New York (CNN) -- Jazz master Wynton Marsalis says the blues is the true American music -- the heartbeat and unifying principle of jazz, country, R&B, gospel and other styles -- but it's been relegated to the back of the bus by greed and the legacy of racism.



Marsalis grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, son of Dolores and Ellis Marsalis. He was a trumpet prodigy, surrounded by top-notch musicians and steeped in the city's eclectic music. He was encouraged to excel by his father, a jazz pianist who instilled in his son a love of musical excellence and integrity.



Marsalis plays classical and jazz music with equal mastery. He is artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center  and has won nine Grammy Awards and the Pulitzer Prize in music. He will be awarded the French Legion of Honor on November 6.



In an interview Tuesday, Marsalis talked to CNN.com about the primary position of the blues in American music. The blues is our root music, American born-and-bred, but it's been treated like a stepchild of dubious origin, granted only secondary status, in Marsalis' view. It suffuses Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, rock 'n' roll, country-western, gospel, bluegrass and more, but never got its financial due or the respect it deserves.



Marsalis says that's because of racism -- it was the music of a whole people granted only secondary status -- and its inability to make a lot of money. He also talks about his father, how slavery has affected the nation, and some lessons to be learned from jazz.



CNN: You have a DVD out called "Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis Play the Music of Ray Charles." That's jazz, country and R&B. What do those styles have in common?



WYNTON MARSALIS: The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel.



The other is the down-home sensibility that's sophisticated. That's why Louis Armstrong could play with Jimmy Rogers. Ray Charles is actually the embodiment. He and Willie Nelson came 'round in young manhood at a time in the late '40s early 1950s when all of the American music, root music, was all combined. It became segregated in the mid- to late-'50s.



Carl Perkins had a hit in 1955 -- "Blue Suede Shoes." It was on the R&B charts, it was on the country charts, it was No. 1 on the rock and roll charts. [It was] basically the same music, so there was an intersection point. It's like in cuisine, that would be like fried chicken and red beans and rice, it would be like potato salad and barbecued ribs. Someone in Texas not going to eat barbecued ribs?



CNN: What led to the compartmentalization of these kinds of music, that came from the same roots?



MARSALIS: Money and racism. I don't know which one came first.



CNN: Why was blues not regarded as something of value in this country?



MARSALIS: It came from who we didn't like. That's what it was -- it wasn't that we couldn't see it. Who it came from, we did not like them.



CNN: So do you include African-Americans in that? So black people didn't appreciate it?



MARSALIS: They didn't appreciate it. They don't now. That's part of the whole kind of self-hatred that comes from that type of slavery that the black American still labors under. That racism was heavy.



The legacy of it -- it wasn't just 50 years. It was seven generations, and if a generation is 33 years, ... seven or eight [generations]. That's a long time. And to recover from it has proven to be very difficult.



CNN: So is that what's going on with rap?



MARSALIS: No question. Rap is
What two issues lead to lack of blues appreciation? What type of music was being discussed? What genre is at the root of all American music? What does Marsalis say about Americans?
greed and the legacy of racism. blues the blues relegated to the back of the bus by greed and the legacy of racism.
question: What two issues lead to lack of blues appreciation?, answer: greed and the legacy of racism. | question: What type of music was being discussed?, answer: blues | question: What genre is at the root of all American music?, answer: the blues | question: What does Marsalis say about Americans?, answer: relegated to the back of the bus by greed and the legacy of racism.