Wynton Marsalis was born on October 18, 1961, in New Orleans. He started playing the trumpet at 12. When he got to high school he performed in local marching bands, jam bands, funk bands, and classical orchestras. At 18 he attended the Juilliard School in New York. In the summer of 1980, he signed his first record deal. Within the 20 years of being with Columbia Records, he won nine Grammys and was the first jazz musician to be honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 1997 recording Blood on the Fields. Marsalis serves as Artistic Director for the internationally-recognized Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Marsalis tries to show that just because Jazz is not as popular as it was back then does not mean Jazz doesnt hold great value. “Things come around in cycles, and you should never discard those things because they decline in popularity.”