Chapter 1: Growing Up Wynton

Wynton Marsalis was born on October 18, 1961 and raised in Kenner, Louisiana. Located on the outskirts of New Orleans, it was a rural place with little connection to the cultural hub that lay just outside it. And mirroring the South at large, the town was segregated— the white residents inhabiting one side of the train tracks, the Black residents the other.

Wynton’s father supported the family as a working musician around New Orleans. Though his shows were often sparsely attended, Ellis’s reputation preceded him as an extremely talented jazz musician with an exceptional ear and understanding for the music. Wynton, among many of his other siblings, would begin to play music under Ellis’s encouragement and tutelage.

Wynton was given his first trumpet at age 6 by family friend Al Hirt. He promptly started playing in the Fairview Baptist Church Band under the direction of jazz legends Danny Barker and Charles Barbarin, as well as soon-to-be New Orleans greats Leroy Jones, Shannon Powell, Herlin Riley, and Lucien Barbarin, among others. Although he was involved with Fairview Baptist, it wasn't until the age of 12 that Wynton's drive and commitment to his musicianship began to emerge. This dedication to his instrument would become the crux of his methodology.

Once Wynton started seriously practicing his instrument, he was accepted into a number of local yet prestigious musical groups: the New Orleans Philharmonic, the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, the New Orleans Community Concert Band, the New Orleans Youth Orchestra, and the New Orleans Symphony.

By the time he was a young teenager, Wynton was following in Ellis’s footsteps as a gigging musician around New Orleans. His tenacity for music was widespread: he was picking up work playing everything from dances to sets in bars and jazz clubs, and funk shows with his group the Creators. On occasion, Ellis was known to fill in on piano, getting down with the funk alongside Wynton.

From 1974-1986, Ellis led the jazz program at NOCCA; brothers Wynton and Branford were among his pupils. Part of what set Ellis apart as a musician in New Orleans was his unwavering dedication to passing on what knowledge he had to young artists. Although his celebrity was not in the same category as other legendary players, this didn't affect his love of teaching and encouraging students. As an adult, Wynton would apply these same principles to his own educational pedagogy.

* NOTE: NOCCA opened its doors in 1974, offering classes in music, drama, and visual art to high schoolers in borrowed spaces at other institutions. Back then, NOCCA was a half-day program: students took academic classes at their "regular" school, then transferred to NOCCA for arts classes in the afternoon. Nearly 50 years later, NOCCA has a world-class campus all its own, and it offers full-day, half-day, and afterschool classes in 11 arts disciplines as well as academics.