Wynton at Harvard, Chapter 20: Blues Fundamentals

Delve into Wynton Marsalis's six-part Harvard University lecture series, covering a range of topics including jazz, what it means to be American, and the importance of cultural literacy and the arts in the liberal arts education.
XX. Blues Fundamentals
In this chapter, Wynton argues why "the blues is a train," signifying freedom.
Go to jazz.org/wyntonatharvard for the complete series.
"Hidden in Plain View: Meanings in American Music" is a series of six lectures delivered at Harvard University between 2011 and 2014 sponsored by the Office of the President and Provost. The inaugural lecture, “Music as Metaphor,” was delivered in Sanders Theatre to a capacity crowd. It is an interpretation of the many unobserved symbols in American music and an investigation into how they illuminate the democratic process.
It covers many of the fundamental devices, forms, and songs that bind the different Americas together at the root. It is Marsalis's contention that "'Me vs. You' and 'Us vs. Y'all'-vs. 'All of Us'-remains the struggle at the heart of humankind and the central debate of our Constitution. How do we achieve a common ground when individual victories are so much more valued? This conundrum has been resolved harmoniously in our musical arts for more than a century. Under the vibrant din of our democracy, on the lower frequencies, sonic metaphors speak to and for us all. What they tell us about what it means to be American could serve us well in these divisive and uncivil times."
Performances by Marsalis's ensemble (with special guest, the iconic fiddler Mark O'Connor) punctuate the lecture with musical explanations.
Mark O’Connor - fiddle
Walter Blanding - reeds
James Chirillo - guitar
Dan Nimmer - piano
Carlos Henriquez - bass
Ali Jackson - drums
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To learn more about Jazz at Lincoln Center, visit us at www.jazz.org

[@brianq2174]

Are these people there against their will? Wow! It appears they showed up for a lecture on the best way to make marmalade but got the wrong room. Great stuff... wish I had an opportunity to be there. Cheers!

[@NathanAMeyers]

Itchin their eyes, folded arms, stone faces, yeah. But I bet their heads were in it

[@nathanvillalpando6958]

seriously! it's frustrating because I'd kill to be in their seats and yet no one seems like they're appreciating the music and wonderful breakdown by Wynton

[@caribtor]

They probably had their heads destroyed by too much cartesian dualism….?

[@juliuswashington5950]

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed, no idea how they're not appreciating this opportunity

[@boss2377]

yep they really seem zombies disconnected from emotions...

[@emillindroth]

I love the blues. It's a part of my identity, always has been. It's sort of tied to Swedish melancholy I guess. It's hard to explain. There's an ancient darkness to this part of the planet. The harshness, the long winters, the cold, the loneliness. With the blues it becomes bearable. I believe I've read, watched and heard just about everything I could find about the blues, but there's always more to discover. This here was a mighty fine performance, masterfully played and narrated. Enlightening. Only thing I find peculiar and that few people seem to touch when it comes to the blues craft is what I call blue sarcasm, it's rarely brought up. The way people figured out way back in the beginning that they could sing about their idiot boss disguising it as love affair between a man and a woman, the word puzzling, the ingenious subtle humour and the play with rhymes that blows your mind every time. All of it - extremely intelligent, without being necessarily intellectual. It's beyond clever, beyond intellectual and a sure sign of human innovation. To me, it's significally an essence of the genre. You put it so beautifully... deep down the core is always about freedom. I mean, we all know that, but it just needed it to be said out loud. For what it's worth, thank you. Thank you a million times over for putting the finger right there, on it. The yearning for freedom, that's what is all about. That yearning transcends time, race, gender, religion, culture - just about everything. All summed up in the blues. It's liberating. Magic.

[@plesnitrener3299]

3:17 this boy on the piano is obviously extremely talented when he plays with these kings at such a young age

[@pabloricardodetarragon2649]

Born 1982, are you a boy on 2011, when this lecture was recorded? He is a seasoned and appreciated musician.

