Wynton Marsalis's Blog, page 34

Jimmy Heath Memorial Celebration

The life and work of Jimmy Heath, legendary saxophonist, composer, bandleader, educator and NEA Jazz Master, will be honored at a musical celebration on Thursday, March 12, at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, on Broadway at 60th Street, New York, New York. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the event will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m.


The celebration will be open to the public and the general seating area will become available on a first come first serve basis. Seating in Rose Theater is limited, and Jazz at Lincoln Center reserves the right to close admission based on capacity.

The Jimmy Heath Memorial Celebration will webcast live via jazz.org/live

Called “a jazz eminence, and an ambassador from an earlier time who never lost his hunger for fresh inspiration” by the NY Times, Jimmy Heath was a guiding force in the jazz community with a career spanning more than seven decades. His earliest career highlights include long-term partnerships with icons like Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis, and after 70 years he remained a major fixture and creative leader in jazz. He released over 100 albums and his compositions have been recorded throughout the jazz world by Clark Terry, Cannonball Adderley, Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, and countless others. Mr. Heath led his own Big Band, worked with various small groups, and co-led the highly successful Heath Brothers. 

World Premiere Of Sherman Irby’s Newest Composition, Musings of Cosmic Stuff, Performed By the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

On April 23-25, at 8:00 p.m., in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, saxophonist Sherman Irby will lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in the world premiere of Irby’s new composition, Musings of Cosmic Stuff. This new musical suite inspired by the cosmos is a blend of music and astronomy, featuring a glimpse at the science behind the celestial phenomena represented by each movement. The group will travel through a series of distinctive movements, evoking awe-inspiring galactic phenomena from supernovas, stars, and black holes to the formation of a galaxy and life itself.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is located at Broadway at 60th Street in New York, New York.

“Star Trek” icon William Shatner will serve as host of the April 25 concert. Through original narration, the Golden Globe® and Emmy Award® winning actor will complement this musical gravity-defying exploration of the universe, shedding light upon each subject before the JLCO brings it to life as music

Irby, whom JazzTimes says, “has established himself as a sort of ballast in the jazz world,” released Inferno, his recent album on Blue Engine Records earlier this year. Even beyond the JLCO, Irby is an acclaimed composer, bandleader, educator, and one of the most formidable saxophonists around, and it’s a thrill when he dedicates his writing talents to the orchestra.

Free pre-concert discussion about the music and artists at 7:00 p.m.

As many of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s concerts stream live in high-definition audio and video for free to a global audience, this concert will webcast live on April 23 and April 25. Webcast dates are subject to change. The concerts will also be available on Livestream’s mobile and TV-connected applications with real-time DVR, chat, photos, and other materials available to fans worldwide at jazz.org/live

For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit jazz.org

Blue Engine Records Releases Black, Brown And Beige

A DEFINITIVE RECORDING OF DUKE ELLINGTON’S MASTERWORK BY THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS

Blue Engine Records’ first release dedicated entirely to Ellington

Available on all digital platforms March 6, 2020

Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center‘s in-house recording label, will release a present-day recording of Duke Ellington‘s groundbreaking masterpiece Black, Brown and Beige by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Captured during a live, Rose Theater performance in 2018, Black, Brown and Beige is Wynton Marsalis’s first recording of the work and Blue Engine’s first release dedicated entirely to Ellington. Black, Brown and Beige will be available exclusively on all digital platforms on March 6, 2020.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis explains, “Black, Brown and Beige sits alone in the history of jazz. It covers a mosaic of not just Afro-American but of American styles of music.” The expert musicians of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, alongside special guests Brianna Thomas (vocals) and Eli Bishop (violin), are perfectly equipped to tackle its stirring stylistic breadth. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s spirited take on Ellington’s epic work pays tribute to some of the maestro’s most personal work while adding another important chapter to its enduring legacy.

Since its 1943 debut at Carnegie Hall, the piece—a sprawling survey of African American history—has been heralded as one of the most significant compositions in American orchestral music. Now, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis is releasing a definitive, present-day recording of Black, Brown and Beige that conveys all the nuances and emotion of Ellington’s grandest work.

TRACK LISTING

I. Black

1. Work Song

Solos: Paul Nedzela (baritone saxophone), Kenny Rampton (trumpet), Sam Chess (trombone), Sherman Irby (alto saxophone)

2. Come Sunday

Solos: Elliot Mason (trombone), Kasperi Sarikoski (trombone), Ted Nash (alto saxophone), Eli Bishop (violin), Dan Nimmer (piano), Sherman Irby (alto saxophone)

3. Light

Solos: Marcus Printup (trumpet), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Carlos Henriquez (bass), Elliot Mason (trombone), Paul Nedzela (baritone saxophone)

II. Brown

4. West Indian Dance

Solos: Marion Felder (drums), Victor Goines (clarinet), Elliot Mason (trombone), Kenny Rampton (trumpet), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Paul Nedzela (baritone saxophone)

5. Emancipation Celebration

Solos: Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Sam Chess (trombone), Carlos Henriquez (bass), Dan Nimmer (piano)

6. Blues Theme Mauve

Solo: Julian Lee (tenor saxophone)

III. Beige

7. Various Themes

Solos: Dan Nimmer (piano), Kenny Rampton (trumpet), Elliot Mason (trombone), Julian Lee (tenor saxophone)

8. Sugar Hill Penthouse

Solos: Dan Nimmer (piano), Paul Nedzela (baritone saxophone), Julian Lee (tenor saxophone)

9. Finale

Solos: Dan Nimmer (piano), Sherman Irby (alto saxophone), Marcus Printrup (trumpet), Ryan Kisor (trumpet)

PERSONNEL:

THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS

2017-18 Concert Season

REEDS

Sherman Irby (alto saxophone)

Ted Nash (alto saxophone)

Victor Goines (tenor saxophone, clarinet)

Walter Blanding (*) (tenor saxophone)

Julian Lee (substitute for Walter Blanding)

Paul Nedzela (baritone saxophone)

