to making good musicand to leading a good life.Writing from the road between the bus ride, the sound check, and the gig, Marsalis passes on wisdom gained from experience, addressed to a young musician coming upand to any of us at any stage of life. He writes that having humility is a way to continue to grow, to listen, and to learn; that patience is necessary for developing both technical proficiency and your own art rather than an imitation of someone elses; and that rules are indispensable because freedom lives in structure. He offers lessons learned from his years as a performer and from his great forebears Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and others; he explores the art of swing; he discusses why it is important to run toward your issues, not away; and he talks about what to do when your integrity runs up against the lack thereof in others and in our culture. He poetically expresses our need for healers: All of it tracks back to how you heal your culture, one patient at a time, beginning with yourself.This is a unique book, in which a great artist offers his personal thoughts, both on jazz and on how to live a better, more original, productive, and meaningful life. To a Young Jazz Musician is sure to be treasured by readers young and old, musicians, lovers of music, and anyone interested in being mentored by one of Americas most influential, generous, and talented artists.