Miles Davis is onstage, but the young man in the dark blue Versace jacket couldn't care less. He is concentrating on the one thing other than a trumpet mouthpiece that is capable of riveting his attention to the point of near obsession: a basketball hoop. For some reason, there is a basket in the open backstage area of New York's Jones Beach Theater, and Wynton Marsalis is pumping balls into the net from every angle. Suddenly, he dribbles out 30 ft. from the goal and announces, "I bet $100 I can sink one from here." A stagehand snaps up the wager. Marsalis flexes his knees, rises up on his toes and sends the ball arcing through the misty night sky. Swish! Amid scattered applause and shouts of "Aw right!" from fellow musicians, a voice calls out, "Wynton, you are one competitive dude!" The young man grins. "No, I'm not competitive," he says in his soft-spoken New Orleans accent. "I just like to play."
Good thing Marsalis is not competitive. Otherwise, God help the competition. From the time he first appeared on a public concert stage with the New Orleans Philharmonic at age 14, Marsalis has been blowing away would-be rivals and leaving music professionals flap-jawed at his technical virtuosity. In 1984 he burst into national prominence by winning Grammys in both the classical and jazz categories, the first of eight such awards he has collected. The unmistakable sound of his horn, whose fat, breathy tone can sing, shout, growl and whisper like a human voice, has thrilled audiences from New York City to London to Tokyo. He has appeared on TV shows ranging from Johnny Carson's to Sesame Street. And he is now breaking into movies with the release next week of Tune in Tomorrow, starring Peter Falk and Barbara Hershey, for which he wrote the score and in which he played a cameo role. In short, in the 11 years since he launched his professional career, Marsalis, who turns 29 this week, has become a full-fledged superstar.
But the most significant thing about Marsalis' career is not his personal success. It is the fact that, largely under his influence, a jazz renaissance is flowering on what was once barren soil. Straight-ahead jazz music almost died in the 1970s as record companies embraced the electronically enhanced jazz-pop amalgam known as fusion. Now a whole generation of prodigiously talented young musicians is going back to the roots, using acoustic instruments, playing recognizable tunes and studying the styles of earlier jazzmen, from King Oliver and Louis Armstrong to Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Moreover, with major record labels rushing to sign them up, many of these so-called neotraditionalists are starting to enjoy commercial success, and some are on the road to real wealth.
Among these budding stars are trumpeters Terence Blanchard, 28, Roy Hargrove, 21, Philip Harper, 24, and Marlon Jordan, 20; pianists Marcus Roberts, 26, Geoff Keezer, 19, and Benny Green, 27; saxophonists Branford Marsalis, 30, Christopher Hollyday, 20, and Vincent Herring, 25; guitarists Mark Whitfield, 24, and Howard Alden, 31; drummer Winard Harper, 28; and organist Joey De Francesco, 19. At the superstar end of the scale, of course, sits young Harry Connick Jr., 23, the slicked-back New Orleans-born entertainer who started out as a jazz-piano player but has crossed over into show business as a Sinatra-style crooner and bandleader.