Wynton Marsalis has for the past couple of decades been leading a crusade for his nation's music and heritage.

He believes, as many do, that jazz represents the USA's most significant gift to world culture - some considering it to be America's classical music.

Certainly, as a towering presence on trumpet and as a composer and bandleader, Marsalis was assured a place in the hall of fame.

With the Jazz Messengers and his own groups setting a new standard, he became an inspirational figure.

He now presents an identity which combines the orchestral sophistication established by Duke Ellington, the soloing might of Louis Armstrong and the vision of Charles Mingus and John Coltrane.

His Brighton concert will cover these artists and his mentor, Art Blakey.

Critics who claim to detect an undue reverence for jazz repertory are sidestepping the magnitude of the task, with the music of the aforementioned composers alone representing a huge undertaking.

In addition to all this, Marsalis has picked up Grammy awards in classical and jazz categories and the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for his jazz work Blood On The Fields.

He has been supported by New York's Lincoln Centre, where he directs a huge range of varied jazz concerts and educational programmes.

The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra has been in existence for ten years and spends six months of every year on international tours.

A current theme is the Year Of The Drum, celebrating Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Max Roach and others. There is also a new Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.

Among his many achievements, Marsalis believes the Jazz At Lincoln Centre programme will have lasting effect.

"We've successfully challenged the status quo of our music," says Marsalis. "When we started, nobody was thinking about Duke Ellington's music and the seriousness of jazz as an art form. We've been able to challenge a lot of what was held to be true."

Marsalis also received a personal and particularly touching stamp of approval from an icon of the Fifties cool school.

"Gerry Mulligan requested that when he died we do his posthumous concert and play his music," says the musician. "He told me to make sure I do it. Just the fact that a musician of that magnitude and stature would make that request is a serious thing.

"He wanted us to play the New Orleans March and we did. That was one of the greatest tributes we could have."

For tickets and further information, call 01273 709709.