THE ‘80s A Special Report :...

In May of 1981, at a long-forgotten Los Angeles club known as the Maiden Voyage, Wynton Marsalis emerged with Art Balkey’s Jazz Messengers. He was promptly hailed as a 19-year-old discovery and potential star of the 1980s; but there was more to it than that; more, in fact, that he had already accomplished.

The teen-aged wonder, we soon learned, had racked up several years of classical and jazz credits in his native New Orleans; moreover, he was a member of a unique family, three of whose members have since become nationally celebrated: father Ellis Marsalis, older brother Branford, and his younger brother Delfeayo.

Wynton Marsalis has become a symbol of a musical life style of the 1980s. He has helped, more than any musician who preceded him, to break down idiomatic boundaries that had too long existed in music. At the same time he has spearheaded a move toward acoustic, unhyphenated jazz at a time when fusion seemed to be taking precedence.

The Taste Makers project was edited by David Fox, assistant Sunday Calendar editor.