Wynton Marsalis's Blog, page 80

JLCO with Wynton Marsalis and guest artists reprise “Blood on the Fields”

LIVE WEBCAST


The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Pianist Eric Reed and Vocalists Gregory Porter, 
Kenny Washington and Paula West Perform Pulitzer Prize-Winning Work in its Entirety for the First Time Since 1994 Premiere

Who/What:

Jazz at Lincoln Center continues its 25th anniversary celebration with a special performance of Blood On The Fields, Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer prize-winning jazz oratorio.  Eighteen years after its premiere at Alice Tully Hall, the jazz oratorio on slavery and freedom will be performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.  Eric Reed, featured pianist on the premiere and original Blood On The Fields recording, joins the JLCO for this special concert event.  Blood on the Fields remains one of Marsalis’ greatest works and reinforces his dictum that “all jazz is modern.“  Rising star baritone Gregory Porter, scat-master Kenny Washington, and the great contralto Paula West reprise the vocal roles. 

Download the Blood on the Fields Playbill and Libretto

    

When:


February 21-23, 2013, 8pm

 

Where:


wyntonmarsalis.org/live

Wynton Marsalis: An ode to gumbo on CBS Sunday Morning

(CBS News) On New Orleans’ Super Bowl Sunday, Wynton Marsalis brings us an essay about his home town’s signature dish, as much a cultural symbol of New Orleans as the bayou or jazz:

New Orleans, the Crescent City. It remains a fascinating place because of the diversity of its culture. We have street parades, voodoo, and all kinds of wildness right next to door cathedrals, debutantes and manicured mansions.

We have our own music, architecture, way of speaking and, of course, food. Fried food like po’ boys, sweets like beignets, rice dishes like jambalaya.

But our signature dish is gumbo.

Gumbo is symbolic of the best of New Orleans. It’s as much as cultural symbol of Louisiana as the bayou, or jazz. That is why, like New Orleans herself, gumbo is temperamental — approachable, but unpredictable.

And across America, no dish speaks more vividly of a melting pot than gumbo. Dating back more than 300 years, it’s a complex dish born of necessity, bringing together a multiplicity of ingredients and ethnicities.

Many believe the West African slave population first created this dish out of hardship. The name “gumbo” derives from the word kingombo, which is Bantu for okra, a popular ingredient.

But it was the Chocktaw Indians who developed the spicy file powder, a key additive made from sassafras leaves. And it was the French who lay claim to the thickening agent known as the roux.

Now we didn’t know any of that history when I was growing up, but when we saw those ingredients for gumbo coming through the front door, we knew it was going to be time for a celebration — and it was.

You can find gumbo in every corner of this city, and argue every day as to whose is best. But the answer always is: There is no better pot of gumbo than one made at home.

New Orleans chef Poppy Tooker’s middle name might as well be gumbo. He told Marsalis that the best way to learn how to make gumbo “is from your grandmother, or your great-grandmother.”

“I started making gumbo when I was a little girl, and I was a pro by high school,” she said. “I had it down.”

Her take on the signature dish is revered by those near and far. She says that a few steps are required.

First, the all-important mix of flour and oil that makes up the roux. “I just stir. You can’t answer the phone, you can’t go to the door, you can’t leave it alone,” she said.

Every gumbo has to include the holy trinity of vegetables: Onions, celery, and green peppers. That’s going to be followed by Tooker’s lyrical favorite, okra. After that, it’s really just a matter of taste and opinion.

“The most important ingredient in any gumbo are the gumbo crabs,” she said.

As long as it’s made with Louisiana’s finest, and strained, simmered and stirred constantly with love, the result will always be quite poignant and soulful — like the Crescent City herself.

There is a big difference between gumbo and just any old soup. Gumbo is a full meal. It’s a tradition and a philosophy. The fundamentals don’t change, but the variations are endless. A good pot of gumbo is so much trouble to make, nobody ever makes a small pot — which is fortunate, because with a good pot of gumbo on the stove, your whole neighborhood may end up in your kitchen.

Mmmm . . . have mercy, Poppy!

Wynton Marsalis to host CBS’ Super Bowl pregame spotlight on New Orleans

CBS’ Super Bowl XLVII pregame coverage will include a one-hour New Orleans spotlight show hosted by Wynton Marsalis. “New Orleans: Let the Good Times Roll” will air at 12pm EST. game day, Feb. 3.

