Wynton Marsalis's Blog, page 38

Wynton Marsalis Lets the Orchestra Shine in His Violin Concerto

A new recording captures this 2015 work, which doesn’t depend on the presence of him or his jazz colleagues.

At the turn of the 21st century, Wynton Marsalis was busy.

In 1999 alone, two years after winning the Pulitzer Prize for his oratorio “Blood on the Fields,” this jazz trumpeter and composer put out 10 different albums, one of them an eight-hour-plus live box set. His first symphonic composition, “All Rise,” was released in 2002, in a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Mr. Marsalis’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

But over the following decade, even casual fans would have noticed a slowdown. Mr. Marsalis was still active, premiering and refining works like the “Swing Symphony” and “The Jungle.” But the faltering record industry was no longer keeping pace with his pen. Sony put out compilations of existing pieces in 2012 and ’13, but no new music.

“It’s gotten thin, man — the higher levels of our thing,” Mr. Marsalis, 57, said in an interview at Jazz at Lincoln Center. “It’s not what I would have thought when I was 20, to be honest.”

The drought began to ease in 2015, with the founding of Blue Engine Records, an in-house label for Jazz at Lincoln Center. And this year is already overflowing, with Blue Engine’s potent release of Mr. Marsalis’s “Swing Symphony” (featuring David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra) as well as his score for the film “Bolden” and an album inspired by visual artists, “Jazz and Art.” (Blue Engine has ambitious plans to release 100 albums, by Mr. Marsalis and others, over the course of five years.)

And Blue Engine isn’t the only way to hear Mr. Marsalis’s latest music. A recording of his 2015 Violin Concerto, performed by Nicola Benedetti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, is also out this summer from the Decca label, representing Mr. Marsalis’s return to a major classical imprint.

The release, which also includes Mr. Marsalis’s “Fiddle Dance Suite,” is something of a turning point in his orchestral catalog, since it does not depend on his presence as a player — or even that of his Jazz at Lincoln Center colleagues, as on the “Swing Symphony.”

Still, when I first listened to the Violin Concerto album, I nevertheless experienced one of those shivers of recognition that occurs when you re-encounter a familiar presence in a sharp new guise. In four movements and 43 minutes, here is a portrait of a composer in a variety of moods, rambunctious as well as intimate — a mixture handled, and integrated, with the same mastery as in his early-1990s septet music. (Check out at least the last two discs of the “Live at the Village Vanguard” box set.)

Ms. Benedetti’s playing embodies this range. “In this concerto, she’s a bard,” Mr. Marsalis said. “They come, and they go.”

The first movement features Romantic flourishes in the orchestra, as well as modernist 20th-century-style textures. But it’s not all about boldness: There’s captivating delicacy in the ninth minute of the first movement, as the Duke Ellington-influenced woodwind texture trails off, making way for the entry of the harp and high-flying tones from Ms. Benedetti.

“That’s one of my favorite moments,” Ms. Benedetti said in a telephone interview. “A few friends of mine who are musicology types have asked to see the score, and studied it a little bit. It’s those kinds of things that have been fascinations to them: where texture becomes 100 percent different, but the material — or the harmonic progression, or the way an arpeggio is spaced — is 100 percent related. It fills you with a lot of wonderment.”

With Mr. Marsalis, I brought up a bombastic orchestral chord that appears earlier in that first movement. When I ventured a point of comparison — Bartok’s jagged and majestic “Miraculous Mandarin” — Mr. Marsalis said, casually, “You know, that was my favorite, when I was in high school.”

The Violin Concerto bears other traces of his long and eclectic musical career. The third movement includes yawping blues accents that the Philadelphia brass section handles with raucous facility. (“Man, they wanted to play it,” Mr. Marsalis said, “and they were handling their business.”) And the final movement has a celebratory air that evokes country fiddling as well as Leonard Bernstein.

