After nearly 40 years as the charismatic founder and recognizable face of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis will step down as managing and artistic director next year, the organization announced on Thursday, ending a transformative tenure that raised the profile of jazz nationwide.
“It’s the perfect time to identify the next generation of leadership,” Marsalis, 64, said in an interview. “We want to make sure that we do what we can to nurture what we’ve already built with the understanding that this is an art form and it will continue to grow and the organization will continue to flourish.”
Marsalis’s larger-than-life presence and prominence will not be easy to replicate. He has become a worldwide ambassador for jazz, as comfortable schmoozing with celebrities like Spike Lee and Barack Obama as he is explaining Dizzy Gillespie or Miles Davis to middle schoolers.
“He’s an orchestra leader, he’s a trumpet player, he’s our biggest fund-raiser,” said Gordon J. Davis, the founding chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center. “Jazz was dead in this country. Wynton raised it up to make it what it should be: a true art of American culture.”
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