The special “inhabits the spirit of the city as Grammy Award-winning Marsalis celebrates one of the most unique cities in the world by introducing the rhythm and soul of the Big Easy through its music, its people, its traditions and its love of football and the New Orleans Saints as it prepares to kick off the biggest party of the year, Super Bowl XLVII,” according to the network.

Check out a trailer…

Wynton playing “When The Saints Go Marching In” at Maple Leaf Bar, New Orleans

The Crosby, Stills & Nash Songbook at Jazz at Lincoln Center

In a unique and historic collaboration, iconic rock trio Crosby, Stills & Nash and the world renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will perform together for the first time in Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in two concert events entitled “The Crosby, Stills & Nash Songbook.” The premiere on May 1, 2013 will be Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2013 Gala Concert followed by a public concert on May 3, 2013.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2013 Annual Gala Concert will honor famed New York Interior Designer and JALC Board Member Mica Ertegun and bestow upon her the organization’s Ed Bradley Award for Leadership in Jazz.

“The Crosby, Stills & Nash Songbook“will feature Crosby, Stills & Nash’s classic songs – music that has become a cornerstone of rock and roll – arranged by Marsalis and members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

“Jazz at Lincoln Center is honored that Crosby, Stills and Nash are donating their time and talent to perform at this year’s annual gala,” said Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Managing and Artistic Director. “Individually and collectively, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash are influential and important figures in American music. Their music is rooted in American folk, pop and blues traditions and their experiments with form, harmony and orchestration will make for a natural collaboration.”

“Wynton Marsalis, who has become America’s musical hero and ambassador to the world in the tradition of the great Louis Armstrong, has offered us the chance to make music with the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra,” said David Crosby. “These are musicians who have spent their whole lives becoming the very best in the world at what they do. We are are excited and fascinated with this merging of musical streams and looking forward to a night to remember.”

The Jazz at Lincoln Center gala dinner décor will be designed by David Beahm, and dinner will be served by Great Performances, the exclusive in-house caterer for Jazz at Lincoln Center.

When:

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Jazz at Lincoln Center Annual Gala and Concert

7pm concert in Rose Theater

9pm dinner in The Allen Room and Atrium

Friday, May 3, 2013

8pm concert in Rose Theater

Where:

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall

Broadway at 60th Street, New York, New York.

Gala Tickets:

Gala tickets begin at $1,500 and tables begin at $25,000.. Contact Stacie Middleton Crawford at scrawford@jalc.org.

Concert tickets for May 3:

Tickets for the public concert on May 3 will be available to Jazz at Lincoln Center members and subscribers with a MasterCard® card starting February 4, 2013 at 10amET. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on February 11, 2013. All ticket sales will be handled via jalc.org, through CenterCharge at 212-721-6500 or the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office at Broadway and 60th Street inside Time Warner Center. MasterCard cardholders will also have privileged access to purchase a quantity of the best seats in house located in the orchestra section through MasterCard Priceless New York (priceless.com/ny) beginning on February 11, 2013. Quantities are limited. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office is open Monday through Saturday, 10am-6pm, and Sundays, 12pm-6pm. There is a maximum of two tickets per household. There are no group sales, Hot Seats, or discounted tickets available for this event.

Webcast: The JLCO playing the Music of Gerry Mulligan & John Lewis

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis addresses the compositions and arrangements of baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and pianist John Lewis, whose recorded paths first intersected with Miles Davis’ legendary Birth of the Cool nonet. Neither jazz master was a stranger to JALC—both developed close relationships with the organization during the 90s. Their respective oeuvres, melody-rich, harmonically astute, and brimming with blues connotation, ideally suit the JLCO sound. Featuring the charismatic and high-energy modern pianist Jonathan Batiste.

Join Wynton, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Jonathan Batiste and Doug Wamble LIVE from the House of Swing as we celebrate the music of John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan.