Mr. Marsalis recalled auditioning 40 years ago for the composer and conductor Gunther Schuller — renowned for his “third stream” style, combining jazz and classical approaches — for a prestigious spot at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home and academy in the Berkshires. He got it, and played there with Bernstein.

His reverence for both figures was clear. “We could go at it, philosophically,” he said of arguments with Mr. Schuller about developments in jazz. “But the depth of his understanding, his love for music and his respect for it and his patience with listening to it — and the weight of who he was as a scholar and a great French horn player, it was crucial to my musical development.”

“Sometimes,” he added, “we don’t do a good job of expressing the depth of the collegiality of the relationships across generations.”

It was an interesting comment, given critiques that have come Mr. Marsalis’s way as the leader of Jazz at Lincoln Center, where the programming has, according to some observers, been focused too single-mindedly on the music’s early inventors — at the inevitable expense of later innovators.

In recent years, though, there have been instances in which contemporary experimentalists have been welcomed. The pathbreaking composer and improviser Wadada Leo Smith played Jazz at Lincoln Center earlier this year. And Myra Melford, a pianist most often heard in avant-garde spaces, was a featured soloist on a recent Blue Engine release. (You can hear Mr. Marsalis fully engaged as a player during an ensemble performance of Ms. Melford’s “The Strawberry,” arranged by Ted Nash.)

Mr. Marsalis lavished praise on his classical collaborators, like Ms. Benedetti and the conductor Cristian Macelaru, who conducts the Philadelphians in the concerto recording, for facilitating his continued growth. He added that he hopes “to develop the humility, as I grow older, to gain more insights when studying.”

Still, he said, he felt confident in his abilities. After years of dissatisfaction with another orchestral work — his “Blues Symphony” — he says he’s learned from the experience.

“It wasn’t played a lot, justifiably,” he said. “But I looked at the score — and I studied it, and what I needed to do better. And how to become better through it.”

Up next for Mr. Marsalis is a planned tuba concerto, as well as the release of a revised “Blues Symphony” and “The Jungle” — another fervid symphonic piece that uses Jazz at Lincoln Center players — on Blue Engine.

“We’ve got a lot more,” he said. “They’re lined up.”

And regarding potential listeners? “The audience is broad, it’s varied, and it’s hip,” he said. “We just have to not speak down to them.”

by Seth Colter Walls

Source: The New York Times

Marsalis gets Double H kids in the groove

Jazz came to the Double H Ranch Wednesday.

Jazz great trumpeter Wynton Marsalis brought five members of his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, which debuts tonight at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Marsalis’ “Swing Symphony,” to play and do a bit of music education for the 137 youngsters at the ranch. The band’s appearance was the first time jazz musicians had come to the venue as well as representing a new partnership for SPAC.

“Part of our mission is to bring great music and the arts to the community,” said SPAC CEO Elizabeth Sobol before the event. “It’s a way to give back.”

The kids, who suffer from life-threatening illnesses and come from all over the world to this ranch that Charles R. Wood and actor Paul Newman founded in 1993, were expectantly waiting along with their chaperons, SPAC patrons and members of the press. Then the band arrived, all dressed in suits. They were clarinetist Victor Goines; trombonist Chris Crenshaw, bassist Carlos Henriquez, pianist Dan Nimmer, and drummer Jason Marsalis.

Wynton Marsalis was the last to enter. Great whoops of delight greeted them. Marsalis got off to a fast start. After he told his audience that “music is about communication,” he had the drummer beat out a four beat bar with half the audience counting out the first and third beat and the other half count out the second and fourth. This evolved into hearing each instrument, clapping to specific rhythms and then singing a tune “Little Liza Jane” while the band provided back-up.

“Great,” Marsalis said. “We’re gonna take you on the road with us.”

He then moved on to explaining and demonstrating what call and response was, how to create a groove and what swing was and got the kids to clap or sing these out. Often, Marsalis would go back and review the material and always he praised the children.

“Fantastic,” he said. “You’re so great on all levels. I love what you all are doing.”

