Wynton’s favorites
Number: Eleven
“11, the number I wore when I played ball as a kid. It’s a number I’ve always liked: eleven, double one.”
Writers: William Butler Yeats
“In nonfiction, Andre Malraux. His VOICES OF SILENCE opened my eyes to the continuity of things, the fact that everything partakes of everything else. The thing that you see is not one thing, it’s many things. Like a work of art can reveal an intensity of relationships that you never suspected were there in the first place. “In poetry, William Butler Yeats. Like all the greatest artists, Yeats never got locked into one time. Instead, he addresses all ages and times. In a few words, with intense lyricism like Lester Young’s or Miles Davis’s, Yeats capures how one thing leads to another thing leads to another thing, and the relationships between them. Like, ‘An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick.’ If you really let that into your mind, it’ll be a long time before you stop thinking about it. “In fiction, it’s Thomas Mann. He is the master of deep psychological understanding of character. Like when Dr. Faustus asks Leverkuhn if he knows of an emotion stronger than love, the reply is, ‘Yes. Interest.’ Or in JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS, Mann makes you understand why people didn’t like Joseph. He was the chosen and he knew it, and he wanted everyone else to know it, too. “Mann can tell a story from many points of view and many moments in time. Like when Potiphar’s wife passes the humbled Joseph without recognizing he is there, completely unaware of the man she will soon love above all others, and Mann observes that sometimes a thing that is imperceptible can become the entire center of one’s life. He has a way of telling a story that encompasses all time and all perspectives.”
Museums: MOMA, Hermitage, Louvre
“It’s like cities and towns, it’s impossible to pick just one favorite museum. The Museum of Modern Art in New York is an oasis in the middle of Manhattan with its sculpture garden and the way one gallery space flows into another. “When I go to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, I dig how they have all these great paintings, but the art’s not shut away behind plate glass. The windows are all open, and the art’s just part of the city’s everyday life. Plus they have one of my favorite paintings, a mostly orange Matisse of a man and a woman called ‘The Conversation.’ “Then there’s the Prado in Madrid, for all those Velazquezes. “And the Louvre in Paris, for all the treasures I’ve discovered there so far, and all the treasures I still have to discover there.”
Football Team: The Oakland Raiders
“I’ve loved them since the 60s, when they had the Mad Bomber, Darryl Lamonica, and Warren Wells, and I love them now. I like everything about them: their black and silver colors and their logo, their quick-strike offense, and of course their motto, ‘Just win, baby.’ I like the way Al Davis keeps taking all the NFL’s misfits and outcasts and making them into a team. I like how they win so many games in the last minute: George Blanda kicking game-ending field goals at age 47; Ken Stabler, the Snake, hitting Fred Belitnikoff with an end zone pass; or the defense knocking the opposition back on its heels with a big play from guys like Lester Hayes, Jack Tatum, and Ted Hendricks, the Mad Stork. Most of all I love how the Raiders are rabid and relaxed at the same time. They get amped up on the pressure of a big game, but they don’t get uptight. They’re ferocious, but they never lose their cool.”
Food: Sushi
“I count myself fortunate to have grown up eating the great melting pot of New Orleans cuisine: red beans and rice, crawfish etouffé, and my favorite, gumbo. I continue to eat gumbo with relish at every opportunity, but in adult life I have also discovered a new favorite: sushi.”
Jazz composer: Duke Ellington
“Duke Ellington. He was the archetypal American artist of the 20th century in his ability to deal with the strands of Afro-Eurasian-American race and culture, not with apology, fear, condescension, or confusion, but with intelligence, soul, style, and swing. Most of all, swing.”
Jazz singer: Billie Holiday
“She teaches us that the ability to communicate timeless human values is much more important than speed and range.”
Jazz musician: Charlie Parker
“Genius”
Fine artist: Henri Matisse
“Henri Matisse, because his work is modern but still lyrical. His work is always singing. He never fell victim to the faddish angst of modern life.”
Classical composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
“Beethoven, for the willful integrity of music focused on the noblest objectives. He was willing to go through whatever he had to go through to make great music, and he had to go through a lot.”
Town: Ichinoseki
“For part of my early childhood our family lived in a little town in Louisiana called Kenner, and I’ve always enjoyed the down-home feeling that small towns can have. As a touring musician I have a lot of favorite towns, just like I have a lot of favorite cities. Ichinoseki and Chiba, in Japan, are two of my favorites. When we play in a small town, all the farmers and other local people will come to check us out, and we get a special feeling from being able to perform for the whole community. Like the very first musicians had in the most ancient times.”
