Cuba - US Cultural Exchange

Young Jazz Legend Wynton Marsalis to Perform in Cuba Escrito por By José Dos Santos   Sep 28 (Prensa Latina) When people talk about legends, they are usually referring to those who have reached their golden years, venerated by their followers, and no longer in danger of opinions that could devastate their aura. Or those who died prematurely, having placed their stamp on their era and promised to enrich even more the specialty in which they shined. Neither is the case of Wynton Marsalis - trumpeter, composer, arranger, band leader, artistic promoter and a beacon by which many jazz musicians are guided, and not only in the United States, where he has been a paradigm for decades despite not having reached his 50th birthday. In Cuba, musicians in general and followers and cultivators of jazz in particular are very familiar with him, as much for his many Grammys in that genre and in classical music (he was the first to win in both categories the same year), as for his prolific work and tireless efforts to return to the musical roots implanted by his ancestors in the United States. Not many remember his first trip - a private one - to the island in the 1990s, when pressure on his contemporaries made Cubaâ Ös Jazz Plaza festivals forbidden territory for U.S. or U.S.-based musicians. This reporter witnessed his mastery at the cozy nightclub La Zorra y El Cuervo, when he invited the young jazz musician Yasek Manzano to the stage and virtually gave a master class on how to use a trumpet mute, with a cocktail glass. Under the minimalist concept of "less is more," he demonstrated his outstanding utilization of notes, silences, tempered sounds and blues atmosphere to lead the public into enjoyment of Deep Jazz, emerged from his native New Orleans many decades before Marsalis was born, in 1961. It was easy to confirm the legacy of his father Ellis, a great jazz pianist and educator who sparked his sonâ Ös interest in music. By the age of 7, he was playing trumpet, and by 19, he was part of the band Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, a training ground for giants who preceded him, such as Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown. In 1980, Marsalis began his solo career, and over these 30 years, he has not stopped growing or propelling the growth of a spate of young talents around him, including Manzano. This reporter personally has a little over 20 of his 50-plus albums, betraying me as an enthusiast of his music. It is true that Marsalis is the jazz musician of his generations who has won the most awards, and Time magazine included him on its 1995 list of most promising young people, and in 1996, on its list of the 25 most influential U.S. citizens. But my admiration goes beyond that. It is also based on non-musical aspects appreciated during that first visit, when, already in the wee hours of the morning, he had a pleasant conversation on the centrally-located Havana street La Rampa with Cuban adolescents who, because of their age, could not enter the club where he was playing. Someone had mentioned to him that these young people, most of them music students, were on the sidewalk outside the club, and he used an intermission to chat with them. Characteristics like these were recognized by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, when he named Marsalis a 2001 UN Messenger of Peace. With his visit to Cuba from October 4 to 9, this time leading the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra, which he founded, Marsalis, one of the five sons of his father Ellis who shine in music, is making jazz a new cultural bridge that transcends barriers at a time when peace is urgently needed for the survival of our species.