His band played a hymn and then moved into “St. Louis Blues” which ended in having the wildly enthusiastic audience stand up as he and the band walked through them. The kids then sang out a huge thank you and “we love you.”

Max Yurenda, the ranch’s CEO, said afterwards that, “the kids embraced it. They loved it. Double H takes it to the next level.”

Marsalis said the afternoon was special for the band.

“It’s edifying. . .so soulful,” he said. “When the kids are so appreciative it’s more uplifting for the musicians.”

His band, which has been together since 1989 has been doing these educational outreaches since 1994 and have thirty different types of shows they can do. He was supposed to do “What is Jazz,” for this event, but, he said, when he saw how close and intimate the space was he decided not to use the script.

“I’ve done years of these young people’s concerts in thousands of schools,” Marsalis said. “It’s giving the basic facts to get them involved and to show them how jazz works and to get their participation.”

But playing for the children is what’s important, not just giving them dry facts, he added.

On Thursday night, SPAC audiences will get to hear another side to Marsalis. As a jazz musician, he has always dealt with improvisation, which is in a sense composing on the spot. But actually composing a work for an orchestra was never a goal, he said.

“It was in the 1990s that I did my first piece,” he said. “Kurt Masur (the New York Philharmonic’s then-music director) teased me that I was scared to write something for the orchestra.”

Finally by 1999, Marsalis agreed. The result was “All Rise,” which the orchestra premiered in 2000. It gave him the idea that he could develop a vocabulary that might work.

“I grew up playing classical music and I love the sound of the symphonic orchestra,” he said. “But I never studied orchestration. I picked things up as I went along.”

Yet, so many years later, he still finds integrating jazz forms with symphonic forms very difficult.

“Orchestration is a hobby,” he said. “But putting jazz music with classical is hard. It’s all about coming together.”

His “Swing Symphony” composed in 2010 is his third symphony and was premiered by the NY Philharmonic.

by Geraldine Freedman

Source: The Daily Gazette

As a Classical Composer, Wynton Marsalis Contains Multitudes

Marsalis and Măcelaru in conversation | Credit: rr jones

Some people claim that all music is just music, regardless of what kind it is. Wynton Marsalis knows better. As a renowned jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and educator who’s also been involved with classical music since performing the Haydn trumpet concerto at the age of 14, he’s well aware of the differences in idiom between the genres, and the differing constraints on and characteristic habits of their performers.

But he also sees the commonalities between jazz and American classical, particularly in their shared roots in Anglo-Celtic folk music. He has made it his mission to bring them together and to teach classical musicians to play with the character of jazz. Over the last two decades — he’s now 57 — Marsalis has been composing jazz-inflected music for the classical concert hall. Two major works from this project formed the final concert of this year’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, on Sunday at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. The Cabrillo Festival Orchestra was conducted by the festival’s music director, Cristian Măcelaru, who has worked with Marsalis before.

This sounded like a most intriguing program. Marsalis says he is working in the spirit of George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and Duke Ellington, bringing together disparate traditions and demonstrating common humanity in them. Listening to his work as classical music, which is how it was presented at this concert, I was reminded of a different set of composers, but there’s no question that Marsalis has found a mixture with a distinctive flavor of his own.

The focus of the concert was on the Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra, written in 2015 for the Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, who played it on Sunday. It’s a large work, in four movements lasting over 40 minutes. Though Marsalis says he does not want the work to be rushed, and it carries a variety of moods, the overwhelming impression it gives is of bursting with nervously jittery energy.

This is principally due to the solo violin part, which is nearly continuous and consists primarily of vigorous sawing. Benedetti’s bow flickered back and forth with concentrated diligence, her line often sounding disconnected from whatever the orchestra might be doing. The opening idiom, seemingly the basic language of the work, is neo-Romantic modernist, developing at times an angularity similar to Shostakovich. Gradually the solo part is infected with the flattened and bent notes and slides of blues scales, not typical of neo-Romantic music.

