Wynton Marsalis was born in New Orleans, where his pop, Ellis Marsalis, is a well-regarded jazz pianist and teacher. His bros Branford and Delfeo are also important musicians. Wynton received his first trumpet at age 6, and played in public at age 7, but didn't start to study seriously till he was twelve. At fourteen, he made his debut with the New Orleans Philharmonic. Throughout school, he played first trumpet with the New Orleans Civic Orchestra, while playing funk and jazz with other local groups. A straight-A student, he graduated from school with distinction, and at age seventeen, commenced his studies at the Juilliard College of Music in N. Y Town . Still in his teens, the young trumpeter joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the great finishing college of many jazz musicians. Drummer Blakey was sometimes called the Lion Tamer, due to his commitment to discovering and coaching the best young instrumentalists.

By age nineteen, Marsalis had agreed a recording contract with CBS Records. He made his recording debut as a frontrunner in 1982, and over the next seventeen years produced close to forty jazz and classical recordings for Columbia Jazz and Sony Classical. After leaving Blakey, Marsalis struggled for some years to hold his very own group together. Many players found it more profitable to play pop or rock music than to stick to Marsalis ' formidable vision. His feedback of rock and fusion music alienated some critics and listeners, but he persisted, taking time out on the way to visit colleges and indoctrinate youngsters all over America on the conventions of jazz and its place in American life. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammy Awards in the same year, an achievement he right away repeated. To date he has won 6 Grammy awards for his jazz recordings and 2 for recordings of classical music. He's received 5 Musician of the Year awards, and his recordings frequently sell many thousands of copies ; one album stayed on the charts for 39 weeks. His recordings include Black Codes the series Standard Time which includes the albums The Resolution of Love and Intimacy Calling, each of which feature his father on piano, and a classic meditation on the blues titled Soul Gestures in Southern Blue. The 3 volumes of Soul Gestures are : Thick in the South, Uptown Ruler and Levee Low Whinge . Chamber and solo music for trumpet from the Baroque, marsalis ' Sony Classical recordings include concert, , Classical, Romantic and 20th-century repertoires.

In 1987 Wynton Marsalis founded Jazz at Lincoln Center to sponsor jazz performance and academic programs at New York's premier performing humanities center. Since 1992, Marsalis has served as the organization's creative Director, and as leader of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Marsalis has written countless concert works for the orchestra, starting 1992 with In This House, On this A. M. , an extended piece based primarily on the type of a conventional gospel service. Beginning in 1993, Marsalis has composed music for ballet and modern dance, making works for the NY City Ballet and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in collusion with choreographers like Peter Martins, Judith Jamison, Garth Fagan and Twyla Tharp. In 1994, he released his first book, Sweet Swing Blues on the Road.

In 1997, Wynton Marsalis received the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his oratorio Blood in the Fields. Marsalis was the 1st jazz musician ever to be so honoured. The year two thousand saw the releasing of the eight-volume CD series Swinging Into the 21st. The series contains a seven-disc boxed set of live performances from the Town Vanguard and 7 other volumes including works by Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Friar and Igor Stravinsky and new works by Marsalis himself, including At the Octoroon Balls : String Quartet No. One, A Fiddler's Tale, Reel Time and Sweet Release and Spook Story : 2 More Ballets by Wynton Marsalis. As well as his busy plan of composing and performing, Marsalis produces music teaching schemes for public radio and TV. His four-part, Peabody prize-winning Television series Marsalis on Music, introduces young spectators to the escapade of making music. The Peabody citation for Marsalis on Musicalso recognized his 26-part Countrywide Public Radio series, Making the Music, which was primarily based on the Jazz for younger people concerts he leads at Lincoln Center. Most lately Marsalis served as a principal expert and on-camera commentator for the 20-hour documentary series, Jazz, produced by Ken Burns, which appeared on public TV in Jan , 2001.