![\"Wynton](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/marsalis-and-murphy-jamming-by-terry.jpg\" "\\"marsalis-and-murphy-jamming-by-terry\\"")
<\/a>Wynton Marsalis studied the hands of Toledo bass player Clifford Murphy as they surprised a lucky few with a jam session in Libbey Hall following the lecture. Murphy told the trumpeter he played piano just like his father, Ellis Marsalis.<\/p><\/div>Marsalis began the evening with his speech, \u201cThe Ballad of American Arts,\u201d and took some 1,000 audience members in the Student Union Auditorium on a journey. <\/p>\n
He talked of the drum as an integral part of U.S. music. <\/p>\n
He painted a vivid portrait of where the nation\u2019s culture has played a part in struggles for liberty and freedom, and how at times did not live up to its potential.<\/p>\n
He spoke about the many wars fought, the downtrodden blues of the oppressed and the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n
He brought the listeners home to the present, an era in which he believes America\u2019s cultural identity has been lost, partly through the demise of art programs in public education. He said people have fallen out of touch with understanding the greater community at large.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to embrace each other, but we just don\u2019t know how,\u201d Marsalis said.<\/p>\n
The musician insisted on more substantive and culturally rooted education, in addition to self-discovery. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt can\u2019t move the country forward,\u201d Marsalis said about art. \u201cIt allows people to focus on their individuality. It\u2019s not about the survival of the fittest, but more so discovering what makes you you \u2014 finding the beauty in originality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marsalis is an accomplished jazz trumpeter, composer, bandleader, writer and educator who has won nine Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. He has produced more than 70 records that have sold more than seven million copies worldwide.<\/p>\n
He is the first musician to give the Shapiro Lecture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Wynton Marsalis did at the Shapiro Series was stunning,\u201d said Jon Richardson, chair of the Edward Shapiro Lecture Series Committee and an instructor in the Honors College. \u201cHe didn’t just inform his audience, he taught us about ourselves, our country and our culture. I wish everyone in Toledo could have heard it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wynton Marsalis talked about the importance of the arts in U.S. history as part of the sixth annual Edward Shapiro Distinguished Lecture Series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}