Wynton Marsalis still has more than a year left before he steps down from Jazz at Lincoln Center, but a recent New York City gala felt like the beginning of a goodbye.
According to The New York Post, the Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter unexpectedly became the emotional center of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s annual fundraiser, “Rhythms That Move the World,” as speakers repeatedly turned the spotlight toward the man who built the organization from the ground up.
Marsalis announced in January that he will step down as artistic director in July 2027, ending a nearly 40-year run leading the institution he founded in 1987.
While the gala was officially meant to honor former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault and his wife Kathryn, the couple used their acceptance speech to salute Marsalis and the legacy he leaves behind.
Speaking about America’s upcoming 250th anniversary, Chenault called jazz “the perfect metaphor for the American expression,” before connecting that idea directly to Marsalis.
“If you want to understand the soul of our democracy, listen to the music,” Chenault said. “No one has articulated this vision more powerfully than our dear friend Wynton Marsalis.”
After helping launch Jazz at Lincoln Center as a summer concert series in 1987, he turned it into one of New York’s most powerful cultural institutions, placing jazz alongside the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.
Marsalis also took the stage himself, performing with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and presenting the 2026 Award for Artistic Excellence to Ghanaian djembe player Weedie Braimah. Spanish bandleader Joan Chamorro and the Chenaults were also honored during the evening.
Marsalis is not only one of the most celebrated jazz musicians alive, but he is also the only artist to win Grammy Awards in both jazz and classical music in the same year. In 1997, his oratorio Blood on the Fields became the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
“When we established Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1987, our goal was to build an enduring jazz institution that would both entertain and educate multi-generational audiences,” Marsalis said when he announced his departure earlier this year.
By the end of the night, the crowd was on its feet as Chenault offered one final description of the man whose name has become inseparable from Jazz at Lincoln Center: “our founder, our heartbeat, and a true American original.”
