Status: Nine-time Grammy Award winning jazz performer.
DOB: October 18, 1961 In: New Orleans, LA
Hobbies/Interests: "Play basketball. I like to read. I like to play chess."
Favorite Movies: "[Pause]...see, it's so many. Let me see if I can...any Hitchcock. Elie Kazan's. John Ford. [Pause]...favorite movies...there's so many good ones...I can't remember the name. It has Andy Griffith in it. He plays like a man of the people that becomes corrupted. (Wynton calls a friend on phone for the name of movie)...A Face In The Crowd."
Favorite TV Shows: "Never looked at TV like that...Monday Night Football [laughs]."
First Job: "Cuttin' grass (age 8)."
First Car: "Volvo."
Early Performing Memory: "I remember big dances, we used to play at New Orleans, a department store called Gaylord's, had open space at the top. Four bands set up, we'd play around the clock. Packed with people. Finest women in New Orleans. I was in high school - 13 or 14."
Favorite Meal: "Gumbo."
Favorite Breakfast Cereal: "Grape Nut Flakes."
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: "Strawberry."
Pre-Performance Feeling: "Very natural. Just like I'm talking to you."
Greatest Career Moment: "No. It's no moment. I've had so many. No moments, man, many great moments. Many."
Most Painful Moment: "I've had many of them too [laughs]. Most painful moment...I'd say several of the most painful moments was somebody I was close to died before I talked to them. That happened to me two or three times."
Last Book Read: "It's a book on King Leopold. About his conquest of the Belgian Congo. 'Into The Heart of Darkness.'"
Song(s) or Album(s) Most Proud Of: "I think everything. I'm very serious about whatever I do. So I don't know. Some stuff comes out better than other stuff but I work hard on all of it."
Performance You Were At Your Very Best?: "No. I never know."
Childhood Dream: "To be either a chemist or a basketball player."
Favorite Vacation Spot: "I never go on vacation."
Musical Tastes: "I like Beethoven. I like Bach. I like Duke Ellington."
Favorite Live Performers: "Marcus Roberts - a great piano player from Florida. Many great jazz musicians like Hank Jones - phenomenal. A lot like that, a lot of people."
People Qualities Most Admired: "Integrity. Humor. Empathy for other people. Originality - like don't really give a **** what other people think. But with empathy too."
Career Accomplishments: At 14 was invited to perform with the New Orleans Philharmonic; Attended Juilliard School of Music; Toured with Herbie Hancock throughout USA and Japan; Has performed with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Edison, Clark Terry, Sonny Rollins, Has sold nearly 5,000,000 copies of his recordings worldwide, Nine-time Grammy Award winner.