When: Saturday January 19, 2013

Time: 2PM ET & 8PM ET (7PM GMT & 1AM GMT)

Where to watch: jalc.org/live

Wall Street Journal: Jazzy Wynton Marsalis

ACCORDING TO WYNTON Marsalis, jazz “places a premium on originality and individuality.” Personal style has always has been a key element to the genre, to the music itself and beyond. “When people dress well, they play well,” said Mr. Marsalis, 51, in an interview at the gleaming new offices of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York (JALC). He added with a laugh, “My thing is if we don’t sound good, at least we look good.” To ensure the latter, he’s got a wardrobe of natty suits, and wore a Brooks Brothers gray pinstripe three-piece to our interview (Brooks is the official clothier of JALC).

But it is all the aspects of jazz—style, history, culture—that the virtuoso trumpeter and composer works ardently to preserve. Mr. Marsalis, who was born and raised in New Orleans, has been the artistic director of JALC since he co-founded the nonprofit institution in 1987, and was recently named managing director.

He has also become jazz’s international ambassador. This past fall, he traveled to Doha, Qatar, to unveil the first Jazz at Lincoln Center venue outside New York. (It’s attached to the city’s St. Regis hotel.) He relished the experience, he said, “to use the music for the reason it was born, to bring people closer together.”

To mark JALC’s 25th anniversary this year, Mr. Marsalis worked on a commemorative book called “In the Spirit of Swing,” which chronicles the institution’s quarter century. In February, he will join the JALC Orchestra to perform “Blood on the Fields,” the epic composition that earned him a Pulitzer Prize 18 years ago; this will be the first time the piece is performed in its entirety since then. Despite his achievements, he insists much of what he does is just paying attention to and taking cues from other musicians. “You’re engaged in listening because the people you’re listening to are making it up as they go,” he said. “And you have to follow.”

At first I didn’t want to play trumpet, because I didn’t want that ugly lip. I told my daddy, “Man, the girls aren’t gonna want to see that.” Then, when I was in high school, I realized girls like musicians.

As soon as I could afford a suit I got one. I had a peach leisure suit that was one of the ugliest things you ever saw in the ’70s. And I remember when I was 16 in New Orleans, a guy was throwing two suits out and he called out to me, “Hey man, you want these suits?” One of them was a cream-colored silk suit that I wore ‘til I came to New York. That suit meant a lot.

Duke Ellington always had a style: original, clean with interesting color combinations. He had an artist’s eye.

The trumpet is a very physical instrument. You’re trying to make metal bend, so when you play a lot, it hurts.

You’ve got to warm up, but as a basketball coach of mine used to say: If you have to bounce the ball three times and flip it and twist your arm before a free-throw, it probably means you can’t shoot ‘em.

Musicians like to converse. There’s always interesting conversation with musicians—with classical musicians, with jazz musicians, musicians in general.

I almost never watch TV, except for “60 Minutes” and pro football. I love Drew Brees, the Manning brothers and the Steelers’ linebackers.

One of the greatest books I’ve read is “Endurance,” about Ernest Shackleton.

The greatest concert I ever saw was Betty Carter, in Vienna. She was a great original: the virtuosity, the fire, the freedom of her style. You could tell the audience understood they were in the presence of something great.

I don’t like to fly, so I spend hours in the car when we’re on tour and see the country. My friend Frank Stewart drives me in an Escalade. I don’t get carsick, so I can write music and read. That kind of mental isolation is actually very productive for me.

A big influence when I was young was a trip to Japan. I was 19. It was the music, the haikus, Noh and Kabuki theater—the kinds of things only older people go to these days.

I stay grounded by being very fundamental in my desires. Rather than making something complicated, simplify it.

Most of the music my 16-year-old son listens to is a commercial product. Socially, I think it is relevant, but it’s not that interesting from a musical standpoint.

I’m from the Bayou. I love the Creole folklore, the architecture and of course the food. My mom made the best red beans and rice, gumbo, pecan pies and ribs. She had her own style. Everyone used to tell me, “Man, your mama is doing something different.”

I don’t collect anything. I can’t really hold onto physical things for some reason. It isn’t my thing.

I cut my mustache because my son told me to when he was 10. He said, “Why are you afraid to do something different?” So I cut it, and I kept it off.

My favorite movies are the first two “Godfathers,” for the costumes, the cinematography, the music, the pageantry, the multigenerational scope, the family dynamics. And I like “The Wizard of Oz.” Judy Garland was a kind of genius.

