Wynton Marsalis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 18, 1961. He is the son of jazz pianist, Ellis Marsalis, Jr. Marsalis was raised in a large musical family. He has 5 brothers. He started playing the trumpet at age 6 when he was given a trumpet by his father’s friend. By 8 years old, he was performing at Fairfield Baptist Church. By 14 years old, he had performed with the New Orleans Philharmonic. During high school Marsalis played with a variety of school bands and played in a local funk band on the weekends. When he was 17, he became the youngest person to attend the Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center.

In 1979, he started attending Juilliard in New York and started picking up jazz gigs around the city. In 1980, he started playing with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

Here’s a 1996 performance of Cherokee.