The concerto’s purest excursion into the blues came in one of a set of episodes that excursed into differing styles. This was a restrained and lyrical vocalese for the violin full of bent notes. It was overwhelmed, however, by other episodes that ran even faster than the default, turning Benedetti’s bowing into continuous double-stops, varied with some two-hand pizzicato, in Appalachian fiddle style. More familiar with Appalachian fiddle than the blues, I judged that Benedetti had captured the vigorous rhythmic and melodic freedom characteristic of this folk idiom.

Meanwhile the orchestra was experiencing episodes of its own. The brass frequently squealed and whooped and wailed. There were outbursts of circus music and big band music. A marching band made several appearances, heralded by piercing whistles, sounding like the bands from Charles Ives’s childhood that he liked to put in his more whimsical music. There were rhythmic punches. There were a couple spots where the orchestra members clapped or stomped their feet, as if this were a Michael Tilson Thomas performance of Copland’s Rodeo.

These episodes, though welcome for their variety, appeared and recurred with seeming randomness, contributing to an impression that the concerto continued beyond the point of having anything to say that it hadn’t said already. The topper came at the end, when Benedetti, who had already begun the concerto by emerging her sound slowly from silence, quietly played a repeating figure while wandering offstage — a rare though not entirely unprecedented stage direction in classical concert music.

Marsalis’s The Blues Symphony for orchestra is an even larger work, seven movements lasting an hour. It’s recognizably by the same composer, but has an entirely different feel. Here there are occasional but very few blues notes; instead, Marsalis explains, the symphony is built around a repeating 12-bar blues progression. This is kept in the bass and functions roughly as a passacaglia.

Again, as with the concerto, there are exceptions to the general mood and at times the music becomes quite raucous. For the most part, though, it’s cool-toned and genial where the concerto is nervous and jittery. The diatonic consonance, cheerful mood, generally pop-orchestra sound, and smooth texture all contributed to this. Though more complex and varied in construction, it began to sound to my ears like the picture-painting music of Ferde Grofé or a whole succession of MOR-format orchestral pop composers popular in the 1950s, the decade to which I would have assigned this work if asked to guess blindly.

Where the concerto had recurring episodes, the symphony had designated movements with varied settings and inspirations. Their distinctiveness didn’t prevent me from getting lost in the program notes and mistaking the Sunday Baptist church movement, which mutates into an exploration of shuffle rhythm in different American traditions, for the following Manhattan movement, thinking that it ran heavy on the urban sophistication and a “cool of the night” setting.

While there is much to admire in Marsalis’s music, in the end I found that I did not enjoy listening to it. The symphony was the less stressful half of the program, but — the more intense products of early 20th-century modernism aside — I have never felt so pulverized by a concert. Despite the composer’s intentions, his concerto is rushed, pushy, and disintegrated, and brilliant and diligent playing by all concerned does not disguise this.

Source: San Francisco Classical Voice

Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Opening Weekend 2019: The South African Songbook

On September 12-14 at 8:00 p.m., the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis opens Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2019–20 season in Rose Theater with a musical celebration of South African democracy, 25 years after Apartheid’s end. South Africa has long been a vibrant and unique jazz hub, and the orchestra’s guests featured on this concert helped shape the sound of jazz as a new South Africa was being born. Special guests include three New York-based South African vocalists – Nonhlanhla Kheswa, Melanie Scholtz, Vuyo Sotashe – plus top instrumentalists from South Africa: saxophonist McCoy Mrubata, pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, and vocalist and pianist Thandi Ntuli.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2019-20 season features 27 unique programs in Rose Theater and The Appel Room, and more than 350 nights of music in Dizzy’s Club. Performances take place at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and feature world premieres, exclusive collaborations, renowned guest artists, and events celebrating milestones and major figures in jazz . Performances throughout the season integrate multiple musical traditions, generations of performers, and artistic disciplines in a unique exploration of the profound and unifying cultural heritage that is jazz.

Ticket prices for Rose Theater are $40 and up dependent upon seating section.

