Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues - Softcover

Born in 1961 near New Orleans, Louisiana to a musical family that included his pianist father Ellis, saxophonist brother Branford, and trombonist brother Delfeayo, Wynton Marsalis studied both jazz and classical trumpet. At 18, he entered the Juilliard School, and the next year joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, the acclaimed band in which generations of emerging jazz artists honed their craft. He has toured with Herbie Hancock and won Grammy Awards for his jazz and classical concerto records. He has recorded a series of hard-bop inspired ballads (Marsalis Standard Time: Volume 1-3), paid tribute to his native city (Crescent City Christmas Card), and written a suite for choreography in the spirit of Duke Ellington (Citi Movement). As co-founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, Marsalis has been dedicated to presenting the work of jazz masters such as Ellington and Thelonious Monk in formal concert halls. He is a tireless advocate for music education, from hosting a public television series to writing an instructive companion book, Marsalis On Music. He was also a major figure in Ken Burns' documentary, JAZZ. In March 2001, Marsalis was awarded the United Nations designation of "Messenger of Peace" by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and in June 2002, received the Congressional "Horizon Award." When not on tour, he lives in New York. Carl Vigeland is the author of several books, including, with Wynton Marsalis, Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life (see page 33). He has written about golf and many other subjects for such magazines as Golf Digest, Playboy, The Atlantic Monthly, Fast Company, and DoubleTake. He lives in Massachusetts.

American jazz sweetheart Marsalis gives readers a seat on his old septet's tour bus for a ride down memory lane. It's the early 1990s, and the trumpeter is coming into his own as a composer, despite his tight road schedule (check-in at hotel, go to sound check, eat supper, iron the suit, play the gig, snooze a bit, hit the road). Should a day off (or a few free hours) arise, he's speaking at a local school, composing a ballet, recording an album or playing a ballad to his sons on the phone. "He'd take his naps in the next life," writes coauthor Vigeland, who tagged along on tour. Marsalis's productivity and growth during this period would lead to nine Grammys, a Pulitzer (previously awarded only to classical composers) and his directorship of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Loosely using a sort of call-and-response style, the book swings between Vigeland's (Stalking the Shark: Passion and Pressure on the Pro Golf Tour) fly-on-the-wall documentation and the poetic solos of Marsalis, philosophizing on jazz, joy, love and lifeall synonymous for him. For better or for worse, it's easy to lose one's sense of time and place on the roadand it's equally easy to do so in this book. "The narrative's logic is one of feeling, not geography or chronology, and it develops accretively, elliptically," explains Vigeland. At their best, the authors show how Marsalis's road experiences shape his music and the tightness (musically and personally) of the septet. The glimpse into Marsalis's New Orleans upbringing in that famous first family of jazz (Ellis, his father, and Branford, his brother) fascinates, but leaves the reader hungry for more. Agent, Wayne Kabak, William Morris Agency. (June)Forecast: Marsalis's high profile and the success of Ken Burns's jazz book and documentary film (to which Marsalis contributed) will arouse interest in the artist's musical coming-of-age. Other biographies on Marsalis exist, but this is notable for its mixture of an outsider's perspective with that of the musician.

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