After almost 40 years heading up Jazz at Lincoln Center, jazz icon Wynton Marsalis recently announced he’ll be stepping down next year.
“It’s one of those things where he talked about it for years, but hardly any of us thought it would ever happen,” said Rodney Whitaker, head of Michigan State University’s jazz studies and a longtime friend of Marsalis.
Lansing audiences will have another opportunity to see Marsalis, who will step down from his role as artistic director in July 2027, when he leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at Wharton Center. The concert will be the sixth time they have played Wharton.
Whitaker’s relationship with Marsalis, 64, dates back to when the MSU jazz chief was a teenager. Whitaker, 57, a jazz bassist, also played in Marsalis’ Lincoln Center band from 1995-2002, touring the world.
For Whitaker, Marsalis has been both part mentor and part big brother over the years.
Has that included giving Whitaker advice as head of MSU’s jazz program?
”Oh yeah. All the time,” Whitaker said. “I ask him questions and any time I didn’t listen to him, he usually tells me, ‘I told you so.’ ”
Whitaker clearly remembers when the pair first met.
“It was when I was growing up in Detroit. I was 14 and he was playing with the Detroit Civic Orchestra, and they gave us tickets to the rehearsal, and we came up to meet him,” Whitaker said. “He told me from that day, he said, you’re a serious young man. Someday we’re going to play together.”
And that was the beginning of a 43-year relationship.
“The first time we played together it was really informal,” Whitaker said. “I was 24 and touring in Europe. We met up and jammed a little bit in a club. I joined his band when I was 28.”
When Marsalis started his band, big bands were on their way out. Woody Herman, Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich were gone. Whitaker said that Marsalis loved Duke Ellington and wanted to have a band that paid tribute to him and the other classics of the big band era.
“Back then, we knew very little about Ellington’s music,” Whitaker said. “Even the diehard jazz folks didn’t really know his music.”
The band was on the road often and was always highly disciplined — the gold standard of professionalism.
“Wynton was always a tough conductor,” Whitaker said. “He had very high standards.
“In 1999, we toured for 10 months. We went everywhere. Europe several times, then China, Japan, Hong Kong, Hawaii, Australia, everywhere.”
How’d they keep the performances so good?
“We rehearsed every day,” Whitaker said. “We had soundchecks before every concert, but they were really rehearsals.”
Marsalis also had high expectations for how the band looked on stage — always sweet and sharp in their matching tailored suits.
“We always had a clothing endorsement. Back then it was Joseph Abboud suits, but now it is Brooks Brothers,” Whitaker said. “We also had a wardrobe person travel with us who ironed all the shirts and suits. Some of the band guys were not good at taking care of their clothes, and I was in that category. So the wardrobe person was important. Except for Wynton. He took care of his own clothes. He was very serious about it.”
Through the years, Marsalis became an eloquent spokesman for jazz. Whitaker also spoke about Marsalis’ love for history.
“He was brave enough to say what he thought,” Whitaker said. “Some people disagreed with him, but he had to say it. That was part of who he was. That’s his makeup.”
Marsalis has not stopped growing and developing himself as a musician. Over the past 10 years or so, Marsalis has written many works for symphony orchestras — symphonies, concertos and suites. They have been played by all the major orchestras in the world.
And he still makes time to mentor Whitaker.
“He always encouraged me to develop my intellect and read books,” Whitaker said. “And this was years before I had dreams of being a jazz director of a jazz program. And now he’s still pushing me to do great things.”
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Music icon Wynton Marsalis bringing Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra back to Wharton
Reporting by Ken Glickman, For the Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
