To a Young Jazz Musician
Subtitle: Letters from the Road
Publisher: Random House
Published: October 12, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 144
ISBN-13: 9781400063994
Subjects: Music/Songbooks; Jazz; Music; Vocational guidance; Conduct of life; Music / Jazz; Genres & Styles - Jazz; Jazz musicians
First sentence: Today would have been a good day for you to hang with us.
Description: "In To a Young Jazz Musician, the renowned jazz musician and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wynton Marsalis gives us an invaluable guide to making good music - and to leading a good life."

"Writing from the road "between the bus ride, the sound check, and the gig," Marsalis passes on wisdom gained from experience, addressed to a young musician coming up - and to any of us at any stage of life.

He writes that having humility is a way to continue to grow, to listen, and to learn; that patience is necessary for developing both technical proficiency and your own art rather than an imitation of someone else's; and that rules are indispensable because "freedom lives in structure." He offers lessons learned from his years as a performer and from his great forebears Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and others; he explores the art of swing; he discusses why it is important to run toward your issues, not away; and he talks about what to do when your integrity runs up against the lack thereof in others and in our culture."--Jacket.