JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Famed American trumpeter and
composer Wynton Marsalis shared memories of his childhood and played a few
tunes Tuesday in South Africa as a prelude to headlining Johannesburg's annual
jazz festival.
Marsalis talked about his life Tuesday during a
question-and-answer session at Johannesburg's Market Theatre. Later this week,
he will perform at the city's Joy of Jazz festival.
As a trumpeter, Marsalis has won both jazz and
classical Grammy awards. As a composer, he was the first jazz artist to win the
Pulitzer Prize, in 1997 for "Blood on the Fields," a three-hour work
for singers and jazz orchestra that explores the themes of slavery and the
creativity of black Americans.
Marsalis' tribute to black American music has not
ignored its African roots. His "Congo Square" evokes a New Orleans
neighborhood where African slaves performed ancestral dancing and music, and
was written for drumming for jazz orchestra and Ghanaian percussionists and
singers.
Sibongile Khumalo, one of South Africa's best-loved
singers, welcomed him Tuesday as a "cultural activist" to the Market
Theatre. Under white racist rule, multiracial audiences and casts challenged
apartheid with original art at the Market.
Marsalis, holding his trumpet lightly between his
knees, described growing up in a large family in small Louisiana towns.
"We lived in the South, they grew up in
segregation," he said of his parents. "It wasn't a picnic."
His jazz pianist father found work scarce as
audiences turned to rhythm and blues. The racial turmoil of the time and the
nascent women's movement created new stresses for his family, he said. He said
other boys in his neighborhood were fatherless.
"They'd want to come sit in my house to see
what it was like to have a dad," said Marsalis, who also treated the small
audience gathered on a Tuesday morning to a sampling of his trumpet playing.
He praised his father's integrity and his mother's
intelligence, and said both were optimists.
John Kani, an internationally known South African
actor and former director of the Market Theatre, said South Africans also were
optimists after decades of struggle. Kani, who took part in Tuesday's
question-and-answer session, said Marsalis's visit was testament to a growing
culture of jazz appreciation in South Africa, which has its own rich musical
traditions.
Khumalo asked Marsalis whether his drive to succeed
was in part for his father.
"It was definitely for him," said
Marsalis, whose brothers include trombonist Delfeayo, saxophonist Branford and
drummer Jason.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Denis Farrell)
