Andrew Gilbert January 25, 2021Updated: January 26, 2021, 7:35 am
Wynton Marsalis kicks off Sonoma’s online series with “The Democracy! Suite.” Photo: Erika Goldring , Getty Images 2019
Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has long championed jazz as an art form that embodies democratic ideals, and during an interview with The Chronicle in the midst of Inauguration Day festivities, he often evoked some of the same soaring tropes that poet Amanda Gorman threaded through “The Hill We Climb.”
“We’re not trying to describe chaos,” he said when asked about “The Democracy! Suite’s” subtly calibrated arrangements and inviting melodic lines. “We’re trying to acknowledge it and provide antidotes. I believe art is ultimately optimistic. It’s always more satisfying to go up than down.”