In the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, there was a different approach to showmanship. I was looking at videos of Cab Calloway. It’s almost like you had to wear the clothes to play the music. [My band] all has different philosophies about it. Most of the time, we wear a jacket and tie. Some guys like it, some guys don’t.

My life is too unstructured for daily routines. I like things kind of unruly. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to ride the wave. A lot of us don’t have that luxury. But I do try to go to bed by 1:30 and get up by seven.

There are many places I’d love to go, but it’s more about the people. I wish I could go to Japan with [bassist] Kengo Nakamura, or just hang in Russia with my man [saxophonist] Igor Butman.

If you’ve got basic manners, you can go into someone’s home anywhere in the world and have a good time.

I like doing two opposite things at once, like trying to get the biggest sound at the softest volume. My son had a great observation about John Coltrane: “He plays with a lot of intensity, but he’s also relaxed.” It’s the same with LeBron [James]. He’s so skilled, but he loves to pass the ball.

My great uncle cut stone for the cemetery in New Orleans. I have a really small stone from him. He engraved on it, “Don’t be discourage.” He ran out of space, so it doesn’t have the last D. But I think it is better that way. It keeps it in the present tense.

Source: WSJ.com

Wynton Marsalis’ CBS Super Bowl pregame special to explore the city’s culture, history

The roots of CBS’ Super Bowl pregame hour dedicated to New Orleans – hosted by Wynton Marsalis, “New Orleans: Let the Good Times Roll” will air at 11 a.m. game day, Feb. 3, as part of the network’s seven-hour pre-kickoff package – reach back to a recorded piece Marsalis did for the network a few hours before the New Orleans Saints’ victory in Super Bowl XLIV.

That day, Marsalis recited an essay, punctuated by music, that summed up what four-plus decades of being a Saints fan meant to the Who Dat faithful, all in the context of the rhythms and history of the city itself.

It concluded: “It’s like waiting 43 years to hear somebody say ‘I Love You’ back. And they do.”

This year’s Marsalis special was born at a brainstorming session in spring 2012.

“We were talking about the city of New Orleans and obviously the great Super Bowl tradition there – the music, the culture, the cuisine, the architecture — and somebody in our sales division said, ‘Why don’t we do a show featuring the music of New Orleans? We’ll do a live show. We’ll get Harry Connick, Jr., and Wynton Marsalis and Trombone Shorty,’” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, during a Tuesday (Jan. 8) phone interview. “Someone said, ‘What if it rains?’ It’s really expensive to get performers on network television. Music specials don’t do that well on prime time television, not to mention Sunday-afternoon television. Then I remembered that piece Wynton Marsalis had done for us. It was so heartfelt and authentic. It was obviously just a beautiful piece.”

Marsalis, a CBS News consultant, was brought in for a meeting.

“We started tossing around ideas,” McManus said. “I kind of gave a broad outline of a show we might do, and then Wynton started talking about a show he wanted to do. He started talking about how no other city has everything that New Orleans has. Cities have great culture, they have great food, they have great architecture, some have great history. But no city in the world has all these things combined. He started going through it. He did a minute on the food and all the different kinds of cuisine there. A minute on the architecture. A minute on the music, and how the musicians are recovering from Katrina, and how important this all is.

“He finished, and I said, ‘That’s the first five minutes of our show right there. Guys, I wish we had a camera.’ We started talking about it after that and we all got more and more exited.

“It’s very different. It’s not your normal NFL preview or pregame show to do, but the genesis came from this incredible essay he did for us. We thought that if we could take some of that magic and some of that poetry and some of that beauty and make it into an hour show, it would be pretty special.”

McManus said that some of the components of the hour are still in production – Sarah Rinaldi of CBS Sports is the special’s producer – adding that more than 30 interviews have already been filmed. One segment will cover previous Super Bowls in the city — “There has to be some football,” McManus said – while others will explore music and food.

“The concept is to kind of see the city through all the people who live in that city, whether they are poor or rich or black or white or older or younger,” he said. “Some of the rushes I’ve seen are just spectacular in terms of the beauty and the color that they have captured of New Orleans.”

Given Super Bowl Sunday advertising rates, CBS is dedicating some pricey real-estate to “New Orleans: Let the Good Times Roll.”

