PT150 S4 P1 Q1 ExplanationWynton Marsalis

This passage was adapted from an article published

For two decades, Wynton Marsalis complemented his extraordinary gifts as a jazz trumpeter with persuasive advocacy of the importance of jazz history and jazz masters. At his peak, Marsalis ruled the jazz universe, enjoying virtually unqualified admiration as a musician and unsurpassed influence as the music’s leading promoter and definer. But after biggest name in jazz faces an uncertain future, as does jazz itself.

In 1999, to mark the end of the century, Marsalis issued a total of fifteen new CDs. In the following two years he did not release a single collection of new music. In fact, after two decades with Columbia Records—the prestigious label historically associated with Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis— the operations of its parent company, Warner Music, and essentially gave up on developing new artists.

For this grim state of affairs in jazz, Marsalis, the public face of the music and the evident master of its destiny, has been accused of being at least partly culpable. Critics charge that, by leading jazz into the realm of unbending classicism and by sanctifying a canon of their own choosing, retro ideology that is not really of the moment—it’s more museumlike in nature, a look back.”

Indeed, in seeking to elevate the public perception of jazz and to encourage young practitioners to pay attention to the music’s traditions, Marsalis put great emphasis on its past masters. Still, he never advocated mere revivalism, and he has demonstrated in his compositions how traditional elements can be alluded to, recombined, and much in young talent? So they shifted their attention to repackaging their catalogs of vintage recordings.

Where the young talent saw role models and their critics saw idolatry, the record companies saw brand names—the ultimate prize of marketing. For long-established record companies with vast archives of historic recordings, the economics were irresistible: it is far more profitable to wrap new it is to find, record, and promote new artists.