Everyone seems to know Wynton Marsalis.

The Grammys know Marsalis and have called him nine times.

So did the Pulitzer Prize committee, which honored his “Blood on the Fields,” a piece of music focused on stories of slavery and liberation, in 1997.

Barack Obama knows Marsalis, presenting him with a National Humanities Medal in 2015. Fred Rogers knew him too, inviting Marsalis to the neighborhood in 1986.

Even people who aren’t into jazz know the trumpeter ambassador, meeting him through the school curriculum, his work in the classical realm, the feature films he created for CBS News, or the Emmy Award-winning short. which honored the team from his hometown of New Orleans. Saints and their 2010 Super Bowl victory.

When so many people know you, who you knowing – and who you want to work with – matters more. For Marsalis, that list includes Columbia, a city he’s visited for nearly 35 years, and a concert series he knows intimately.

He will return to the “We Always Swing” jazz series on Wednesday, performing at the Missouri Theater with the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra.

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Marsalis has a long history with Columbia

Marsalis first visited Columbia in 1987, when he was still in his twenties, according to the Jazz Series website. He led a quartet date, then returned relatively soon after as part of Art Blakey’s iconic Jazz Messengers band.

His last visit to the Jazz Series, which established itself in 1995, was with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in December 2016. In a conversation with the Tribune, Marsalis said cities with so much personal history and music feel like an “extended family.”

He warmly praised the “dedication” and “aspirations” of Jazz series executive director and Tribune columnist Jon Poses. The quality of his work “speaks for itself”, said the trumpeter.

“Presenters create the sense of community — and he’s always about that,” Marsalis said of Poses. “And about the quality. And the quality of your audience speaks to the quality of your curation.”

Marsalis knows more than a thing or two about laying the creative cement in which institutions become strong and solid. Jazz at Lincoln Center emerged from New York City’s major cultural hub in 1987, the same year Marsalis first made its way through central Missouri.

He co-founded the program and, as its artistic director for its entire life cycle so far, has developed it in various directions. Among the accomplishments listed on the Jazz at Lincoln Center website: a reach of approximately 2 million people through in-person and online concerts, educational initiatives and more; nearly 150,000 students from its recent programs; and concerts radiating from New York to 41 countries.

Marsalis itself is an American institution, and staying agile means staying a lifelong learner. In a recent Q&A with SFJazz, he identified some of his music teachers as well as the influence of writers such as Albert Murray, Stanley Crouch and Ralph Ellison.

The “level of conversation” was high whenever Marsalis was in the company of these artists, he told the Tribune. They shared a story he didn’t know, talked about art and music in terms he’d never used, and called on him to think about what William Faulkner, Jackson Pollock or ancient mythology might have to do with modern jazz.

Years later, Marsalis still clearly appreciates the way a writer like Ellison discussed decades-old Count Basie gigs as if he just played “last night.” These thinkers taught him “how much reality” had to weigh on his music “to animate it in a present time”, he said.

Just a member of the group

Marsalis may be the name that lights up marquees coast to coast, but he doesn’t feel possessive of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra or consider them his band. This coming week, he will “discuss in the back row” as part of the orchestra’s trumpet section, the notes of the Jazz series.

It’s a band full of frontmen and writers, Marsalis said, estimating the band has produced 1,200 original arrangements over the past 10 to 15 years. Each arranger in the group calls on the others to help them unstick or shape a few bars with their unique expertise, he says.

“I learned a whole world of music just by playing with them,” Marsalis added.

Before embarking on this tour, Marsalis – always in tune with jazz history and the moment – knew that 2022 audiences needed a particularly personal touch. He asked each band member to select the three to five arrangements that meant the most to them. The band goes through this ledger when creating a setlist each night.

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This iteration of the orchestra features musicians between the ages of 20 and 60, Marsalis said. And the 15-piece ensemble includes world-class musicians like reed masters Ted Nash and Sherman Irby and a rhythm section made up of pianist Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Obed Calvaire.

The band underscores the perennial truth that no two bandstand nights will be alike.

“Every night someone shocks you,” Marsalis said.

And that sense of surprise that swells within the group translates into the satisfaction of the audience eager to leave the house and feel something.

“Everyone is happy not to be at home, to be around other people. Listening can be a sacred activity, if you sit in community,” Marsalis said.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will host their music in a present time, performing at 7 p.m. Wednesday; tickets range from $20 to $60. Visit https://www.wealwaysswing.org/ for details.

Aarik Danielsen is the Features and Culture Editor for Tribune. Contact him at [email protected] or by calling 573-815-1731.