Why Wynton Marsalis thinks jazz is the perfect metaphor for democracy

[0:00] He's been called the pied piper of jazz and doctor of swing, but renowned trumpeter and [0:05] composer Wynton Marsalis has now launched a new project, a kind of call and response [0:09] for these times. [0:11] Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown met Marsalis at the Jazz at Lincoln Center for [0:15] our series Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy, part of our Canvas coverage. [0:22] JEFFREY BROWN, The music is vibrant and alive. [0:29] It says Wynton Marsalis, our democracy is threatened, with warning signs everywhere. [0:34] WYNTON MARSALIS, I'm seeing what we all are seeing. [0:39] We're lost. [0:40] We're blindly flailing about the world. [0:42] JEFFREY BROWN, Many responses are possible. [0:48] His, as always, is jazz, an art form of individual statements or improvisation, and collective [1:00] swinging together, music he believes to heal divisions. [1:06] WYNTON MARSALIS, Our music takes us away from that, into the feeling of community, which [1:10] is shared responsibility, shared rights, and the creation of space for others to be creative [1:15] and to be a part of the process. [1:17] And it's just an assertion of who we are and a reassertion of the importance of freedom [1:22] and of civic engagement by artists. [1:25] JEFFREY BROWN, Marsalis has been a leading cultural figure for decades. [1:33] Founder of jazz at Lincoln Center in New York in 1987, it's artistic director ever since. [1:42] He was born into a musical New Orleans family, from early on playing with older brother Brantford, [1:48] learning from their father Ellis, a pianist and educator who died in 2020. [1:53] WYNTON MARSALIS, I want as much as possible to try to communicate to y'all... [1:56] JEFFREY BROWN, A key mission, preserving and passing on that tradition, as we saw in 2011, [2:02] as he led a festival for high school musicians around the country called Essentially Ellington [2:08] that continues to this day. [2:12] Marsalis was born and raised in the cauldron of the 1960s, and, he says now, sees a nation [2:18] in peril once again. [2:19] WYNTON MARSALIS, We have very bad leadership, not just the president. [2:23] All over, very bad leadership, terrible leadership that's easily corrupted. [2:28] And we need to assert, those of us in the nation who believe in a plural America need to strongly [2:34] assert it. [2:35] JEFFREY BROWN, A new multi-part project that includes a video series intended as a kind [2:49] of civic engagement dialogue, starting with professional musicians choosing and recording [2:55] a brief clip of music from a song from the past that they think speaks to our moment. [3:00] WYNTON MARSALIS, It's really stripped down and right to the core, and that's exactly [3:10] what this initiative is, it's getting to the heart of the matter. [3:12] JEFFREY BROWN, Alexa Tarantino, a saxophonist, composer and bandleader in her own right, is [3:21] a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. [3:24] She worked with Marsalis to choose leading contemporary musicians to participate. [3:28] WYNTON MARSALIS, The main element of jazz and performance is call and response and communication, [3:34] so the fact that we are able to start something like this that puts out our own form of creative [3:41] expression and encourages others to respond with theirs, it's that musical element personified, [3:48] but with this political charge. [3:49] JEFFREY BROWN, Among the videos recorded so far, Cecile McLauren-Salvant singing Stevie Wonder's [3:55] Visions. [3:56] Is this a vision? [3:57] JEFFREY BROWN, The group New Jazz Underground with Sonny Rollins' Freedom Suite. [4:10] It's from jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz Academy performing America the Beautiful, and one [4:23] by Chris Lewis, another composer and bandleader, as well as sax player with the orchestra. [4:33] His pick, a piece by jazz great pianist McCoy Tyner, who died in 2020, titled Contemplation. [4:39] MICHAEL TYNER, He recorded it in the 1960s, which at the time was a tumultuous time in American [4:44] history, right, civil rights movement. [4:46] And so, to him, that was a time of contemplation. [4:47] JEFFREY BROWN, What does a piece like that say now? [4:50] MICHAEL TYNER, I think it's a time for us to be contemplative of what's going on, both [4:53] internally and externally. [4:54] And so it's important for us to engage with our community and to understand that your value [4:58] system is not necessarily the only value system. [5:01] And jazz teaches us that. [5:02] It teaches you that I believe this thing, but just because I believe this does not mean [5:05] that your belief system is invalid. [5:08] We both can believe different things and respect that and also create music together. [5:11] JEFFREY BROWN, In turn, the responses are now coming in. [5:14] From music-loving and playing citizens from around the country, recording songs meaningful [5:20] to them. [5:22] Marsalis is also looking to history with other parts of the jazz call for freedom, with audio [5:27] recordings including Let Freedom Swing, a 2004 live performance that featured new jazz compositions [5:35] with texts by leaders of the past, such as Nelson Mandela, read by Morgan Freeman. [5:40] MORGAN FREEMAN, I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom. [5:46] JEFFREY BROWN, I cherish my own freedom, but I care even more for your freedom. [5:47] JEFFREY BROWN, I cherish my own freedom, but I care even more for your freedom. [5:48] JEFFREY BROWN, And Vaclav Havel, read by Alfre Woodard, that I stand behind what I do. [5:53] JEFFREY BROWN, That I stand behind what I do. [5:55] JEFFREY BROWN, What does it all add up to? [5:57] If I'm looking at like a minute video of a piece of music, you know, Visions by Stevie Wonder or a piece by [6:04] Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Duke Ellington, what does that actually do? [6:09] I mean, does that change anything? [6:11] JEFFREY BROWN, Music is the art of the invisible. [6:13] So yes, a song, you think of the freedom songs in the 60s. [6:17] You think of the songs that we rely on today that have a consciousness. [6:22] And you think of all the classic hymns and great songs that people have sung around the world, [6:27] not just our songs. [6:29] The music is the art of the invisible. [6:32] So it touches things deep inside of us. [6:35] JEFFREY BROWN, As for Marsalis himself, he recently announced he'll step down as head of jazz at Lincoln Center next year. [6:41] A huge shift for an institution that's aimed at giving jazz a place in the larger culture and for him. [6:48] It's just that time. [6:49] There's no bad reason. [6:51] We have a lot of great, fantastic, talented, younger musicians. [6:54] We have dedicated older members. [6:56] It's time for me to be one of those members. [6:58] You know, it's time. [6:59] JEFFREY BROWN, You feel that? [7:00] JEFFREY BROWN, Yeah, man, it's that time. [7:02] But I've been in the public space a long time, since I was 18 or 19. [7:06] JEFFREY BROWN, Yeah. [7:07] You're not retiring. [7:08] JEFFREY BROWN, You know, the musicians don't, we don't retire. [7:10] You know, we always, and I will always be a part of the institution as needed. [7:15] And, of course, for the art form, I mean, it defines my life. [7:19] My father was a jazz musician. [7:22] I grew up in the culture of the music. [7:25] And there's no greater cause I could put any time to the service of than this fantastic music [7:32] that's had so many great musicians. [7:35] JEFFREY BROWN, An art form, he insists, as urgent and necessary as ever. [7:39] For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Jeffrey Brown in New York. [7:42] Support journalism you trust. [7:59] Support PBS News. [8:01] Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today.