It will also be delivering an hour of priceless international attention to the game’s host city and its culture on the most-watched day of the TV year.

“There’s really not a lot of risk,” McManus said. “The biggest risk is that it won’t be a good show, and that in my mind is not a risk because of the people involved. If it gets a very, very low rating, so be it. We’re not doing this to attract a huge audience. We’re doing this because we think it’s the right thing to do. It’s a great tribute to a terrific city that has come through a very difficult time. I think it’s the right thing to do and it’s an important show to do.

“If we wanted to get a higher rating, I could do a show on the world’s greatest NFL cheerleaders. That would probably get a higher rating than doing a show on New Orleans with Wynton Marsalis. This is the right thing to do.”

Source: NOLA.com

‘Cotton Club Parade’ Will March Onto Broadway

After two popular engagements at City Center, “Cotton Club Parade” – a musical revue celebrating the Harlem nightclub during the Duke Ellington era – will move to Broadway this fall, its producers announced on Wednesday. With minimal spoken text, this 90-minute show recreates many of the big-band swing and blues numbers of the Cotton Club during the 1920s and ‘30s, with the score including works by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields (“I Can’t Give You Anything but Love”), Harold Arlen (“Stormy Weather,” “I’ve Got the World on a String”) and Ellington (“Rockin’ in Rhythm,” “Cotton Club Stomp”).

Music and theater critics praised the original City Center run in 2011 and an encore outing last fall, especially for the work of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra directed by Wynton Marsali, which will be part of the Broadway production. Warren Carlyle will again direct and choreograph the show, which was conceived by Jack Viertel, artistic director of the City Center Encores! series. Casting, performance dates and a Broadway theater will be announced later. The producers are Alan D. Marks, Barbara Marks, Wade Turnbull, Steve Hendel, Ruth Hendel, and Tom Kirdahy

Source: NY Times

Wynton Marsalis to Deliver 2013 Commencement Address at UVM

Acclaimed jazz and classical musician Wynton Marsalis will be the featured speaker at the University of Vermont’s commencement ceremony on May 19, 2013.

Celebrated for his contributions as a performer, composer, bandleader and educator, trumpeter Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards. He is the only artist in history to have received Grammys for five consecutive years and to have received a Grammy for both jazz and classical music in the same year (1983).

Marsalis is currently managing and artistic director of jazz at Lincoln Center after serving as artistic director beginning in 1987. Under his leadership, 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. He has performed in more than thirty countries and with a variety of orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and London’s Royal Philharmonic.

In 1997 Marsalis became the first jazz musician ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for music, for his epic oratorio, Blood on the Fields. In 2010 he launched a multi-year lecture series at Harvard to promote awareness of the importance of cultural literacy, with a special focus on the relationship between American music and the American identity. Marsalis has also written six books including Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life (Random House, 2008), with Geoffrey C. Ward; and his latest children’s book, Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!, illustrated by Paul Rogers (Candlewick, 2012).

Born in New Orleans to a musical family, Marsalis has five brothers, three of whom are professional musicians. His father is also a long-time educator and professional musician. His son, Simeon, attends UVM and is graduating in May.

Source: UVM.edu

Finale, Jonathan Kelly, and the Wynton Marsalis Septet

The Wynton Marsalis Septet recently collaborated with the Garth Fagan Dance Company on a new piece titled Lighthouse/Lightning Rod. The world premiere performance also included excerpts from Griot New York, the 1991 collaboration between Wynton and Garth Fagan.

Wynton Marsalis’ music supervisor, Jonathan Kelly, described for us their workflow for the creation of the new music, and Finale’s role in the process.

Scott Yoho: Let me get this straight: You had about two days to rehearse an evening’s worth of new music before going in the studio to record it. Two days before that, this music didn’t exist anywhere but Wynton’s head?

JK: Something like that. It might have just been one day of rehearsal and then one day in the studio, maybe two days in the studio. It’s not a lot of time.

A few days before the first rehearsal, I got a call from Wynton, and he said; “Okay man, let’s start doing this.” Then I spent something like 48 straight hours working on this music — there are eight individual songs, or movements. He’d finish one, and I’ll start working on it. He’s working on the next one. We’d kind of trade in that fashion.

