A member of a very large, very prolific New Orleans-based musical family, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis began studying both classical and jazz music as a small child. After attending Juilliard and studying with Woody Shaw, he secured his first long-term gig beside his brother Branford as the frontline for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, before releasing his acclaimed solo debut in 1981. Infinitely varied in his interests and abilities, Marsalis in later decades has become the music curator at Lincoln Center and the director of its Jazz Orchestra.