Wynton Marsalis: The first thing about jazz is that it has so many functions. First, there’s the communal function coming from New Orleans music. It was played to celebrate births, funerals, the celebratory aspects of the music, the parade, which — around the turn of the century — was a real popular thing. They had bands like the John Philip Sousa band, and it’s a heroic sound. And, jazz music is the American version of that appropriation of something European. Then you have the whole dance connotation with jazz music, which I think, it reached its most popular point in the country with the swing era. But still, the elements of jazz are in all of the music. Then you have the element of refinement of folk themes, which you find in all classic music. And, this is what the jazz musicians do with the songs of Cole Porter and George Gershwin, like when you hear Ben Webster play a Cole Porter song. The art of jazz is what he performs on the theme. Hoagy Carmichael, when he first heard Louis Armstrong do Stardust, he said, “Man, I wish I had written that,” or, “It can’t sound any better than that.” Then you have the conception of New Orleans jazz: group improvisation, cooperative ensemble playing, which functions exactly like a democracy. Which is: each person has the right to play what they want to play, but the responsibility to play something that makes everybody else sound good. So, it’s the way that these horns relate to the rhythm section, it’s like a musical example of how a democracy should work.