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 by walk-up at the Box Office; 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 10am to 9pm. 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: 10am to 6pm (or 30 minutes past curtain)

Sunday: 12noon to 6pm (or 30 minutes past curtain).

The Wynton Marsalis Quintet and The Young Stars of Jazz performing at Jazz in Marciac 2019

On July 26th, The Wynton Marsalis Quintet featuring Veronica Swift, will play a set of essential bebop classics such as Confirmation, Hot House and A Night in Tunisia.

Watch the live webcast on July 26th at 5pm EDT (11pm CEST) on wyntonmarsalis.org/live and facebook.com/wyntonmarsalis

On July 30th, Wynton Marsalis is joined by a new group of up and coming musicians to debut compositions by bassist Carlos Henriquez in addition to new arrangements of Marsalis’ “Integrity Suite”.

Watch the live webcast on July 30th at 5pm EDT (11pm CEST) on wyntonmarsalis.org/live and facebook.com/wyntonmarsalis

The Wynton Marsalis Septet and Quintet performing at Jazz in Marciac 2019

On July 26th, The Wynton Marsalis Quintet featuring Veronica Swift, will play a set of essential bebop classics such as Confirmation, Hot House and A Night in Tunisia.

Watch the live webcast on July 26th at 5pm EDT (11pm CEST) on wyntonmarsalis.org/live and facebook.com/wyntonmarsalis

On July 30th, Wynton Marsalis is joined by a new group of up and coming musicians to debut compositions by bassist Carlos Henriquez in addition to new arrangements of Marsalis’ “Integrity Suite”.

Watch the live webcast on July 30th at 5pm EDT (11pm CEST) on wyntonmarsalis.org/live and facebook.com/wyntonmarsalis

Announcing the Release of JAZZ AND ART by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis performing original compositions inspired by modern master artists

In past concerts that have been described by the New York Times as being “soulful,” “evocative,” and “playing directly to the band’s strengths,” the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis performed original compositions inspired by masters of modern art including Romare Bearden, Stuart Davis, Sam Gilliam, Winslow Homer, Wifredo Lam, Norman Lewis and Piet Mondrian. On August 2, 2019, Blue Engine Records will release the studio recordings of these charts on a new album entitled Jazz and Art.

Jazz and Art will be released on all digital platforms on August 2nd, 2019.

GRAMMY Award-winner and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra member Ted Nash says, “Music and paintings share so many characteristics; textures, colors, layers, line, form, shape. No wonder they are such agreeable collaborators. When these two art forms come together, they create a new medium. In February 2010, the audience in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater got to experience that transcendent combination when seven imaginative composers presented new works accompanied by projections of the paintings that inspired their creations.”

Jazz and Art displays impressive musicianship and a range of musical styles, from modern jazz to gospel, American pastoral music, Afro-Cuban, spirituals, New Orleans, Indian chants, avant garde, and beyond. The compositions were inspired by works of art from beloved museums such as The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.

TRACK LISTING

Stuart Davis for the Masses: The Mellow Pad

For Stuart Davis

Written & Arranged by Doug Wamble

Solo: Vincent Gardner (trombone)
Stuart Davis for the Masses: Garage Lights

For Stuart Davis

Written & Arranged by Doug Wamble

Solo: Marcus Printup (trumpet), Sherman Irby (alto saxophone)
Stuart Davis for the Masses: New York

For Stuart Davis

Written & Arranged by Doug Wamble

Solo: Dan Nimmer (piano)
Blue Twirl

For Sam Gilliam

Written & Arranged by Vincent Gardner

Solo: Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Ted Nash (alto saxophone), Elliot Mason (trombone)
Bearden (The Block)

For Romare Bearden

Written & Arranged by Chris Crenshaw

Solo: Dan Nimmer (piano), Victor Goines (tenor saxophone)
Air, Earth, Fire, Water (Orisha Medley)