TRUMPETS

Ryan Kisor

Marcus Printup

Kenny Rampton

Wynton Marsalis (music director)

Jonah Moss

TROMBONES

Vincent Gardner (*)

Chris Crenshaw (*)

Elliot Mason

Kasperi Sarikoski (substitute for Vincent Gardner)

Sam Chess (substitute for Chris Crenshaw)

RHYTHM SECTION

Dan Nimmer (piano, bells)

Carlos Henriquez (bass)

Marion Felder (drums)

James Chirillo (guitar)

Conductor:

Chris Crenshaw

Special Guests:

Eli Bishop (violin)

Brianna Thomas (vocals)

(*) Did not perform at this concert

About Blue Engine Records

Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s platform that makes its vast archive of recorded concerts available to jazz audiences everywhere, launched on June 30, 2015. Blue Engine Records releases new studio and live recordings as well as archival recordings from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s performance history that date back to 1987 and are part of the R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library. Since the institution’s founding in 1987, each year’s programming is conceived and developed by Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis with a vision toward building a comprehensive library of iconic and wide-ranging compositions that, taken together, make up a canon of music. These archives include accurate, complete charts for the compositions – both old and new – performed each season. Coupled with consistently well-executed and recorded music performed by Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, this archive has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concert dates. The launch of Blue Engine is aligned with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s efforts to cultivate existing jazz fans worldwide and turn new audiences on to jazz. For more information on Blue Engine Records, visit www.jazz.org/blueengine

Jazz at Lincoln Center Announces 2020-21 Season

Jazz at Lincoln Center and Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis today proudly announce Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2020 – 21 concert season. The concert season – Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 33rd – begins on September 25, 2020, and will feature Blue Engine Records releases, worldwide touring, education programs, and 33 unique programs in Rose Theater and The Appel Room, in addition to more than 350 nights of music in Dizzy’s Club, all at Frederick P. Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located at Broadway at 60th Street in New York, New York.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2020 – 21 season navigates the cutting edge while firmly upholding the organization’s “all jazz is modern” philosophy. It features Jazz at Lincoln Center’s customary mix of world-premiere commissions and exclusive collaborations, iconic guest artists, and celebrations of milestones and major figures in jazz and its related genres. Many of the programs connect directly to themes that illuminate, as Marsalis puts it, “the notion of jazz as an agent for freedom and democratic principles — the freedom of improvisation, connecting your freedom with the freedom of other people, and your belief in the foundational principles of our way of life.” In the process, both the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (JLCO) and a cohort of master instrumentalists and singers representing a broad generational timeline will seamlessly tell stories in the multiple musical dialects of the Americas, extrapolating those diverse strands into a unified voice that speaks firmly to the here-and-now.

With iconic composer-pianist-orchestra leader Duke Ellington as a foundational lodestar, Jazz at Lincoln Center continues to produce an extensive range of educational and advocacy programs for all ages. The organization’s signature education program, the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival (EE), observes its 26th year of spreading the message of Duke Ellington’s music, leadership, and collective orientation by providing high school ensembles with free transcriptions of original Duke Ellington recordings, accompanied by rehearsal guides, teaching notes, original recordings, professional instruction, and more, to over 7,000 schools and independent bands in 55 countries. In addition to the Competition and Festival held at Jazz at Lincoln Center in May 2021, EE co-produces 23 non-competitive regional festivals across the U.S. and five in Australia. Notable EE alumni featured onstage during the 2020 – 21 concert season include Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra bassist Carlos Henriquez; trumpeter Riley Mulherkar; trumpeter and composer Summer Camargo; and vocalist Christopher McDole.

Throughout the 2020 – 21 season, Blue Engine Records – Jazz at Lincoln Center’s in-house record label – will continue to release both new and archival materials on streaming and physical formats. These will include releases from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis as well as from other artists. Titles to be released during the season include Wynton Marsalis performing Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven repertoire, and Walter Blanding’s big band arrangement of Sonny Rollins’ “Freedom Suite” as performed by the JLCO.

The focal point of every Jazz at Lincoln Center season is the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (JLCO), an ensemble of 15 virtuosos, composers, arrangers, educators, and unique soloists performing an unprecedented variety of styles that span jazz’s entire documented history. As Marsalis states, the JLCO “might be the most flexible and all-encompassing ensemble in the history of our music.”

Jazz at Lincoln Center opens its 33rd concert season with a celebration (September 25 – 26) of the centennial birth year of alto saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker (1920 – 1955), the iconic pioneer of bebop. Sixty-five years after his death, Parker’s rhythmic wizardry, harmonic ingenuity, and declamatory sound remain core to the 21st century soundtrack, and his 1945 recording, “Now’s The Time,” remains an inspirational motto for forward-looking jazz musicians who will not be deterred.

In Rose Theater, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Plays Charlie Parker presents new arrangements of Parker’s repertoire, with guest appearances by emerging saxophonists Patrick Bartley, Immanuel Wilkins, and Zoe Obadia. Following the opening night concerts, the JLCO will embark on a U.S. tour performing Charlie Parker Centennial repertoire. In The Appel Room, The Many Sides of Bird: A Charlie Parker Centennial Celebration\ re-examines Charlie Parker’s works in a multi-disciplinary program featuring jazz musicians performing in solo, duo, and trio configurations with tap, ballet, and modern dancers. Genre-bending alto saxophonist and Charlie Parker scholar Steve Coleman will appear in The Appel Room shows alongside the electrifying jook dancer Myles Yachts and members of Yachts’ Five Elements. Sheila Jordan, the 91-year-old bebop dynamo, will honor Parker – her close friend – along with pianist Alan Broadbent and bassist Harvie S. Also scheduled to appear on The Appel Room stage are pianist Benny Green, harpist Brandee Younger, tap dancer Jabu Graybeal and more.

Freedom, Justice and Hope (April 2 – 3) is a multidisciplinary extravaganza featuring new works by Marsalis and other JLCO members performed in collaboration with artists from the fields of dance, visual art, spoken word, theater, and film. Bryan Stevenson, the founder and Executive Director of the Montgomery, Alabama-based human rights organization Equal Justice Initiative, will speak at this concert event exploring the subjects of social justice, incarceration, prison reform, and immigration.

