Wynton Learson Marsalis is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in both jazz and classical during the same year.
Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. was an American jazz pianist and educator. Active since the late 1940s, Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of the musical Marsalis family, when sons Branford and Wynton became popular musicians.
Lucien Barbarin was an American trombone player. Barbarin toured internationally with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and with Harry Connick Jr.
Daniel Moses Barker was an American jazz musician, vocalist, and author from New Orleans. He was a rhythm guitarist for Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter during the 1930s.
Blood on the Fields is a two-and-a-half-hour jazz oratorio by Wynton Marsalis. It was commissioned by Lincoln Center and treats the history of slavery and its aftermath in the United States of America. The oratorio tells the story of two slaves, Jesse and Leona, as they traverse the difficult journey to freedom. The narrative suggests that the individual freedom and agency of its protagonists is necessarily and inextricably intertwined with the empowerment of the community and nation as a whole. The work received the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Music, being the first time the prize was ever given for a jazz music composition, an honor that had previously been reserved for classical composers.
Citi Movement is an album by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1992.
Eric Scott Reed is an American jazz pianist and composer. His group Black Note released several albums in the 1990s.
The Majesty of the Blues is an album by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1989.
Ali Jackson Jr. is an American drummer, musician, composer, arranger, educator, and percussionist. Son of Ali Jackson. Ali Jr. started playing drums at the age of 2.
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque. From 1992 to 1995 he led the Tonight Show Band.
Shannon Powell is an American jazz and ragtime drummer. He has toured internationally and played with Ellis Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., Danny Barker, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Diana Krall, Earl King, Dr. John, Marcus Roberts, John Scofield, Jason Marsalis, Leroy Jones, Nicholas Payton, and Donald Harrison Jr. Powell toured and recorded with fellow New Orleans native, Harry Connick Jr.
Christmas Jazz Jam is a Christmas album by Wynton Marsalis that was released in 2009 by Compass Productions. Musicians on the album include Wessell Anderson on alto saxophone, Vincent Gardner and Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, Victor Goines on tenor & soprano saxophone and clarinet, and Herlin Riley on drums.
Joe Cool's Blues is an album by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his father Ellis Marsalis that was released in 1995. The album reached a peak position of No. 3 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart.
Uptown Ruler: Soul Gestures in Southern Blue, Vol. 2 is an album by Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1991. It is part two of the three-part blues cycle recorded by Marsalis and his quintet.
Standard Time, Vol. 5: The Midnight Blues is an album by Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1998. The album reached a peak position of number 1 on Billboard 's Top Jazz Albums chart.
Standard Time, Vol. 6: Mr. Jelly Lord is an album by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1999. The album peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart.
Standard Time, Vol. 4: Marsalis Plays Monk is an album by the jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1999.
Romare Bearden Revealed is a jazz album by the Branford Marsalis Quartet, featuring Branford Marsalis, Eric Revis, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Joey Calderazzo, with guest appearances by Harry Connick Jr., Wynton Marsalis, Doug Wamble, Reginald Veal, and other members of the Marsalis family. The album, which was recorded June 23–25, 2003 at Clinton Studios in New York, New York, was recorded in celebration of a retrospective exhibit of the art of Romare Bearden which opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and subsequently traveled to San Francisco, Dallas, New York and Atlanta in 2004 and 2005. The album recorded jazz tunes whose names Bearden had used for paintings as well as original compositions.
Steve Masakowski is jazz guitarist, educator, and inventor. He invented the guitar-based keytar and the switch pick, and has designed three custom-built seven-string guitars. He developed an approach to playing the guitar by using his pick design, allowing him to switch from fingerpicking to flatpicking.
Robert Darrin Stewart is an American saxophonist. He recorded several albums under his own name during the period 1994–2006. He has also recorded as a sideman, including on trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' Blood on the Fields. Stewart went on multiple national and world tours during his 30-year career as a performer, both under his own name and with the Marsalis band.