For Wifredo Lam

Written & Arranged by Papo Vasquez

Solo: Papo Vazquez (trombone), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet)
Winslow Homer: Homer’s Waltz

For Winslow Homer

Written by Bill Frisell

Arranged by Andy Farber

Solo: Walter Blanding (tenor saxophone)
Winslow Homer: Homer’s Blues

For Winslow Homer

Written by Bill Frisell

Arranged by Andy Farber

Solo: Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Walter Blanding (tenor saxophone), Dan Nimmer (piano)
The Repose in All Things

For Piet Mondrian

Written & Arranged by Tim Armacost

Solo: Sherman Irby (alto saxophone), Ryan Kisor (trumpet)
Twilight Sounds

For Norman Lewis

Written & Arranged by Sherman Irby

Solo: Victor Goines (bass clarinet), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet)

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, trumpet and vocals

TROMBONES

Vincent Gardner

Chris Crenshaw

Elliot Mason

RHYTHM SECTION

Dan Nimmer, piano

Carlos Henriquez, bass

Ali Jackson, drums and tambourine

SPECIAL GUESTS:

Papo Vazquez, trombone

Iwao Sado, Batá drums

Xavier Rivera, Batá drums

Anthony Carrillo, Batá drums

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 blueenginerecords.org

Announcing the Release of SWING SYMPHONY by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Conducted by David Robertson

(photo: Frank Stewart)

Marsalis’s Symphony No. 3 to be available digitally on July 1, 2019 from Blue Engine Records

New York, NY – (Thursday, May 16, 2019) – On July 1, 2019, in the spirit of Independence Day, Wynton Marsalis’ third symphony, Swing Symphony — a musical manifesto on American ideals and the melding of jazz and classical — will be released on all digital platforms by Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s in-house record label. Swing Symphony will be available for pre-order on Friday, June 7.

The release captures the 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis joining forces with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson in performances of Swing Symphony in front of the sold-out crowds at Powell Hall in St. Louis on May 4-6, 2018.

In 2010, Swing Symphony was commissioned jointly by the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Since then, the work—hailed as “brave, even heroic” by the New Republic—has been performed around the globe by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and some of the world’s most renowned symphonic orchestras.

Combining two seemingly opposite musical poles—classical music and jazz—into a swinging whole is what inspired Marsalis to put pen to paper. In seven movements, Swing Symphony traces the quintessentially American journey of jazz from New Orleans ragtime to Kansas City swing and New York bebop.

Swing Symphony is the third symphonic work by Marsalis, who in 1997 became the first jazz composer awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for Blood on the Fields. He wrote Swing Symphony in the spirit of American optimism. What makes it American? “My belief in the freedom of other people who are not like me,” he says. Through its evocations of music rooted in America, Marsalis says the symphony declares, “We don’t have to segregate ourselves from who we are. We are Winslow Homer. We are Walt Whitman. We are William Faulkner. We are George Gershwin. We are Duke Ellington. We are Mary Lou Williams. We are Louis Armstrong. All we have to do is embrace that.”

Photos of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis joining forces with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson can be found here. Credit should be attributed to: Frank Stewart/Jazz at Lincoln Center.

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 blueenginerecords.org

About the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Celebrated as one of today’s most exciting and enduring orchestras, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second-oldest orchestra in the country, marking its 139th year with the 2018/2019 season and Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève. Widely considered one of the world’s finest, the SLSO maintains its commitment to artistic excellence, educational impact, and community connections – all in service to its mission of enriching lives through the power of music.

In addition to its regular concert performances at Powell Hall, which has been the permanent home of the SLSO for more than 50 years, the orchestra is an integral part of the diverse and vibrant St. Louis community, presenting free education programs and performances throughout the region each year. It presents St. Louis Symphony Live at the Pulitzer, a four-program series at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. The SLSO also serves as the resident orchestra for Opera Theatre Saint Louis, with this season marking the 42nd year of their partnership.