On Wynton Marsalis Small Group and the JLCO: The Happiness of Being (April 22 – 24), Marsalis appears on the Rose Theater stage in rare small group configuration, performing newly-penned tunes that contemplate the concept of freedom. The other half of the concert features the JLCO revisiting The Happiness of Being, an original suite by long-time orchestra member Walter Blanding.

United In Swing (October 23 – 24), music-directed by JLCO veteran saxophonist Sherman Irby, is an intergenerational meeting of the minds, with several guest composers writing new music for the JLCO. Emerging composers Josh Evans, Thandi Ntuli, and Endea Owens create new works inspired by writings and speeches on the theme of freedom. Distinguished 71-year-old Czech composer and jazz pianist Emil Viklicky premiers a piece commissioned exclusively for the event and incorporates the writings of the noted Czech playwright, poet, dissident and president Václav Havel.

Issues of freedom in the interpersonal and social realms inform Voices of Freedom: Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, and Nina Simone (January 8 – 9). The JLCO will interact with vocalists Ashley Pezzotti, Melanie Charles, and Shenel Johns as they interpret the searingly honest music and lyrics of these four great ladies of American song, supported by new big band arrangements from music director Chris Crenshaw and other band members.

The 2020-21 Singers Over Manhattan series will launch with Duke Sings\ (November 13-14). The show perfectly illustrates Jazz at Lincoln Center’s history of helping artists develop their visions as musicians and leaders with music directors saxophonist Ruben Fox and pianist Christopher Pattishall reprising a program of timeless Duke Ellington vocal compositions that they originally developed at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. A nine-piece horn section will frame five of New York’s best-and-brightest young vocalists — 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition winner Samara Joy McLendon, Thelonious Monk Competition finalist Vuyo Sotashe, Essentially Ellington alumni Christopher McDole, Joy Brown and Vanisha Gould.

The spectacularly multi-talented Camille Thurman applies her saxophone skills to Coltrane: A Love Supreme (June 11 – 12) in Rose Theater, leading the JLCO through arrangements of Coltrane works predicated upon concepts of freedom and liberation, both temporal and spiritual. Thurman will also don her vocalist hat in The Appel Room for Camille Thurman: The Best of Burt Bacharach (January 29 – 30). In this second Singers Over Manhattan showcase of the season, she will present a program of Bacharach’s rich yet subtly complex songs alongside her regular working group, the Darrell Green Trio.

The third 2020 – 21 Singers Over Manhattan concert features Veronica Swift (March 19 – 20), a rising star who will present her individualistic bebop-to-ballads concept with the Emmet Cohen Trio. The show will focus on women who have inspired Swift, including special guest vocalist Sheila Jordan, now 91 years young.

The magisterial songstress Dianne Reeves returns to Jazz at Lincoln Center for her tenth season of Valentine’s Day concerts (February 12 – 13).

The luminous singer Lizz Wright joins the SFJazz Collective (dubbed “contemporary jazz’s premier all-star band” by the New York Times) to interpret classic songs by the iconic singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell (whose collaborations with jazz icons like Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Charles Mingus have firmly established her place in the jazz canon), juxtaposed with brand-new original compositions by SFJC band members inspired by Mitchell’s music and legacy (April 9 – 10).

Legendary Cuban vocalist Omara Portuondo celebrates her 90th birthday with a farewell tour stop at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater (November 6 – 7). With effortless mastery, Portuondo, joined by the magnificent Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca‘s quartet and a bevy of all-star guests to be announced, will address a full spectrum of Cuban genres, among them Afro-Cuban jazz, guajira, danzón, cha-cha-chá, trova Cubana, son Cubano, and boleros.

The sound that Jelly Roll Morton once described as the “Spanish Tinge” also inflects this season’s Big Band Holidays con Rubén Blades (December 16 – 20), JALC’s annually sold-out holiday concert week (December 16-20). This year’s special edition, music directed by JLCO bassist Carlos Henriquez, will feature iconic Panamanian salsero Rubén Blades. The collaboration between Blades and the JLCO follows Una Noche con Rubén Blades, the live, Grammy Award-nominated Blue Engine release from 2018.

Bronx-born bassist Carlos Henriquez – whose non-JLCO c.v. includes appearances with such icons as Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Danilo Pérez and Gonzalo Rubalcaba – is an avatar of musical multilingualism, which he will demonstrate when he leads the new program Freedom con Clave (June 4 – 5) in The Appel Room, featuring new and reinvented works on the topic of freedom.

The 2020-21 season sees Jazz at Lincoln Center representing Brazil from several angles, with concerts in Rose Theater by multi-Grammy Award- winning pianist, vocalist, and composer Eliane Elias (May 14 – 15), and in The Appel Room by outside-the-box percussionist Cyro Baptista for his 70th birthday celebration (October 23 – 24).

The São Paolo-born Elias opens her program with Meditations on Freedom, an account of her experiences working with Brazilian politician-songwriter-poet Vinicius de Moraes and other composers who were exiled from Brazil while the nation was ruled by military dictatorship between 1964 and 1985. The second half of the evening, Variations on a Theme of Jobim, features her informed, idiomatic reworkings of repertoire by iconic Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Cyro Baptista – whose c.v. includes extensive collaborations with icons like Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, Phish, Milton Nascimento, Kathleen Battle, James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Laurie Anderson, and dozens more – celebrates his 70th birthday with frequent collaborators John Zorn, Romero Lubambo, Billy Martin, and other surprise guests.

Another unique program (April 30 – May 1) is a double bill featuring drummer Matt Wilson‘s Honey and Salt and pianist Helen Sung‘s Sung With Words, featuring live performances of two recently recorded exemplars of the music-meets-poetry genre. For Honey and Salt (named 2018 Record of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association), Wilson has written songs to frame his readings of the poems of Carl Sandberg; on Sung With Words, inspired by the works of award-winning poet Dana Gioia, Sung’s pieces will be performed by an A-list group of vocalists and instrumentalists.

