Wynton Marsalis and orchestra enliven National Black Arts Festival

The mentor: Jimmy Heath, with the Heath Brothers Quartet, plus trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. 8 p.m. Aug. 23. Tickets from $28. Rialto Center for the Arts, 80 Forsyth St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-730-7315, nbaf.org.

The peer: Marcus Roberts Trio Celebrates Monk and Trane. 8 p.m. Sept. 18. Tickets from $20.50. Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-730-7315, nbaf.org.

The protege: Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet. 8 p.m. Sept. 11. Tickets from $20. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave., Atlanta. 404-730-7315, nbaf.org.

The National Black Arts Festival has been presenting the art of the African diaspora for 26 years, and this year’s festival runs through Sept. 26.

Some upcoming events:

"NBAF Next: The Salon," a combination of spoken word, social action and music. 7 p.m. July 31. Tickets from $20. Hammonds House Museum, 503 Peeples St. S.W., Atlanta. Includes visual artist Fahamu Pecou, theater artist Michael Molina, poetry from Jon Goode and music from Brenda Nicole Moorer. 404-730-7315, nbaf.org.

"Wisdom of the Cypher," spoken word, images and music from Toni Blackman and D.R.E.S. tha BEATnik. 8 p.m. Aug. 2 and 2:30 p.m. Aug. 3. Tickets from $20. The Loft at Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-730-7315, nbaf.org.

"Music & Soul in the African Diaspora: A Film Festival." 11 a.m. Aug. 16. $8 (seniors $6) for one film, $42 (seniors $30) for full-day pass to seven films. Rich Auditorium, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-730-7315, nbaf.org.

NBAF Global, a celebration of reggae music and culture featuring Jamaican stars Third World, British-Jamaican musician Maxi Priest and Atlanta's own Julie Dexter. 6 p.m. Aug. 17. Tickets from $17. The Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-730-7315, nbaf.org.

"Game On!" Spoken word theater for kids 7 and up. 2 p.m. Sept. 26-27. Tickets from $15. Ray Charles Performing Arts Center, Morehouse College, 900 West End Ave., Atlanta. 404-730-7315, nbaf.org.

Jazz, once played in Storyville brothels, is now celebrated in a sparkling $131 million temple on Central Park West in New York City.

That ascent to Lincoln Center respectability owes much to virtuoso Wynton Marsalis, whose already illustrious vita — killer musician, bandleader, symphonic composer — now includes builder of institutions.

Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will play Friday at Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center in one of the most anticipated performances of the National Black Arts Festival.

The concert will feature original music and jazz standards from the performing arm of the Lincoln Center jazz program.

In some ways, Marsalis has accomplished with Jazz at Lincoln Center what Atlanta’s leaders would like to do with the NBAF: He’s built a permanent home for the art of the African diaspora.

In addition to Friday’s performance, Marsalis is lending the NBAF some of his flair as an impresario by curating a series of concerts featuring three musical figures who have played important roles in his life as, respectively, a mentor, a peer and a protege.

Those three figures are 87-year-old jazz master Jimmy Heath, pianist Marcus Roberts (one-time member of Wynton’s quartet), and Marsalis’ little brother Jason Marsalis, the youngest of the New Orleans family and, in the estimation of trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis (another brother), the smartest.

Wynton Marsalis took a moment recently to talk about the impact of jazz on American life, to reflect on the three personalities he has programmed for his Spotlight Series, and to discuss the humbling experience of writing a symphony for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, an effort that didn’t go quite the way he planned.

If his first attempt at writing for the ASO was a disappointment, Marsalis is supremely gifted at handling a jazz band, and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has become among the nation’s leading ensembles, presenting repertory works and new compositions.

Friday’s show, entitled “Modern Music, Modern Life,” will offer both. It is framed with this Whitmanesque announcement: “The DNA research is in. We are all descendants of Africa. Let’s celebrate the scientific death of tribalism.”

Is he offering the jazz concert as the ultimate democratic unifier? Perhaps.

“The first integration in America happened on the jazz bandstand with Benny Goodman,” Marsalis said, speaking from his New York office. On the other hand, he added, “an art form cannot make an entire nation’s trajectory change.” Warring political parties can agree to like jazz, but will probably resume hostilities when the music stops.

On his Spotlight Series choices:

Jimmy Heath

With his late brother, Percy Heath, and in his own groups, Jimmy Heath set a high standard. At 87, he is one of the few surviving elder statesmen of swing.

“Jimmy Heath is a master in every way,” Marsalis said, “a master composer, a master player. He taught me and many of us an unbelievable amount about the music — about how to write harmony, melody, progressions. Every time he walks into the room, the history of music lives.”

Marcus Roberts

A longtime collaborator with Marsalis, Roberts joined the trumpeter’s ensemble in 1985, and has worked with him many times since then. Roberts, blind since age 5, seems to have assimilated the history of jazz piano, from the stride of James Johnson onward.

“Marcus Roberts is the genius of the modern piano,” Marsalis said. “His insight into the way of playing the piano, his vital way of playing, his original style … (it) is a rich style, full of so much soil, and yet very, very futuristic.”

Jason Marsalis

The youngest of five brothers, Jason Marsalis developed at a precocious pace, even compared with his siblings. At age 7 he was playing drums professionally, gigging regularly with his father, pianist Ellis Marsalis. When Jason was 10 years old, his older brother Delfeayo said of him, “Jason is different than us. We’re regular people; he’s a genius.”

He now performs on drums and vibraphone.

”He has perfect pitch,” brother Wynton said. “He is also a great whistler. … He’s got some stuff that is unbelievable.”

About composing “Blues Symphony” for the ASO:

Marsalis missed a few deadlines with a piece commissioned by the ASO, and when “Blues Symphony” was finally performed on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in 2010, several movements were not adequately prepared and were left out of the program.

“It was an honest attempt, but it was not that good,” a contrite Marsalis said. “It had nothing to do with the orchestra or rehearsal time or any of that. They were trying to play it. Why it didn’t sound good relies solely on me. … I’m not a normal orchestral composer.”

Marsalis said he has since learned a great deal about orchestration, and he works on rewriting the symphony “like a hobby” whenever he gets a spare moment. “I was working on it this morning!” he said brightly. “I had a breakthrough on it about two months ago.”

Whether he will bring it back to Atlanta is up in the air. He said he’s going to wait and see if it passes muster.

“If it’s still sad, I’ll work another three or four years on it. I don’t want to subject anyone to that hurt, man. I don’t want to subject them to that again.”