Wynton Marsalis official web site

“Most of you have returned at a time when many would have stayed away,” Wynton said monday night at an event on Tulane’s campus welcoming back the city’s students, before playing a set with a band that included his pianist father, Ellis.
Today, he and the rest of the Cultural Subcommittee of Mayor Nagin’s Bring New Orleans Back committee will present their work to the Mayor and the City of New Orleans.

Here is the transcript of Wynton’s speech at Tulane University:

Thank you Governor Blanco, Lieutenant Governor Landrieu, and especially President Cowen for inviting me here tonight.

It’s good to be home. It’s especially good to be home in a time of crisis because tough times force us to return to fundamentals. And there is nothing more fundamental than home. Many of you are visitors to New Orleans, but it won’t take four years for the Crescent City to be forever in your blood. So I feel in a way, that we are all home tonight.

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Wynton will appear on the Tulane University campus on Martin Luther King Day to help celebrate the reopening of Tulane, Xavier, Dillard and Loyola universities, all forced to forgo their fall semesters due to damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.
He will deliver a keynote speech about the cultural rebirth of the city followed immediately by a concert that is free and open to the public. The event takes place in McAlister Auditorium on Jan. 16 at 7 p.m.

“The visit by this world-class musician and humanitarian embodies the unity of our four universities on a day that not only honors one of America’s greatest figures but also marks the rebirth of higher education in the city of New Orleans,” said Tulane President Scott Cowen.

Yesterday, Wynton visited the Norwich Free Academy as part of the school’s Sesquicentennial Anniversary Music Celebration. Wynton spoke to students and presented a critique of the student jazz band.
Here are two reviews of the event from Norwich Bullettin and The Day.com

You can also visit the Norwich Free Academyy web site, to enjoy more photos from the event.

“Our history is the thing who can save us…”

Listen to the touching words that Wynton told yesterday October 20, speaking in Washington at National Press Club luncheon. Thank you Wynton !

(Real Player required - 56:10 min.)

Wynton will speak October 20 at a National Press Club luncheon.
The NPC luncheon will begin promptly at 12:30 p.m., with Wynton’s address starting just after 1 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session.
Advance reservations should be made by telephoning 202-662-7501. Cost of the luncheon is $16 for NPC members, $28 for their guests and $35 for general admission.

This is Wynton’s statement about the devastation in his hometown of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina:

“New Orleans is the most unique of American cities because it is the only city in the world that created its own full culture – architecture, music and festive ceremonies. It’s of singular importance to the United States of America because it was the original melting pot with a mixture of Spanish, French, British, West African and American people living in the same city. The collision of these cultures created jazz and jazz is important because it’s the only art form that embodies the fundamental principals of American democracy. That’s why it swept the country and the world representing the best of the United States.

New Orleanians are blues people. We are resilient, so we are sure that our city will come back. This tragedy, however, provides an opportunity for the American people to demonstrate to ourselves and to the world that we are one nation determined to overcome our legacies of injustices based on race and class. At this time all New Orleanians need the nation to unite in a deafening crescendo of affirmation to silence that desperate cry that is this disaster.

We need people with their prayers, their pocketbooks, and above all their sense of purpose to show the world just who the modern American is and then we’ll put our city back together in even greater fashion. This is gut check time for all of us as Americans.

In a country with the most incredible resources in the world we need the ingenuity of our best engineers to put the cultural heart of our nation back together. To put it together with 2005 technical expertise and with 2005 social consciousness, which means without accommodating the ignorance of racism, the deplorable poverty, and lack of education that have been allowed to fester in many great American cities since slavery.

We’re only as civilized as our level of hospitality. Let’s demonstrate to the world that what actually makes America the most powerful nation on earth is not guns, pornography and material wealth but transcendent and abiding soul, something perhaps we have lost a grip on, and this catastrophe gives us a great opportunity to handle up on.”

Wynton Marsalis

source: Jazz at Lincoln Center

Wynton will address the senior class of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts (FSSA) at graduation ceremonies to be held on Monday, June 27 at 3 p.m. Welcoming Wynton Marsalis to the event will be singer Tony Bennett, who was the guiding force behind establishing the school, which opened in 2001. The graduation ceremonies will be held at the Main Stage Theatre of La Guardia Community College (Building E) in Long Island City, NY.

Here is the report that the blogger Betsy Devine does about a recent evening (June 5, 2005) at Jazz at Lincoln Center.