Throughout 2020 – 21, Jazz at Lincoln Center places the poetic grandeur of the blues robustly on display. One of the season’s most ambitious programs is Bill Ferris: Voices of Mississippi (February 5 – 6), a multimedia event based on and inspired by Ferris’ 2019 double-Grammy Award – winning, four-disk box set Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris. The performers include several of the 21st century’s foremost blues practitioners including Cedric Burnside, The North Mississippi All-Stars’ Luther and Cody Dickinson, Ruthie Foster, and many more. Hosted by Bill Ferris, this special celebration of the blues, gospel, and local folklore will be augmented by narration from Mr. Ferris with selected film segments, archival audio recordings, and photographs from Ferris’ collection.

For Mose Allison and the Blues (April 30 – May 1), the Anything Mose Band led by vocalist-guitarist Richard Julian and pianist John Chin welcome special guest, the iconic vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal to interpret the wry, jazz-inflected songs of NEA Jazz Master pianist and composer Mose Allison. Amy Allison will host this evening filled with the music and words of her father.

Renowned blues-rock guitarist, multi-platinum-selling singer/songwriter, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and 2020 Songwriters Hall of Fame entrant Steve Miller presents his 6th annual exploration of a different flavor of the blues (December 11 – 12).

The blues is also the subject of the 2020-21 season’s first Family Concert, entitled What Is The Blues? (November 13-14), an hour-long educational program hosted by the magnificently charismatic singer Catherine Russell.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s second 2020-21 Family Concert is What Is BeBop? (March 19 – 20), music-directed by JLCO trombonist Vincent Gardner. The JLCO will explore the ABCs of the still-futuristic style known as “BeBop,” of which Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie – whose compositions will be performed – are the most prominent avatars.

Big Band Swing: Walk On The Wild Side (May 14 – 15) represents the blues and cabaret cultures of 1920s and 1930s Kansas City and Chicago, from which Parker emerged. It’s a collaboration between five-time Emmy Award – winning writer and historian Geoffrey Ward, best known for his extensive work with documentarian Ken Burns, and rising star trumpeter and arranger Riley Mulherkar. Alongside a script written by Ward, the Riley Mulherkar Big Band will perform songs by – to name a short list – Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Benny Goodman, Mary Lou Williams, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Count Basie, Benny Moten, Lester Young, Parker, and Bix Beiderbecke.

Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis will direct Irving Berlin: “God Bless America,“ a new program of Great American Songbook music (May 20 – 22). The new concert event will feature the JLCO performing Berlin’s Songbook, Broadway, and Hollywood classics inclduing “God Bless America,” “I’ll Be Loving You Always,” and “Count Your Blessings.”

Oscar nominee and six-time Grammy Award winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard seamlessly flits between the worlds of jazz, opera and motion picture scoring. On March 12 and 13, he presents a mid-career retrospective at The Appel Room. For this specially curated evening, Blanchard will revisit his four-year tenure with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers; and perform pieces from his 50-plus film scores, including the Grammy winning A Tale of God’s Will and the Oscar winning BlacKkKlansman with guest tenor saxophonist and friend Ravi Coltrane. For this special evening, Blanchard and the E-Collective will reprise their groundbreaking collaboration with choreographer Rennie Harris/Puremovement. Blanchard, in a prelude to his Metropolitan Opera debut as the first African American composer to debut at the MET, will also perform music from his acclaimed operatic works with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and share new music from his latest album honoring Wayne Shorter, featuring his band with the Turtle Island String Quartet.

The trumpets will sound in a concert (May 28 – 29) dedicated to the inspirational trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown (1930 – 1956), who created some of the most memorable recordings of the jazz canon during his brief lifetime. To do him justice, trumpet titan Sean Jones convenes an all-star, inter-generational cast of fellow master practitioners, including Randy Brecker, Ingrid Jensen, Terell Stafford, Michael Rodriguez, Ambrose Akinmusire, Giveton Gelin, Summer Camargo, and Cyrus Mackey with special guest Melissa Aldana joining on saxophone. Ensuring the swing is a world-class rhythm section: pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Ben Williams, and drummer Lewis Nash.

The works of pianist, composer, and bandleader Dave Brubeck are the subject of The JLCO Plays Brubeck: Celebrating 100 Years (November 19 – 21)_,_ a centennial celebration of the global jazz ambassador and humanitarian who represented the best of American ideals to a global audience. Music-directing the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis is JLCO pianist Dan Nimmer, with appearances by rising-star guest pianists Sean Mason and South African Thandi Ntuli.

The social-justice-oriented music of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s is the subject of the JLCO’s presentation of works by Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, and (for the first time) Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra (February 26 – 27), music-directed by JLCO multi-instrumentalist Ted Nash.

The equipoise between individual freedom and ensemble-oriented discipline is inherent in the MoodSwing Reunion concert (October 2 – 3), featuring jazz superstars Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade, as they revisit repertoire from the 1994 MoodSwing album that catapulted each of them into the international spotlight. In the liner notes to that album, Redman wrote: “Jazz is about feeling, communication, honesty, and soul. Jazz is meant to enrich the spirit. Jazz is for your heart. Jazz moves you.”

That aspiration dovetails with Wynton Marsalis’ remark: “This is a time where we need to cosign our belief in freedom, not from any one perspective, but from many different perspectives. If you really believe in freedom, it’s important that you fight for everyone’s freedom, including those who are most unlike yourself. That’s always been the spirit of jazz.

“At Jazz at Lincoln Center, we challenge ourselves to represent the highest aspirations of jazz. We celebrate the masters, whose music, philosophy and spirit of mentorship continue to influence everything we do as an organization, and we create opportunities for you to enjoy the next stellar generation of musicians. Join us in the House of Swing, on our tours, or by tuning in to our free, live webcasts. We invite you to enjoy our music and to be enriched by it.”

