Wynton Marsalis is a well-known trumpet-player and composer, and the Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

A New Orleans native, Marsalis got his start on the Bayou jazz scene as a kid, performing as part of the Fairview Baptist Church band. By the age of 14, he was on stage with the New Orleans Philharmonic, and three years later he moved north to attend Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center. Marsalis moved to New York in 1978 to study at Juilliard, before joining Art Blakey's legendary music troupe, the Jazz Messengers, and touring with them for a year. He left to launch his own band and spent a decade performing around the world—some 120 concerts a year—while collaborating with jazz legends like Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Rollins. In 1991, he signed on as artistic director of Lincoln Center's jazz program, and he's held the post ever since.

While Marsalis may very well be the most famous jazz musician in America, he's not the most respected—by jazz aficionados, at least. Many prominent jazz musicians, critics and fans—including Miles Davis and Ken Burns—have said his work often panders to commercial audiences and lacks the innovation and experimentation that jazz is so associated with. (Purists also seem to be perturbed by Marsalis's hefty salary at Lincoln Center—close to $900,000 a year.) Still, he's not without his accolades. His composition on slavery, "Blood on the Fields," earned him the first Pulitzer ever won by a jazz musician. And he's earned dozens honorary doctorates from universities including Princeton, Yale, Brown and Columbia. [Image via Getty]