Wynton Marsalis “Sparks” iPod Commercial (2006)

Jazz in the iPod campaign

The "Sparks" commercial was first shown during Steve Jobs's keynote at Macworld Expo in San Francisco on 10 January 2006, and Wynton Marsalis's official website described it that day as a silhouette-style iTunes and iPod ad featuring him and his band. It is one of the spots made after the fifth-generation iPod, which swapped the campaign's solid colours for abstract composite backgrounds and cut between musicians performing and silhouetted dancers listening to iPods. Here the quartet plays against a blue abstract background while two dancers move to the tune; the drummer's sticks glow white and the bass strings shine.

From San Jose to iTunes

Marsalis and his quartet had performed at Apple's "It's Showtime" event at the California Theatre in San Jose on 12 October 2005, where the iPod with video was introduced, and Jobs asked them for an encore. On 27 January 2006 Apple released an iTunes-exclusive Live Session by the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, with Dan Nimmer on piano, Carlos Henriquez on bass and Ali Jackson on drums. It contains "Sparks", which lasts 1 minute 15 seconds, along with "Oh Row That Boat", "Quick Ate" and a behind-the-scenes video of the commercial's shoot.

The trumpeter

Born in New Orleans in 1961, Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is the only musician to have won Grammy Awards in jazz and classical categories in the same year, and in 1997 his oratorio Blood on the Fields became the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Browse related pages

Browse iPod Advertising for related commercials, or explore the 2006 timeline.