[@LordCLecter]

@@pabloricardodetarragon2649 it was a babyface joke... Some people don't seem to get irony 🤣

[@pt68picaso]

Thanks for citing the part. 👍

[@basieite]

As a former humanities teacher, I think he is the best teacher I ever heard

[@JideIlene]

he really is quite amazing. Great story teller, great communicator, world class musician and a good human being

[@luckydave328]

A fantastically accurate and descriptive piece of beautiful prose/poetry. Wynton nailed it.

[@803cart]

this blues monologue would make gil scott heron smile im sure

[@MrEazyE357]

Thank you Wynton and everyone else there playing. This series is amazing! P.S. I'm so sorry for that audience though. Y'all deserve so much better!

[@nathanielwilliford2589]

Great stuff. Wynton has done so much for music and the world in general. He is my biggest inspiration as a musician

[@LucaMusicBeats]

Woooow

[@BuddhatheBlackDog]

And he’s so kind with his time

[@joshbrown4506]

I could listen to these guys drop knowledge all day

[@failtolawl]

I love American culture

[@djakfkanfnanfajfiajdjajdjd6719]

4:20 to 6:00 absolutely blew me away. Makes me appreciate blues not just as a music form but as a way of viewing life itself. Being able to view hardship as something that can create beauty, as something that can never bring you down as long as you can still sing about it, is such a touching concept and really a good model for resilience as a whole. Beautiful and inspiring.

[@samuelgraf8613]

the audience at 6:51 is an absolute tragedy

[@fobster2000]

Not a smile between them 😅

[@romanzatorski1309]

I know! What is wrong with these people!

[@twwtb]

Really! If I got to be there I'd be grinning from ear to ear the whole time.

[@Uuuuuuurrgggggghhhhh]

All trumpet players know how to sing (Louis Amstrong, Chet Baker, Wynton and so on). It's because they're used to constantly adapt their pitch (by mouth) to what they should sound. Very nice example here. Glad I learned how to play the trumpet (as a drummer)!

[@MrDukeSilverr]

I always felt like chets singing and playing sounded very similar in style, same goes for wyntons solo here, he really makes the trumpet sing with that plunger lol

[@JesusFriedChrist]

The only thing better than hearing the blues, and singing the blues, is playing the blues.

[@SoRTs6233]

It's the kind of lecture you you'd been at! Blues is so expressive and it's great learning to understand it better. Thanks Wynton

[@AuskaDezjArdamaath]

That guitarist is mellow and jelling as hell. Wouldn’t be surprised if he were high.

[@fabianlawstudies9497]

I love pure live beautiful blues and jazz music… Thanks for sharing. 👍🏾❤️🎶

[@vincentvilcsak3082]

HOW do the folks in the audience look so emotionless while listening to this stuff??? crazy fun music

[@joevenables3393]

Idk man I started getting emotional, I don't think I'd have been able to do much if I was hearing it in person

[@pt68picaso]

7:07 is Wynton trumpet 🎺🎺🎺🎺 especially part around 7:20 had my full attention. 👍👍

[@gortiz1989]

Wynton - always inspiring.

[@xiwensoo4076]

Wynton is the muhammad ali of music, amazing lectures 👍

[@MrAllright2]

People have been feeling so sad these years that it's a pleasure to see and hear these people full-loaded with life!

[@KITLEVEY]

One of those singular spaces of time filled with pleasure and learning. I do not think it could have been improved upon. Could not stop smiling. Loved every minute. Wished the experience could have lasted - so I started it over again, and then once more. All my best to Wynton Marsalis and this group for giving this to us so lovingly.

[@rene-pierresamary4874]

Le magnifique musicien qu'est Marsalis a réuni tous les styles de jazz, longtemps opposés, pour en faire une musique en soi. Amateur de jazz depuis la fin des années '50, je le considère comme un moment majeur dans l'histoire de cette musique, et de la musique en général.

[@Kasino80]

I think people forget that there are two scenarios playing at once. One is a lecture where you have to and want to be attentive, and then concert elements. The shift between is not always easy to do on the spot. When they play, most of these people look like their still in lecture mode. Just my two cents. I'm pretty sure I'd have done the same.

