Marsalis Channels Spirit of New Orleans in Final Lecture

Backed by an eight-man band, influential jazzman Wynton Marsalis closed out his multi-year lecture-concert series on American jazz Thursday evening in Sanders Theatre with a trip to New Orleans, the genre’s birthplace.

The meditation on race, culture, and music was the last installment of six in the series, "Hidden in Plain View: Meanings in American Music,” that started more than two years ago, in the spring of 2011. An integral part of University President Drew G. Faust's efforts to promote the arts on campus, Marsalis has taken on various genres and mediums, including American dance and popular music, in subsequent lectures.

"He does a phenomenal job because as soon as he describes a setting and a story to you, and then he starts playing, you’re transported there," said Robiny R. Jamerson '17, who attended Thursday’s performance.

In particular, Marsalis used the evening to focus on New Orleans jazz from 1885 to 1910, describing the city in different ways throughout the night. At times, Marsalis referred to the Crescent City as "the jewel no European country wanted," "a gumbo of sensitivities," or "uncouth elegance...voodoo religion," depending on which facet of New Orleans life he was discussing.

As Faust said in her introduction, "if any one place is the home of jazz, it's New Orleans," and Marsalis referenced his birthplace and hometown throughout the night.

Marsalis traced New Orleans history through the numerous cultures and peoples that inhabited the city, noting how this cultural cross-pollination lead to an incredibly diverse music scene. Acting out the scene of a New Orleans fruit market or playing the same song in both creole and jazz styles, Marsalis gave a cultural ethnography of the music scene in New Orleans.

"It would be like going from a rap group to the New York philharmonic two blocks away," Marsalis said of the compact and diverse music culture in his hometown.

Throughout the evening, the award-winning trumpeter returned back to cornetist and band leader Charles J. “Buddy” Bolden, a man Marsalis said changed music across America.

"Great players all come from Bolden, and all reflect him in some way," Marsalis said. "He was known for playing loud, but he liked to say that he played quiet enough to hear the women dragging their feet across the floor."

New Orleans diverse culture has come at a historical cost, though, as Marsalis repeatedly noted. Outside of the Reconstruction Era, the city of music and dancing has also been home to a large black population oppressed by their white neighbors.

For Ella M. Duncan '17, the historical context was part of what made the evening so memorable.

"It's deeply moving because of the historical significance,” she said. “You can hear it in the music, the struggle, and cultural clashes."

—Staff writer Ivan B. K. Levingston can be reached at ivan.levingston@thecrimson.com