Please click here for the complete 2020-21 season chronology.

Dizzy’s Club

Dizzy’s Club, one of the three main performance venues situated in Frederick P. Rose Hall, produces world-class jazz performances nightly, often reflecting and augmenting the programming in Rose Theater and The Appel Room. Dizzy’s Club kicks off its 2020 – 21 season by celebrating the Charlie Parker Centennial with the eminent alto saxophone master Charles McPherson from September 24-27. The Generations in Jazz Festival, running from August 30-October 4, will feature Diane Schuur, Matthew Shipp’s 60th birthday celebration, the Eubanks-Evans Experience with Kevin Eubanks and Orrin Evans, a two-night collaboration with Festival of New Trumpet Music and more to be announced. Sets featuring Christian Sands, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jamie Baum Septet, Warren Wolf, and more will round out the Fall 2020 schedule. As part of the new blues initiative, Dizzy’s will also launch a Blues Tuesday night in September featuring blues programming on the second Tuesday of every month.

Education

Jazz at Lincoln Center serves perhaps the largest jazz education program network in the world, and the organization’s educational initiatives will continue to reach larger and more diverse audiences in 2020 – 21. The innovative Education on the Road program, led by members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, continues to provide workshops, master classes, and other outreach activities as parts of the JLCO’s national and international tours.

The Jazz Academy Media Library, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s online education portal, houses over 1,000 instructional videos covering a wide range of musical and historical topics, freely available online. During the upcoming year, the Education department is filming new Jazz Academy videos aligned with forthcoming releases on Blue Engine Records.

Furthermore, Jazz at Lincoln Center begins a partnership with the big band music publisher eJazz Lines to make recorded arrangements by members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra commercially available to school bands, professional jazz orchestras, and big bands around the world.

In Fall 2020, Jazz at Lincoln Center launches a new initiative called The Blues Curriculum, which outlines and makes available to teachers around the world a way to teach the traditional blues to students in their classrooms. Additional videos will also help aspiring musicians properly learn and perform classic Blues repertoire.

In January 2021, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces and hosts the second annual Jack Rudin Jazz Championship, an invitational festival and competition featuring ten of the finest collegiate jazz bands in the country.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Programs enter a 15th year of offerings to ensembles memberships and classes for high school and middle school-age musicians in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The Youth Programs support instrumental jazz education through 18 ensembles, with weekly sessions of the High School Jazz Academy, Middle School Jazz Academy, and Young Women’s Jazz Orchestra. The Jazz for Young People® outreach program “Let Freedom Swing” extends to schools and community-based organizations in all five boroughs of New York City, as well as Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Mesa, London, Sydney, and Melbourne, to present more than 600 concerts throughout the season. The Jazz for Young People® *outreach program *“Let Freedom Swing” extends to schools and community-based organizations in New York City’s five boroughs, as well as in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Mesa, London, Sydney, and Melbourne.

The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival (EE) continues to reach band directors and students in more than 7,000 schools and independent bands worldwide, with eight charts of free original transcriptions of original Duke Ellington recordings distributed annually — more than 42,000 charts each year. Additionally, the program expands its educational reach through a series of 23 Essentially Ellington\ regional festivals in the U.S. and Australia, intended to enhance students’ understanding and appreciation of Ellington’s music.

The EE companion program, Band Director Academy (BDA), a training program focused on professional development for music teachers that is now in its 22nd year, continues its annual offerings at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. BDA focuses on the essentials of teaching jazz and emphasizing hands-on learning and practical techniques (June 25-28, 2020).

Additional educational programming includes:

Summer 2020 Jazz Academy at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY,

Summer 2020 Jazz Workshop at Fordham on the Lincoln Center campus

For the 15th year, Jazz at Lincoln Center provides weekly early-childhood music education classes to children and their caregivers through WeBop® in New York City and continues to partner with franchises in Seattle, Orlando, St. Louis, Charlotte, and Omaha.

An increased number of free pre-concert lectures to supplement most Jazz at Lincoln Center-produced events in Rose Theater and The Appel Room;

Listening Parties in connection with Blue Engine record releases to provide attendees with new depths of insight into major jazz artists’ aesthetics and inspirations;

Syncopated Leadership workshops in high schools that continue to offer a range of leadership training opportunities through jazz performance practice;

Visiting Band Workshops encouraging band directors of student ensembles of all ages to bring their performing groups for a customized workshop at Jazz at Lincoln Center, an opportunity to work directly with Jazz at Lincoln Center clinicians and artists.

Digital Concert Network brings Jazz at Lincoln Center’s webcast performances to libraries around the country, pairing curated content with materials for educators and audiences.

In addition, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s adult higher education program,Swing University, expands its course offerings in 2020 – 21, aligning classes with season concerts and themes as well as Blue Engine releases. Building upon its flagship Jazz 101,201, and 301 classes, Swing University will also offer specialty classes on John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and more.

Touring

The virtuosic Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis tours its expansive repertoire, including original works and arrangements by bandmembers, around the world. In the Fall, following opening night at Rose Theater, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis tours the U.S. performing Charlie Parker repertoire in honor of the saxophonist’s centennial year. In December, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Rubén Blades will embark on the Big Band Holidays con Rubén Blades tour across the U.S.

*Ticket Information *Beginning today, current Jazz at Lincoln Center subscribers are invited to renew their subscriptions for all Rose Theater and The Appel Room concert packages, with savings of up to 15% off single ticket prices. To keep their same seats, current subscribers must renew beginning today through April 17, 2020. New subscriptions may be purchased beginning March 3, 2020.

Becoming a subscriber is the best way to lock in the best seats at the guaranteed best prices for the entire season, as single ticket prices will increase based on demand as concerts approach. Subscribers also have the benefit of utilizing free, unlimited ticket exchanges to manage their schedule. In addition to all other benefits, subscribers can select a TAKE 3,4,5 plan, creating a custom concert package of three or more performances across the season, personalized to individual interests and schedules, across both venues. TAKE 3,4,5 tickets come with a 10% discount off single ticket prices in addition to all other subscriber benefits.

