Jazz/Not Jazz

Who doesn't love Wynton Marsalis? Who would dare question the trumpeter-composer-band leader's contribution to the music, his work with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, his education programs, his role in Ken Burns "Jazz" documentary, his championing of generations of jazz artists? To do so would be tantamount to kicking mom then pissing on her apple pie.

Any number of musicians, that's who. Some even whisper of a record company conspiracy hatched back in the 1980s to create Wynton, to turn a young classical technician into a technically amazing but ultimately hollow jazz soloist. They blame him for the rising institutionalization of jazz and the turn away from its improvised, constantly advancing tradition. He's been slurred as a racist and criticized for...

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