The Grammy Award–winning SLSO’s impact beyond the St. Louis region is realized through weekly Saturday night concert broadcasts on St. Louis Public Radio, acclaimed recordings, and regular touring activity. A sought-after artistic partner by preeminent musicians and composers from across the globe, as well as by local and national organizations, the SLSO enjoys a long history of robust and enduring artistic collaborations that have developed and deepened over the years.

Today, the SLSO builds on the institution’s current momentum on all fronts, including artistic, financial, audience growth, and community impact, and looks toward the future with Stéphane Denève. Denève, who has been a frequent guest conductor with the orchestra since 2003, begins his tenure as Music Director with the 19/20 season, following this season as Music Director Designate. For more information, visit slso.org

Primo Artists signs Wynton Marsalis for Symphonic Composition Representation

NEW YORK (May 31, 2019) — Primo Artists announces the signing of Wynton Marsalis to its roster for Symphonic Composition Representation effective immediately.

Representation will be handled by Charlotte Lee, President and Founder of Primo Artists. Marsalis joins a distinguished roster that comprises violinist/conductor Itzhak Perlman, violinists Joshua Bell and Nicola Benedetti, pianists Beatrice Rana and Seong-Jin Cho, and conductors Cristian Măcelaru, Christian Reif and Gemma New.

Charlotte Lee, Founder of Primo Artists, said: “I have had the joy of collaborating with Wynton Marsalis since 2012, when we first discussed the creation of a violin concerto for Nicola Benedetti. This project has culminated in performances around the world and a forthcoming album release, and we have many new projects planned for the future. It is an immense privilege to move forward in this capacity, and I am delighted to officially welcome Wynton to the Primo family.”

Winner of 9 Grammy® awards, Wynton Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading advocate of American culture. He is the world’s first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full jazz spectrum from its New Orleans roots to bebop to modern jazz. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, and tap dance to ballet, Marsalis has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers.

Marsalis became the first jazz musician ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his epic oratorio Blood on The Fields in 1997. In 1999, Marsalis premiered his first composition for symphony orchestra, titled All Rise, with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Kurt Masur, alongside the Morgan State University Choir and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. In 2009, the Atlanta Symphony premiered Marsalis’ second symphonic work, Blues Symphony, under the direction of Robert Spano. Marsalis infused blues and ragtime rhythms with symphonic orchestrations to create a fresh experience for classical repertoire. His third symphony, Swing Symphony, was premiered in 2010 by the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, alongside the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. By employing complex layers of collective improvisation with Swing Symphony, Marsalis created new possibilities for audiences to experience swing in the context of a classical symphonic work.

In 2016, the New York Philharmonic premiered Marsalis’ fourth symphony, The Jungle, led by Alan Gilbert and alongside the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. According to the composer, the work is “a musical portrait of New York City, the most fluid, pressure-packed and cosmopolitan metropolis the modern world has ever seen.”

Marsalis made a significant addition to his oeuvre with Concerto in D, a violin concerto composed for virtuoso Nicola Benedetti. The work was premiered in 2015 by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Gaffigan, and received its U.S. premiere in 2016 at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. With this masterful composition, Marsalis celebrates the American vernacular in ultra-sophisticated ways. Its fundamental character is Americana with sweeping melodies, jazzy orchestral dissonances, blues-tinge themes, fancy fiddling and a rhythmic swagger. An album featuring the Violin Concerto, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Cristian Măcelaru, will be released on Decca Classics in July 2019.

Decca announces new album from Nicola Benedetti Wynton Marsalis’ Violin Concerto & Fiddle Dance Suite

Nicola Benedetti and Wynton Marsalis – Recording session (photo: Luigi Beverelli)

Nicola Benedetti’s new album on Decca Classics features premiere recordings of two works written especially for her by jazz musician Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto in D and Fiddle Dance Suite for Solo Violin.

Benedetti performs Violin Concerto in D with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Cristian Măcelaru who has collaborated with the violinist to perform the work six times. The concerto was co- commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), Ravinia, LA Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Benedetti performed the world premiere with the LSO under conductor James Gaffigan in London in November 2015.

