WYNTON
MARSALIS NAMED CBS NEWS
CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
MARSALIS WILL
CONTRIBUTE TO "CBS THIS MORNING" AND
"CBS
SUNDAY MORNING"
MARSALIS'
FIRST CBS NEWS APPEARANCE WILL BE
ON MONDAY,
JANUARY 16, AS THE NATION OBSERVES
DR. MARTIN
LUTHER KING, JR.'S BIRTHDAY
Wynton Marsalis, internationally acclaimed musician,
composer and educator, has been named Cultural
Correspondent for CBS. It was announced today by CBS
News Chairman and 60 MINUTES Executive Producer Jeff
Fager and David Rhodes, President, CBS News. In this
role, Marsalis will provide insight into a broad range
of cultural and educational developments on CBS THIS
MORNING and CBS SUNDAY MORNING. His first CBS News
appearance will be on Monday, January 16, 2012, as the
nation observes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.
"Wynton Marsalis and CBS News have a strong
connection that goes back many years," said Fager. "His
appearances on "60 Minutes," including his part in our
tribute to the great Ed Bradley, were memorable, and the
beautiful sounds of his trumpet adorn the network every
single week with the fanfare that opens Sunday Morning.
Now our viewers will benefit from a regular dose of his
insights and observations about American culture."
"The
world already knows Wynton as a virtuoso," said Rhodes.
"Less well known is his passion for education, for
bringing together young and old, and for American
culture in general: a passion he's developed traveling
across the country and the world over the course of his
storied career."
"Walter Cronkite was a jazz fan and a
drummer," commented Marsalis. ?Ed Bradley was a mentor
and treasured friend. I was an unabashed lover of
Charles Kuralt's vision of America from the road and Dr.
Billy Taylor's jazz segment on ?Sunday Morning? inspired
us all. I am honored to be a part of the CBS News
family. I look forward to sharing with viewers the
incredible variety and richness of our national culture
from ballet to the blues, from barbecue to the
backbeat.?
Few people have made as wide or deep a mark on
contemporary culture as Wynton Marsalis. Celebrated for
his contributions as a performer, composer, bandleader
and educator, Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and
is the only artist in history to have received Grammy's
for five consecutive years and the only artist to have
received a Grammy for both jazz and classical music in
the same year (1983).
Marsalis has been Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln
Center since 1987. Under his direction, the organization
offers a full array of education, performance, and
broadcast productions, including national and
international touring by the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra and others.
As a performer, he has toured 30 countries around the
world and made more than 70 recordings including three
Gold Records. These recordings feature his trademark
swinging style and inclusive approach to jazz. A
passionate admirer of classical music, Marsalis has also
recorded a number of classical works as a trumpet
soloist and has performed with a variety of orchestras,
including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Toronto Symphony Orchestra
and London's Royal Philharmonic.
As a composer, Marsalis has consistently broken new
ground. His 1997 "Blood On The Fields," was the first
jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Other notable works include "All Rise" (1999), "Congo
Square" (2006), "Abyssinian 200: A Celebration" (2008),
"Blues Symphony" (2009), and "Swing Symphony" (2010). He
has also composed works for The Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center, as well as for some of the world's
leading choreographers, including Twyla Tharp, Peter
Martins, Judith Jameson, Savion Glover, and Garth Fagan.
He has given generously of his time and talent to
students of all ages, conducting master classes, music
lessons for countless individuals, and lectures at a
wide variety of institutions. He also wrote and hosted
an educational series, "Marsalis on Music," which
debuted on PBS in 1995. That same year, National Public
Radio began airing his 26-week radio program, "Making
the Music." For these two outstanding expositions of
jazz music, Marsalis won a George Foster Peabody Award.
In addition, he has authored or co-authored a number of
books, including Sweet Swing Blues on the Road (1994),
Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life (2001), To a Young
Musician: Letters from the Road (2004), Jazz ABZ: An A
to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits (2005), and most
recently, Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change
Your Life (2008). In the spring of 2010 Marsalis
launched a multi-year lecture series at Harvard
University to convey the importance of cultural literacy
to America's future leaders and to illuminate the
relationship between American music and the American
identity.
Marsalis began performing at the age of eight. At 14, he
performed with the New Orleans Philharmonic, and during
his high school years he was performing with the
orchestras and jazz bands around his New Orleans. At the
age of 17, he was the youngest musician ever admitted to
Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center, where he received
the Harvey Shapiro Award for outstanding brass student.
The following year, he moved to New York City to attend
the Juilliard School, and soon afterwards began
performing at venues around the city. In 1980, he joined
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and in 1981 he formed his
own band, spending the next 15 years on the road,
performing more than 120 concerts a year and working
with jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry,
Sweets Edison, Sarah Vaughn, Herbie Hancock and Sonny
Rollins.
Marsalis' extraordinary contribution to the arts and
education has earned him more than 25 honorary degrees
from some of America's most prestigious universities and
colleges including Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Howard
and Yale. Other distinctions include The National Medal
of Arts;The New York Urban League's Frederick Douglass
Medallion for distinguished leadership; the American
Arts Council's Arts Education Award. He has received
accolades from the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Great
Britain, and in 2001, United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan appointed him a UN Messenger of Peace.
Marsalis continues to tour the globe as a performer,
conductor, and lecturer.