For more information on 2020 – 21 season subscriptions, visit jazz.org/subs. To order a subscription or to request information, please call the Subscription Services hotline at 212-258-9999, e-mail subscriptions@jazz.org, or visit jazz.org/subs.

*Membership Discount *Jazz at Lincoln Center offers a robust Membership program with a wide array of benefits, including deep discounts on concert tickets. Individuals who join at the $100 level and above are eligible to receive VIP single ticket pre-sale access and discounted tickets to Jazz at Lincoln Center-produced concerts in Rose Theater and The Appel Room on the day of the event. Tickets must be purchased at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office or online beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the day of the performance. Members must show their valid membership card or log-in to jazz.org using their account credentials to receive this discount. Subject to availability. Learn more and sign up at jazz.org/membership.

VIP single ticket pre-sale for donors, members, and subscribers will be available starting June 16, 2020. To access single tickets before the general public, become a Jazz at Lincoln Center member by June 19, 2020.

Pricing Ticket prices for Rose Theater are $45 and up dependent upon seating section, except where noted below:

Jazz for Young People® tickets in Rose Theater are 10, 20 or $25.

Ticket prices for The Appel Room are 65 and up, dependent on seating section for the 7:00 p.m. sets, and 45 and up, depending on seating section for the 9:30 p.m. sets.

Note: Hot Seats – $10 seats for each Rose Theater performance (excluding Jazz for Young People® concerts and other performances as specified) and select performances in The Appel Room – are available for purchase by the general public on the Wednesday prior to each performance. Tickets are subject to availability; please call 212-258-9877 for available Hot Seats performance dates.

Hot Seats are available only in person at the Box Office, with a maximum of two tickets per person. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Hot Seats Ticket Discount Program is supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

*Please note that a 3.50 Jazz at Lincoln Center Facility Fee applies to ALL ticket purchases, with the exception of 10 Hot Seats. A $7 handling fee also applies when purchasing tickets from CenterCharge or when purchasing tickets online via jazz.org.

All single tickets for The Appel Room and Rose Theater can be purchased through jazz.org 24 hours a day or through CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tickets can also be purchased at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, located on Broadway at 60th Street, ground floor.

Box Office hours: Monday-Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (or 30 minutes past curtain) Sunday: 12:00 p.m. noon to 6:00 p.m. (or 30 minutes past curtain).

Single tickets go on sale June 23, 2020.

Additional information may be found at jazz.org | Facebook: facebook.com/jazzatlincolncenter | Twitter: @jazzdotorg | Instagram: @jazzdotorg | YouTube: youtube.com/jalc | Livestream: jazz.org/live

Jazz at Lincoln Center Announces Nation’s Top Big Bands to Compete in 25th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival

Jazz at Lincoln Center today announced the 18 finalists who will compete in its 25th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival–the nation’s premier jazz education event–on May 7-9, 2020. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Essentially Ellington, Jazz at Lincoln Center has invited an unprecedented number of the country’s top high school jazz bands to compete for top honors in New York City.

For 25 years, the Essentially Ellington program has been the cornerstone of Jazz at Lincoln’s Center’s arts education programming. The program has helped to foster the talent and love of jazz music of over 890,000 young musicians throughout its history.

The bands were selected from a competitive pool of 106 bands that submitted recordings of three tunes from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Library. From May 7 through 9, these talented young musicians from all over the nation will participate in workshops, jam sessions and sectionals before competing for top honors at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, nicknamed the “House of Swing.” Following the competition events, a concert and awards ceremony will take place featuring this year’s top three bands alongside the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.

Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Managing and Artistic Director, says, “Twenty-five years ago, Essentially Ellington was created to improve the quality of high school jazz programs across our nation. We felt that the deep archive of Duke Ellington would challenge and inspire our kids to higher levels of virtuosity, soul and consciousness. Since then, it has become a life changing program developing a worldwide community of band directors, alumni, students, administrators and parents — all are proud citizens of this music. For 25 years, our spirits have been lifted by every part of the Essentially Ellington community. There have been many very moving moments, and we have been uplifted by what our communities have shown us. To the students who are upholding the Essentially Ellington tradition in this banner year and in the years to come, take us where we need to go. We all look forward to interacting with you, to feeling your playing, and to being elevated by your spirit of participation.”

For the first time, Jazz at Lincoln Center is collaborating with MTV’s nonpartisan +1thevote campaign. To make voting easier, more social, and more fun, HeadCount will be onsite in the House of Swing May 7-9, 2020 during the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, registering first-time voters, verifying voter registrations, and empowering participants and the public to become more politically engaged in the 2020 election process.

The full list of 2020 Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Finalists includes:

Agoura High School (Agoura Hills, CA)
Beloit Memorial High School (Beloit, WI)
Byron Center High School (Byron Center, MI)
Carroll Senior High School (Southlake, TX)
Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music (Bronx, NY)
Denver School of the Arts (Denver, CO)
Dillard Center for the Arts (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Garfield High School (Seattle, WA)
Memphis Central High School (Memphis, TN)
Mountlake Terrace High School (Mountlake Terrace, WA)
Mount Si High School (Snoqualmie, WA)
New World School of the Arts (Miami, FL)
Plano West Senior High School (Plano, TX)
Rio Americano High School (Sacramento, CA)
Roosevelt High School (Seattle, WA)
Tarpon Springs High School (Tarpon Springs, FL)
Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble (Raleigh, NC)
Seattle JazzED Ellington Ensemble (Seattle, WA)

In addition to the top 18 high school jazz bands, Jazz at Lincoln Center announced the winner of the 8th Annual Essentially Ellington Dr. J. Douglas White Student Composition and Arranging Contest. This year, out of 26 submissions, the prestigious honor goes to Leo Steinriede of Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Leo will have his composition recorded by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and receive a $1,000 cash prize, a composition lesson with GRAMMY award-winning musician and longtime Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra member, Ted Nash, and will receive a free trip to New York City to observe and participate in the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival.

