Trumpeter Marsalis blows into town

Monday, Oct. 30, 2006 | 7:29 a.m.

Who: Wynton Marsalis

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

Where: UNLV Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $45-$90; 895-2787, http://unlvtickets.com/performingarts/

Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis is a musician with strong opinions on society, history and culture.

He performs Wednesday at UNLV's Performing Arts Center as part of the New York Stage & Beyond Series.

His 33 jazz and 11 classical albums have sold more than 7 million records, including three gold records.

He is a member of one of the most prominent jazz-musician families in America. The New Orleans music royalty includes father Ellis (considered one of the premier pianists in modern jazz) and brothers Branford (saxophonist and former musical director for "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno), Delfeayo (trombonist and record producer) and Jason (drummer).

Wynton Marsalis recently chatted with the Sun by phone from his tour bus in Northern California, traveling from the Napa wine country to Berkeley. He talked about a variety of subjects, including the state of jazz and his latest album, "From the Plantation to the Penitentiary," which will be released in February.

On the new album's intriguing title

That's the journey of many of those who were on the plantation. That's their contribution to our country. First, they were enslaved by the plantation and now they're in jail. The modern plantation is the jail. A lot of people are in jail because they had some dirt in their pockets.

On its songs

I speak about contemporary things, things that we look at and our humanity compels us to speak about them. Some things you are just compelled to say, "Wait a second now." One of them is that whole kind of thing, the penitentiary.

There's a deep level of misogyny running through our culture right now. It's become unbelievable. (The album) deals with that. Homelessness. Political inactivity, and how we just accept stuff.

There are a lot of songs that just deal with that, but on the other side of that it also deals with beautiful things. At any given time many things are going on. It just depends on what you want to focus on. There are people in the penitentiary who were from the plantation, and there were also people who were productive on the plantation.

On the state of jazz

I don't think we are as strong in culture as we should be, not so much just jazz. Jazz is a part of culture. We need to become a much more culturally literate society, even if it's just our own culture. It doesn't necessarily have to be European culture. We have a history now. We produce a lot of great artists in different idioms. We need to do a better job of educating our young people, and ourselves, about it.

On the scene, or lack thereof

Different places have a scene. Some places do, and some don't. Austin, Texas, has kind of a scene. Chicago. San Francisco always has people playing. Seattle, playing. It ebbs and flows, you know.

On the talent

There's a lot of talent. Not a lot of integrity but a lot of talent. A lot of the people in jazz have the talent, but it's so hard to make it they just end up buying in. Like our culture in general.

But it's not so much just about jazz. Henry Ford first thought about how to make the very best car as cheaply as possible, that was his original intention. Now the intention is to make the worst possible thing and charge as much as you can possibly charge for it and make sure it breaks down so you can get charged again and your insurance company can rip you off and make sure you don't get paid the money you paid the premium for, and then you can sue them and the lawyer can get some of your money too and at the end of the day you won't get anything but ripped off.

On his outlook on life

I'm not pessimistic. I'm optimistic. My daddy couldn't ride on a bus at the front of the bus till he was 26. I never had to go through that. I'm a product of a lot of progress. I'm not pessimistic. I realize that civilization is an effort, and we always have to invigorate our effort.

On the concert

It'll be swinging. I will do some things from the new album. It will be swinging. We will be playing jazz. Real, true jazz. Real jazz.