Wynton Marsalis is looking snazzy is a suit and tie as our Zoom video call gets underway, having just returned from a faculty meeting at The Juilliard School in New York.
We immediately catch up a bit, noting that the last time we spoke — or, more accurately, Zoomed — was right after his “The Ever Fonky Lowdown” album with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra came out in 2020. Of course, Zoom was the standard form of communication back in those days, just months into a COVID-19 pandemic that sent much of the world into lockdown and social distancing mode.
“Well, we’re still here,” the 63-year-old New Orleans native asks. “How you feeling?”
I’m feeling good — and about to feel even better as I get to spend the next 20 minutes chatting with this living jazz legend about his latest endeavor, which, in a way, is also an old endeavor.
The acclaimed trumpeter/composer/bandleader is Zooming into my living room on this particular afternoon to discuss “Louis: A Silent Film,” coming May 24 to Paramount Theatre in Oakland. The show, which is presented by SFJAZZ, features a screening of the 2010 offering “Louis” with live accompaniment from Marsalis, pianist Cecile Licad and an 11-piece jazz ensemble. Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets are $65-$150, sfjazz.org.
The film, which features an original score by Marsalis as well as music from 19th-century New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, tells a fictionalized tale of young Louis Armstrong growing up on the streets of Crescent City in the early days of the 20th century. It’s a silent film that draws heavy inspiration from the works of Charlie Chaplin and features well-known actors Jackie Earle Haley and Michael Rooker.
“Louis” was directed by Dan Pritzker, who also was at the helm for “Bolden,” a film about the legendary Fat City cornetist Buddy Bolden. Marsalis wrote and performed music for “Bolden” as well.
Here’s my chat with Marsalis, who sounded happy to have the opportunity to revisit “Louis” with a West Coast trek that also includes a date on May 25 at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa (lutherburbankcenter.org).
Q: How did you first get involved with the “Louis” project?
A: Well, Dan (Pritzker) approached me (first) with the script for “Bolden” — talking about the film about Buddy Bolden. Then he said he wanted to make a silent film. He had seen a Charlie Chaplin film with his mother where the score was played by the Chicago Symphony.
When Dan said he wanted to do that, of course, I wanted to do it. I had the same aspirations that he had — like I feel like (silent film) is still a medium that can be very powerful and speak to people.
Q: It’s definitely a powerful medium when done right.
A: I also liked (Dan’s) vision of the music of Gottschalk, the music of Jelly Roll Morton, ragtime, all the kind of music from the mid-1800s to 1900 when jazz was born, when New Orleans was such a major part in the incubation of certain types of American music. And you know (the film) ended up being something that was really interesting to do. I’m happy that we worked together and did it.
Q: This isn’t the first time that you’ve taken the “Louis” show out on the road. You did some dates way back when the film was originally released.
A: We did it only on the East Coast. We didn’t go on the West Coast.
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Q: Why did you want to revisit the project now — some 15 years after the film came out?
A: Dan wanted to do it. It was originally his vision and he asked me what would I feel about doing that. Yeah, I thought it would be good to do it because we didn’t play that many shows. And the music is difficult to play, so, for (the musicians), it’s always a challenge. It’s interesting, if you have stuff that’s kind of difficult to play, they (musicians) always want to do it.
Q: Does the difficulty come from having to sync the live score with what’s happening in the film?
A: The challenge for us is not playing with the click track or being in time with the film. It’s just our parts are difficult to play, so that’s the challenge.
Q: Fortunately, you have the great Cecile Licad onstage to handle the Gottschalk piano work.
A: It’s good to hear Cecile play Gottschalk’s music. It’s not a music that is commonly played. It deserves a wider listening just because of his significance to the development of American music.
Q: How much of the project’s draw for you — as a music historian, a New Orleans historian — was the chance to share with people what it was like for Armstrong to grow in your hometown?
A: The film is not really necessarily biographical. But it is a certain type of American history and I think Dan and I don’t both have a kind of love for the incubation period of American music. (The draw) was more to work with him and to realize the vision of it.
Me being from New Orleans, of course, there are all the New Orleans themes — marching band music, ragtime, Jelly Roll, the mythic fabric of the American arts music, including Gottschalk music. It’s important to constantly retell those stories.
Q: Some of the moments in “Louis” are clearly fantasy/dream segments. But how much of the film is based on actual events in the young Armstrong’s life?
A: It’s invented. So, that way, (Dan) didn’t have to deal with people saying, “Well, it wasn’t that. It was like this. That’s not the kind of coronet he played.” So, it’s kind of mythic.
If you look at the themes that it has — the whole kind of juxtaposition of light and dark skin people; brothels, the tradition of prostitution; political corruption; the judge and his position in it; Louis Armstrong and how he’s looking at the world as a kid and what what shaped his kind of understanding and gave his music a certain type of depth and of beauty; and also the way people looked out for one another — it has an ugliness and a beauty in it, side by side. It has a religiosity and decadence.
Q: Right, right. I can see that.
A: The film is not saying a right or a wrong. It’s saying this is the environment at that time — this is Louis Armstrong’s environment — and these are the conclusions he came to. The kind of shining and deeply spiritual nature of his playing let you know what he concluded about being in that type of environment with the political and the sexual corruption and all the different things and all the great music that they played and had.
