The ornate carved surrounds of Muscat's Royal Opera House isn't exactly the venue one would expect to reverberate with the sensual strains of jazz from Harlem. Yet in the hands of acclaimed trumpeter and jazz educator Wynton Marsalis, it's a combination that works sweetly and as smooth as silk.

"Jazz transcends all people," Marsalis told tabloid! after his 15-member Lincoln Centre ensemble packed up after a two-hour foot-tapping performance in the opera house.

"Jazz is about emotions, connecting with people," he said "Take away skin colour and we're all the same beneath. We have the same spirit, the same desires, the same needs. Jazz connects with that."

Originally scheduled to play Dubai's Burj Al Arab, the ensemble passed, with Marsalis and pianist Dan Nimmer booked for a clashing engagement in Doha. That scheduling clash was Dubai's loss.

In Doha, Marsalis and the Jazz at the Lincoln Centre programme are working on a teaching initiative at Qatar's Music Academy. And when the five-star St. Regis Hotel opens its doors next spring, it will feature the region's first dedicated jazz club — operated hand-in-hand with the Jazz at Lincoln Centre.

"There's a lot of similarities between jazz and Arabian music," said Marsalis, a respected Grammy- and Pulitzer-winning artist. "They're both soulful, people feel them, free form and a lot of improvisation."

Marsalis is also a forthright speaker when it comes to other music forms, falling out of favour with his contemporaries for his commitment to maintaining tradition jazz integrity, shying away from free-flowing and unstructured jazz of indulgent playing styles.

"When I seek kids blowing and they sound terrible, I don't tell them to stop, I tell them to do it again, and again, and again, and they begin to sound better and they feel it," he says. "That's what jazz is all about — feeling it."

‘That ain't music'

For an artist afraid of flying, Marsalis spends eights month a year on the road, avoiding the air as much as possible.

And he also avoids rap and hip-hop.

"Man, that ain't music," he said. "That's just exploitation of young people. It has structure, but it's transient. It's exploitation of young black teens. It has no lasting value. It's purely commercial and current, without depth and true feeling. Jazz has currency, but it also has depth, historical roots, feeling — and there's nobody setting out to exploit players."

So are jazz players born, or made?

"It's both," he said. "Of course, to be a great player you need have innate skill. We can teach you all of the styling and techniques to make anyone a great technical player. But there are also those who are born with it. Take Dan Nimmer, our piano player. He's got swing. But he's from Milwaukee. There ain't no swing in Milwaukee. But Dan's got it. Man, can he swing. His parents could swing. So he grew up swinging.

"Look, we all want to be loved," he said. "We all need to feel wanted. We all feel hurt and crave love and acceptance. That's what jazz is all about. It expresses those emotions. It's about feelings and common passions, how we all interact. You understand those basic feelings and you've got swing, you've got jazz."

No wonder then that he's known to quote the poetry of William Butler Yeats at length reading it to his band members as they tour by bus.

"That Yeats guy, he had a way with words," Marsalis said. "He understood the human condition. He could express feelings in a way everyone could understand. That's jazz in words. Yeats would've been a great jazz player and composer."

Did you know?

Wynton Marsalis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1961. He is a trumpeter with a whimsical style, composer, bandleader, music educator and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Centre in New York.

He is an advocate of jazz education and music appreciation to young audiences. He work has won him Grammys in both jazz and classical genres, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for Music for his work Blood on the Fields.

He hopes to write an opera based on the American Civil War.