[@joelsmith552]

The blues were trivial and cheap, and profound and deep, like all of us.

[@Navroze]

...besides, The African Americans liberated the western instruments beyond imagination...

[@luckydave328]

Very notable with the diatonic harmonica. Hohner were furious at first...until the money started rolling in.

[@gioscervelo]

Nice narration. In The grove. Needs harp though.

[@sonnyhannebohn17]

I love how in every one of these that guy on guitar looks like he wants to eat the violin player

[@gioscervelo]

Somebody plug the guitar in please.

[@ti84satact12]

I remember this like it was yesterday…I was like what the heck is Marsalis doing here at Harvard? Oh yeah educating smart fools!

[@track1219]

Love how he played that trumpet!

[@michael7v6]

They thought it was going to be a lecture on communism.

[@louisevad6091]

Amazing words to explain the history of American music

[@1337-Nathaniel]

I love to see the musicians are having a great time

[@HK-xo6ne]

Man, I don't know you personally...and that's a pity...but I love you...so phantistically explained...thanks! That is culture...for mankind...appreciated so much

[@noblemonye5801]

A+ storytelling.

[@veilofinnocence]

so sweet how the guitarist is so impressed with the violinist

[@simonroberts7309]

What a great definition of the blues x

[@JL-bu8bz]

Are you sure? Talking about the blues without to mention Robert Johnson? Play blues without slide guitar and harmonica? Sorry but for me Marsallis never understand what is the blues. He play the bluesy jazz. 12 bars ok. But it isnt blues style.

[@djfishnz]

Just found this today, absolutely amazing work

[@ibrahimkarasis8274]

" The blues was the train whose destination was freedom." no other word describe the blues in such a beautiful manner. Goddamn.

[@JL-bu8bz]

Words cant be describe the blues music

[@tfbattag]

Thank you for sharing all of these!!

[@mikwayh1]

This is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.

[@seansampson1927]

Damn man, that trumpet was speaking to my soul.

[@DaddySantaClaus]

gotta love a fiddle

[@GregOldSalesGuyBennett]

Awesome! Awesome music and storytelling and explanation of the birth of the Blues and just incredible stuff. Love went and Marcellus and his crew

[@RoliFrei]

Thank you, simply excellent!

[@andymassingham]

Fell in love. And Mark O’Connor is such sweet magic; I attended a solo recital in a Toronto church twenty years ago. Still one of the top five shows I’ve ever witnessed.

[@JL-bu8bz]

WC Handy father of the blues? Ok he composed 2 or 3 famous songs, but if the blues have a father he is Robert Johnson. Sorry wynton I love when you play, but the blues is Robert Johnson + acoustic guitar + slide + harmonica + drinks. No sax and no violins or trumpet. The bluesy jazz is a baby at the real Mississipi blues.

[@laskartrece]

Its alright baby... after more than two centuries of slavery... only one sign of consolation... "its alright baby..."

[@AnyoneCanSee]

I enjoyed all of this apart from saying the blues came from god. It came from black people in the USA. Surely enough credit has been taken away from them without saying the God of the Bible who fully and completely supports slavery created the blues.

[@andreasstickel]

This is simply amazing teaching and playing! Thanks so much for sharing this!

[@davidbaise5137]

If you wanted to learn blues, Harvard University and Lincoln Center would be the last place to look.

[@gontrandtrand]

Ils ont réussi à mettre les mots justes sur le sentiment magique provoqué par le blues... Danser quand tout s'écroule... De l'optimisme mérité... Au delà du "Spleen" de Baudelaire.

[@hugowalter-tynan7125]

fax

[@guymichel101]

Brilliant breaking down and demonstrating the sounds that give our souls such joy. Only thing that equals that for me is the elation I get out of watching this elevatoring series. Thank you Wynton!!