SY: And Wynton doesn’t’ bring completed pencil sketches, he creates them on the spot?

JK: That’s exactly what he does. He still sits at the piano and composes straight pencil-to-paper. In this case, the instrumentation is septet, so it’s four horns, piano, bass and drums. He hands me piano reductions, where it’s pretty clearly orchestrated who is playing what, and I make a score and the parts. That said, I don’t know when he starts to conceptualize some of these songs: I know he is someone who is thinking a lot.

But by the time he sits down with the pencil he is composing a song basically one-for-one to me copying: He will hand me a page, and I’ll start to copy it. By the time I finish the first song, he is usually ready to give me the second set. So when I say that I work with him a couple of days ahead of time, it’s a little bit of an exaggeration just because by the time we got to our first rehearsal, we weren’t actually finished yet. I’m always coming into rehearsal working on the subsequent pieces. Then, maybe that night after that rehearsal, I finish the last one.

SY: Your workflow has to be VERY efficient.

JK: Over the past decade or so we’ve just developed technique that never could have happened fifty, sixty years ago. From the editing we’ve done for the symphony, or the mass Wynton wrote for the Abyssinian Baptist choir, to the new music for concerts with Eric Clapton, or Paul Simon, the sheer volume of stuff that we do every year, it just wouldn’t be possible without Finale.

SY: After you completed the recordings, you sent them to Garth Fagan, and they rehearsed with them all summer. I understand that they become accustomed to even the improvised sections, right?

JK: Right. The music includes improvised sections, and they’ve choreographed to that, too. Now they want to hear certain things, like Wynton’s trumpet solos, they’re used to dancing to, so if he goes and starts improvising on it at the performance, forget it. They get lost in the form or the dance just doesn’t make sense.

SY: So to eliminate this problem, you actually transcribed Wynton’s improvised sections?

JK: Exactly, I transcribed many of his trumpet solos. It was funny because at first I showed some transcriptions to him, and he said, “Oh, I don’t want you to waste your time. I don’t know if you have to do that.” I’ve had similar experiences in the past, so I wanted to be ready. At the end of the first day of the rehearsal, Wynton said, “Oh man I’m glad you did this.”

It’s not what it used to be to sit down with a recording and transcribe a solo: Today it’s much faster. It’s much easier. Plus with Finale you can hear it back; that makes a big difference in transcription. In my case, I’m a bass player transcribing trumpet, hearing something I can’t recreate at tempo. I can’t play it on a piano or my bass fast enough. The playback is just key for someone like me in transcribing.

SY: It’s key for me too, but it’s reassuring to hear that someone who works at the level of you relies on it, too. In our earlier discussion you indicated how these transcriptions differ from a transcription you might create for publication – they’re not ALWAYS note-for-note.

JK: I could probably get by with direction like fast, slow, high and low, but I’m kind of a perfectionist in general. My mind just kind of works that way, so I prefer to transcribe every note. But I do make exceptions.

He has, I call them, Wyntonism’s, technique-driven melodic devices that he can play really high and really fast. When I’d find myself trying to write out one of those note-for-note, I’d catch myself. So there were actually a few points on his trumpet solo, on the printed copy, where he was like, “What does WTS mean?”

For me it’s “Wynton Type Stuff.”

SY: [Laughter] That’s excellent!

JK: That’s not actually what WTS stands for, but that’s the PG version.

SY: Can you say anything else about how Finale plays a part in your work?

JK: Finale has evolved to the point where the artist is allowed to dictate the workflow and not vice versa. I always draw an analogy between my workflow with Wynton and cultivating diamonds. It takes a very specific environment to create a diamond and it’s an atmosphere where very few things can survive. One change in temperature or pressure, and you’ve got a flawed diamond, or even graphite. Writing music is hard enough as it is. It starts as an idea, then you have to translate it to a visual representation, then many people have to simultaneously interpret your representation. I’m not saying that we always are putting out diamonds, but at least with Finale we have a puncher’s chance.

I’d like to thank Jonathan for taking the time to talk with me and for providing the samples of Wynton’s manuscript and score. Check out some great rehearsal video of Lighthouse/Lightning Rod, and share your thoughts or tell us what you’re working on by clicking on “Comments’ below.

Source: FinaleMusic.com