The annual Competition & Festival marks the culmination of the annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program, which includes non-regional festivals around the country, free transcriptions of original Duke Ellington recordings, additional teaching resources, free adjudication, and more. The Essentially Ellington program has reached over 6,600 schools and independent bands in 55 countries.

Festival events, including the final concert featuring the three top-placing bands and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will be webcast live on jazz.org/live.

For more information, including background, history, photos, and audio recordings of the Essentially Ellington repertoire, visit: jazz.org/ee

The Essentially Ellington Competition & Festival is media-accessible via Jazz at Lincoln Center social media on Facebook: www.facebook.com/EssentiallyEllington, Twitter: EssEllington, Instagram: jazzdotorg.

JLCO with Wynton Marsalis Performs the Music of Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk, Plus the World Premiere of Andy Farber’s Usonian Structures in Masters of Form: From Mingus To Monk

In the concert event Masters of Form: From Mingus to Monk, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis performs some of the most masterfully structured pieces of the jazz canon, written by musical architects such as Jelly Roll Morton, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and George Russell.

On this special evening, the orchestra along with composer, arranger and saxophonist Andy Farber, will expand upon the architectural concept with the three-night world premiere of Andy Farber’s Usonian Structures, inspired by the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater on April 3 – 4 at 8:00 p.m.The first concert takes place at the Eisenhower Auditorium at Penn State on April 2 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra residency at the university.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall is located at Broadway at 60th Street in New York, New York.

The evening’s program is a musical mashup with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis creating an atmosphere of great composition combined with and compared to great architecture. With music direction by Jazz at Lincoln Center trombonist Vincent Gardner, the band will start the show by playing some of the most intricately designed and influential pieces in jazz history. They will emphasize the brilliant layering and attention to form that allowed composers like Morton, Mingus, Monk, and Russell to construct such distinctly expressive and enduring music.

The second half of the show will expand upon this concept with the world premiere of Usonian Structures, a new suite created by longtime member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center family, Andy Farber. One of today’s finest big band composers and arrangers, Farber’s credits include work with jazz greats such as Shirley Horn, B.B. King, Jon Hendricks and more.

The piece is inspired by the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright,and each movement is an interpretation or impression of one of Wright’s iconic designs.

A pre-concert discussion will take place prior to each show at 7:00 p.m.

For more information, visit jazz.org

Wynton Marsalis and the JLCO deliver virtuouso performance at Mechanics Hall

Mechanics Hall was packed to the rafters on Sunday night for Music Worcester’s first concert of the New Year. And why shouldn’t it have been? After all, it’s not every night that Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra come to town and this is a group that simply doesn’t disappoint.

The business of the JLCO is, of course, jazz, and, for virtuosity, technical excellence, expressive range, musical curiosity, and an admirable commitment to the new, they set the bar for the field. Sunday’s concert, “Spiritual Sounds and the Jazz Age,” showcased the group’s extraordinary musical chops as well as its in-house compositional talent: The evening’s selections were written by JLCO members Victor Goines and Chris Crenshaw.

Goines’ “Untamed Elegance” is a six-movement suite that celebrates the 1920s, from its politics and burgeoning film industry to the decade’s engagement with new ideas, including the misguided experiment of Prohibition.

On Sunday, the JLCO presented five of its movements (“Bold, Naked and Sensational” was omitted). These provided, for this listener at least, a bracing introduction to Goines’ compositional voice.

His language is rooted in the tradition of Ellington and Basie: richly blended and rhythmically taut ensemble writing interspersed by solo playing of real personality and energy. Indeed, throughout “Untamed Elegance,” instrumental virtuosity reigns supreme.

The opening movement, “The Business of America is Business,” featured an extended saxophone solo for the composer, as well as an athletic moment in the spotlight for trombonist Elliot Mason and a spirited turn near the end for bassist Carlos Henriquez.

In the second, “The Elephant in the Room,” saxophonists Camille Thurman and Paul Nedzela exchanged nervously driving lines while backed up by Willie Jones III’s drum kit; later on, the quartet of trumpets engaged in an exhilaratingly discreet section solo.

Goines took another solo turn in “The ‘It’ Thing,” a sensuous homage to ’20s screen siren Clara Bow, in which the band’s accompaniment was delicately shaded by the addition of a pair of flutes. Pianist Dan Nimmer’s stride-like solo was a highlight of the raucous fourth movement, “Laboratories of Ideas,” while trumpeter Marsalis and saxophonist Sherman Irby exchanged torrid lines in the woozy finale, “Drunk as a Skunk.”

By just about any measure, “Untamed Elegance” is a showpiece. But it’s an awfully smart one: engaging, accessible, characterful, touching — and knowing just when to move on to the next thing.

Chris Crenshaw’s “God’s Trombones,” which filled out the concert’s second half, proved likewise direct. Inspired by James Weldon Johnson’s 1927 book of poems and Crenshaw’s own religious upbringing, this 2012 essay spans (in its completed form) the creation of the cosmos to Judgement Day.

Sunday’s audience was treated to five of its eight movements, beginning with the stately processional of “The Creation” and concluding with the quadripartite tone poem “Let My People Go.” In between came a meditation on “The Prodigal Son,” “Go Down Death — A Funeral Sermon,” and “Noah Built the Ark.”

In “God’s Trombones,” Crenshaw’s writing is, like Goines’, steeped in the best of the jazz band tradition. It’s strongly evocative: the shifts of character in “The Prodigal Son” (from swaggering, raucous party music, to imitations of the snorting of swine and an uplifting final hymn) and “Let My People Go” (with its cacophonous depiction of the Ten Plagues) are bracing.

What’s more, Crenshaw’s ear for counterpoint and color in “God’s Trombones” is remarkable, be that in the breathtakingly natural exchange of solo lines in “Noah Built the Ark” or the serene flute melody (exquisitely played by Dan Block on Sunday) that closes “A Funeral Sermon.”