[@uweuwesen6915]

Sry .. You are Sry you not the KIng ... Mr Hooker still Alive and Mr Wolf you i seach Mr Chicaco

[@nikoladragovic2087]

I see a bunch of unintelligent faces on Harvard University concert in audience. You just see that they are not ready for this! So tragic that they just wanted to be there, just to get seen.

[@UnoUrong]

Amazing performance and sound. I wish I was there

[@VimalPerera-hd8fr]

What a Brilliantlly Talented Cob🤙🤙👏🇱🇰‼️

[@Pedro38627]

I miss this America. Surely the political reading into everything had already begun, but at least he is musically knowledgeable and they played masterfully.

[@SyDiko]

This lecture is absolutely amazing.

[@terryreknaw6152]

I wish he was my music teacher. 👍👍 Fantastic stuff

[@caballeroherrerajosedaniel2259]

I never thought Mbappe was good at music

[@Flow-no4kq]

Got chills listening to this! Oh my.

[@rmp3769]

Wynton can tell a story so well with or without his trumpet

[@letslearnmusic8236]

the guy with the blue shirt was creepy he staring at that women

[@basieite]

If muddy waters could lecture this is what we would have heard.

[@IsaacOLEG]

shame on the piano tuner, could not make the treble sound in tune !

[@raw_penguin2316]

This is amazing, wish i couldve been there, all the people in the audience act like zombies

[@GerardHammond]

this is a good as the Feynman Lectures

[@ekcentrik]

Magnificent sounds!

[@radia24]

De la magie ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@wardidewet8967]

Add some good old whiskey and you good to go

[@marciajwilson]

Poetry

[@gingerpepper101]

Amazing!!! Love it

[@VimalPerera-hd8fr]

Experts I meant am iof them

[@hasheeshiann]

This is so fucking gooood!

[@rudybigboote3883]

Wynton is just as talented as a speaker as he is a musician! What a captivating storyteller.

[@hangmingzheng2466]

The handsomely spot hemodynamically plant because desert disappointingly occur down a hurried message. harmonious, subdued pedestrian

[@francois5291]

The audience... 😂

[@LordCLecter]

Sad they had to deactivate the comments below these videos on the Harvard University KZbin channel. I can only imagine what kind of hate speech was going on there...

[@antiqueandroid]

Earned Optimism ✨

[@matzabean]

Wynton is BLOWING on It’s Alright, Baby!!!!!

[@gavrinmahaffey3656]

Superb!!

[@twwtb]

It's all right baby!

[@DaraM73]

Blues, played by jazz musicians is deeply cliched.

[@JL-bu8bz]

Yes

[@אילןארד]

כל כך מרגש, מרסליס גרם לי להזיל דמעה

[@mug401]

Why are some of them so disinterested. They shouldn’t be there. Mr. Wynton is a legend. Wish I was lucky or smart or rich enough to be able to enrol in Harvard just to see is lecture.

[@carlosteran5617]

Dont like dont let the people drink and smocke as We do at home watching a live by netflix......so were is my freedom to see snd feel live music if I can feel it as i do love no hurting anybody( but if you are a politician, they do the fuck they like but they tell ya dont !!!!!!

[@Rocketman88002]

I have never heard such a great explanation of the origins of music as inspired by the lives of those making it.

[@MrAllright2]

It looks like somebody alive -Wynton- in front of an audience who are pulling such faces it makes you feel depressed.

[@Android18readordie]

Same old blues.

[@matheusfelix3956]

Those medusa-staring stone faces in the crowd could scare even Satan's own soul.

[@mathbrown9099]

I agree with Dr. Marsalis, music unifies all peoples.

[@modernmusicofthedarkages296]

The sound quality is soooooooo good

[@katsong3302]

Could / would have listened to “it’s gonna be alright “ for hours, soul food 🙏🏼

[@kkupsky6321]

There’s rules?

[@joeylau7578]

1:51 Professor: LET ME SHOW YA SOMETHIN'.

[@phpfunkdotcom]

starting around @6:50 this is THE LESSON

[@kkupsky6321]

I love it