Marsalis Credits Ellington, Fellow Musicians for Pulitzer

Jazz reached a milestone this week with the announcement on Monday that Wynton Marsalis had been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his composition “Blood on the Fields.” It was the first out-and-out jazz work to do so (although one or two jazz-influenced compositions have received the award in the past).

The piece is a grand, if occasionally uneven effort to use jazz as the vehicle for a large-scale, oratorio-style dramatic presentation. Literally overflowing with gospel sounds, jazz improvisations, field calls and blues patterns, with vocals sung by Jon Hendricks, Cassandra Wilson and Miles Griffith, it is a poetic reflection upon the darkest aspects of slavery filtered through the perspective of jazz.

(Those who missed the live performance of “Blood on the Fields” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in January will have an opportunity to hear it in its entirety when Sony releases the album in late May.)

The awarding of the Pulitzer to Marsalis is the latest--and perhaps the most astonishing--achievement in a career that has seen the 35-year-old trumpeter-composer make one breakthrough after another. Among his many remarkable accomplishments, he is the first musician to win Grammys in both the jazz and classical categories. And last year was the pivotal figure in the elevation of his Lincoln Center jazz program--the country’s only such program at a major arts center--to an equal status with dance, theater, opera and classical music.

But Marsalis is well aware of the fact that it is not his talent alone, exceptional though it may be, which has taken him to these levels.

“You know,” he said in a phone conversation Monday afternoon after the awards were announced, “my father sat behind segregation signs on streetcars and buses. But we live in different times now. And for somebody like me, all of my life has been seeing these changes--the integration in the schools, black kids playing organized ball, all the stuff that black kids couldn’t do in my father’s time.

“A lot of the problems I’ve had with the media have been because I didn’t have to follow that code that was imposed on people, like my father, who came before me. And I didn’t follow it.”

What Marsalis has followed is his own, self-determined path, often in companionship with musicians who grew up in the same environment, having the same experiences he did. Which is why he is quick to note that he views the Pulitzer Prize as a reward for their joint efforts.

“It’s for me and for the cats in the band,” he said, “because we all work on this stuff together. Wes [alto saxophonist Wessell Anderson] just called me and said, ‘Yeah, man, it’s finally being heard out there.’ And then he teased me a little by adding, ‘ ‘Cause for years we’ve been questioning what we’ve been playing.’ And he’s right about that because when we were putting some of the music together, I had to keep saying, ‘This is not noise, man. It sounds like noise, but it’s not. If we keep playing it, it’s going to come clear.’ ”

In an oddly ironic twist, the honoring of “Blood on the Fields”--a work that Marsalis readily acknowledges was influenced by Duke Ellington--reminds us that Ellington himself had an unfortunate brush with the politics of Pulitzer Prizes.

In 1965 the Pulitzer advisory board overturned the recommendation of a three-man jury that had recommended a special citation for Ellington to note the “vitality and originality of his total production.”

Ellington responded to the slight in his usual aristocratic fashion offering the comment, “Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be famous too young.” He was 66 at the time and died in 1974.

Marsalis, when reminded of the incident, took a similarly philosophical viewpoint. “It’s a shame it had to be like that for Duke,” Marsalis said. “But that’s what it was. And Duke dealt with it. He went out and sat down to write some more great music.”

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Bowl Jazz: The summer jazz schedule at the Hollywood Bowl is as conservative as ever. But it does contain some attractive highlights. On June 29, a “Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald” showcases a lineup of singers that includes Dianne Reeves, Joe Williams, Vic Damone and Melissa Manchester. A jazz piano congregation takes center stage on July 23, with Dave Brubeck, McCoy Tyner and David Benoit featured.

“Flying Down to Rio” on July 25 and 26 celebrates the music of Brazil, with Sergio Mendes and Brazil 99 and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. A 90th birthday party for veteran jazz legend Benny Carter takes place on Aug. 6. Hiroshima and the Zawinul Syndicate perform in a JVC Jazz program on Aug. 24, and Tony Bennett sings on Aug. 27.

A night of Brazilian music on Sept. 3 should be one of the more appealing evenings, with Ivan Lins and Gilberto Gil scheduled to perform. And the final event, a program of salsa and Latin jazz on Sept. 27, will once again bring the Bowl jazz season to a rousing finale.

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Around Town: The super-charged Latin jazz of Jerry Gonzalez and the Ft. Apache Band continues at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday, (213) 466-2210. . . . Alto saxophonist Bobby Watson makes an unusual appearance as a sideman with the Emmeth North Jr. Quartet at Lunaria tonight, (310) 282-8870. . . . The gifted pianist Marcus Roberts performs at Pepperdine University’s Smothers Theatre Sunday at 3 p.m., (310) 317-EVNT. . . . On Sunday night, the Christian McBride Quartet is at the South Bay Center for the Arts, 7 p.m., (800) 832-ARTS. . . . Nancy Wilson and Joe Williams bring their “Simply Elegant Tour” to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts Thursday and April 18, (800) 300-4345.