Even in bowdlerized form, “God’s Trombones” packs an invigorating punch: like the peerless ensemble for which it was written, it’s a potent musical, cultural and spiritual testament that, on Sunday night, was played to the hilt.

by Jonathan Blumhofer

Source: Worcester Magazine

Blue Engine Records Releases Sherman Irby’s Inferno by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

Sherman Irby’s Musical Interpretation Of Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy” Features Late Baritone Player Joe Temperley, As The Voice Of “Dante”

Available on all digital platforms January 17, 2020

New York, NY (January 10, 2020) – Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s in-house recording label, releases Sherman Irby’s Inferno by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Irby, the lead alto saxophonist of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, cleverly interprets Dante Alighieri’s epic poem from “The Divine Comedy” to create a sweeping work that takes listeners on a lyrically swinging tour of the underworld’s nine circles. Sherman Irby’s Inferno will be available exclusively on all digital platforms on January 17, 2020.

In the epic composition—recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater in 2012—the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra all-star improvisers give life to the colorful denizens of hell and casts the late, legendary baritone saxophonist and founding member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Joe Temperley as the voice of “Dante.” Sherman Irby’s Inferno both stands alone as an irresistible musical narrative and sheds new light on Dante’s classic; this unique exploration of the epic poem captures its timeless quality and ingeniously places it in conversation with the jazz canon.

TRACK LISTING:

All movements composed by Sherman Irby

1. Overture: Lost

Solo: Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone)

2. Movement I: House of Unbelievers

Solos: Ted Nash (flute), Victor Goines (clarinet), Chris Crenshaw (trombone)

3. Movement II: Insatiable Hunger

Solos: Walter Blanding (tenor and soprano saxophone), Vincent Gardner (trombone)

4. Movement III: Beware the Wolf and the Serpent

Solos: Sherman Irby (alto saxophone), Elliot Mason (trombone), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet)

5. Movement IV: The City of Dis

Solos: Walter Blanding (soprano saxophone and oboe), Ted Nash (flute)

6. Movement V: The Three-Headed Serpent

Solos: Ali Jackson (drums), Victor Goines (tenor saxophone), Ted Nash (alto saxophone), Kenny Rampton (trumpet), Marcus Printup (trumpet), Dan Nimmer (piano)

7. Movement VI: The Great Deceiver / Finale: The Shores of Mount Purgatory

Solos: Carlos Henriquez (bass), Dan Nimmer (piano), Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone)

PERSONNEL:

THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS

REEDS

Sherman Irby (alto saxophone, clarinet, and flute)

Ted Nash (alto saxophone, clarinet, and flute)

Victor Goines (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and clarinet)

Walter Blanding (tenor saxophone)

Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet)

TRUMPETS

Ryan Kisor

Marcus Printup

Kenny Rampton

Wynton Marsalis

TROMBONES

Vincent Gardner

Chris Crenshaw

Elliot Mason

RHYTHM SECTION

Dan Nimmer (piano)

Carlos Henriquez (bass)

Ali Jackson (drums)

SPECIAL GUEST:

Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone)

Wynton Marsalis, Keeper of the Jazz Flame

Wynton Marsalis speaks with Alec Baldwin at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall in Manhattan on October 29, 2019.

Wynton Marsalis was on the cover of Time as the avatar of the “New Jazz Age.” His central role in reviving the genre is thanks partly to his gorgeous, virtuosic trumpet-playing, and partly to his founding of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

JALC established jazz at the heart of American high culture. That “officialness” turned off some jazz musicians: wasn’t their music supposed to be looser, smaller? But Marsalis tells Alec that the desire to relegate jazz to small underground clubs is “ghettoizing.”

In front of a live audience at JALC’s Rose Hall, Marsalis also goes deep with Alec Baldwin about his father’s influence — and his racially fraught interactions with professors and conductors at Juilliard when he showed up from Louisiana in 1979.

Produced by WNYC Studios

Blue Engine Records Announces Four Winter Releases, Including The Music Of Wayne Shorter Featuring Wayne Shorter

On the heels of Blue Engine Records’ banner 2019 ─ which included six album releases and a GRAMMY® Award-nomination for Una Noche con Rubén Blades ─ Jazz at Lincoln Center’s in-house recording label proudly announces plans to release four new albums featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in January and February of 2020. These releases include The Music of Wayne Shorter, which finds tenor saxophone titan Wayne Shorter performing some of his most beloved compositions alongside the JLCO and will be available digitally and on CD January 31.

Other releases include Sherman Irby’s Inferno; Black, Brown and Beige; and The Ever Fonky Lowdown. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s virtuosity and dynamism will be revealed on these albums, which encompass daring new original works as well as the definitive modern performance of Duke Ellington’s most ambitious composition.

The Music of Wayne Shorter will be Blue Engine Records’ initial physical album release of 2020. The CD, recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2015, features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis alongside 11-time Grammy Award (including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy) winner Wayne Shorter performing.

Each of the album’s 10 songs — which include “Yes or No,” “Endangered Species,” and “Teru” — is a classic Shorter composition given an invigorating new arrangement by a JLCO member. The album will be available to pre-order on Dec. 27, 2019. For more information on The Music of Wayne Shorter, head to www.jazz.org/wayne

Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director, says, “Wayne Shorter is at the highest level of our music—you can’t get any higher than him.Everybody strives to have a personal sound: Wayne’s sound is definitive.”

The first slate of 2020 Blue Engine Records releases also includes several digital albums:

Sherman Irby’s Inferno (available on January 17, 2020): The JLCO’s lead alto saxophonist Sherman Irby presents a swinging journey through the nine circles of hell in a work inspired by Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem.

Black, Brown and Beige (available on February 28, 2020): Blue Engine Records’ first release of Duke Ellington music, and the first time Marsalis has recorded the maestro’s groundbreaking masterpiece.

The Ever Fonky Lowdown (available on March 6, 2020): A sweeping Marsalis suite — with narration from famed actor Wendell Pierce and guest vocals from Camille Thurman, Ashley Pezzotti, and Christie Dashiell — that captures the artist’s insights on contemporary culture and society.