Jazz Legend Wynton Marsalis on Playing When No One Is Listening

As he concludes his tenure at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis opens up about childhood trauma, artistic integrity and why music matters even without an audience

This month, for my WSJ Earn Your Luck column, I’ve interviewed Jazz great Wynton Marsalis, the first artist to win Grammys in both classical and jazz categories at once—a feat he repeated the very next year.

‘I was very, very lucky,’ Marsalis says. ‘Just to be born to my parents.’ GILBERTO TADDAY/JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER

Though I am learning to love jazz, I approached the interview honestly by asking questions that get to the heart of how jazz works, rather than some high-falutin’ jazz insider questions about the greats. “Tell us about the signals between you and the other players that can be incomprehensible to those of us listening.” Or, “How are we to know that one section is meant as sorrow and the other as joy?”

I hope it works for those of you who know nothing and those of you major aficionados. I’m curious how it fared for both ends of the spectrum. Let me know. Hope you enjoy it.