Marsalis’ Violin Concerto in D is in four movements and draws on the entire sweep of Western violin pieces from the Baroque era to the 21st Century. It explores Benedetti’s and Marsalis’ common musical heritage in Celtic, Anglo and Afro-American folk music and dance. The work revels in the magic of virtuosity and takes inspiration from Nicola’s life as a travelling performer and educator. Each of the four movements reveals a different aspect of Nicola’s dream which becomes a reality through the long-form storytelling of the performance.

Wynton Marsalis outlines the four movements:

1. Rhapsody, is a complex dream that becomes a nightmare, progresses into peacefulness and

dissolves into ancestral memory.

2. Rondo Burlesque, is a syncopated, New Orleans jazz, calliope, circus clown, African gumbo, Mardi

Gras party in odd meters.

3. Blues, is the progression of flirtation, courtship, intimacy, sermonizing, final loss and abject

loneliness that is out there to claim us all.

4. Hootenanny, is a raucous, stomping and whimsical barnyard throw-down. She excites us with all

types of virtuosic chicanery and gets us intoxicated with revelry and then…goes on down the Good King’s highway to other places yet to be seen or even foretold.

Wynton Marsalis commented, “Nicky said she wanted a piece that would allow her to inhabit an expansive range of human emotions. Though I have long loved the violin, she schooled me in its august history, in its tremendous expressive capabilities, and in a compendium of old and new techniques. From a very young age, Nicky’s dream was to move people with the magic of virtuosity and the warmth of her sound. The concerto begins with her telling us the story of her dream, the playing of it IS the realization of that dream, and it ends with her going down the road to play for the next gathering.”

Fiddle Dance Suite for solo violin is in five movements and Marsalis describes each one as follows:

1. Sidestep Reel: In the 19th and into the 20th century, repetitive, even metered reels and hornpipes were the centrepiece of many a dance. Easy and fun, their infectious, sing-songy melodies stayed in

the mind and on the tongue. The melodies of this reel, however, are a homegrown concoction of commonality between traditional fiddle tunes, the Baroque, ragtime, bebop, the quartal melodies of modern jazz and the fancy variations on themes as popularized in the 19th century.

2. As the Wind Goes: is the wistful late-night song of a lullaby, a campfire song, a ballad…a spiritual. It is sung as if on the wind, yearning to experience once again that which will only ever again live as memory.

3. Jones’ Jig: The Irish jig, the African 6/8 bell pattern, the shuffle rhythm of jazz and the drum style of Elvin Jones all play around with the relationship of three in the time space of two. The juxtaposition, negotiation and reconciliation of these opposing rhythmic perspectives create interesting musical relationships all over the planet.

4. Nicola’s Strathspey: in the traditional strathspey, improvised embellishments, syncopated dotted rhythms and the use of space between notes create expectation, momentum and surprise. These same elements and their effect on the listener are mirrored in the blues.

5. Bye-Bye Breakdown: this is good ol’ Saturday-night-barn-dance, hoedown fiddling. It revels in the whining cry of open double stops, in all types of musical onomatopoeia from train sounds to animal calls to country whistling, and in the steady 2/4 rhythm that is as basic as walking. The harmonic framework of several popular fiddle and folk tunes provides a practical grid for Nicky to cut challenging melodic and rhythmic figures. A relentless stream of sixteenth notes with double stops is designed to tire fiddler and dancers.

Nicola Benedetti commented, “This project has been a deeply edifying experience – one I will always reflect on with immense gratitude. It has been a privilege to learn and perform these two inspired and unequivocal masterpieces, and to deepen my understanding of Wynton’s compositional language, cultural richness and philosophical insights. These compositions take us from the introspection of a Spiritual to the raucous celebration of a Hootenanny, from a lullaby to a nightmare, and from a campfire to a circus. We travel far and wide to distant corners of the world, the mind and the soul. Long-form musical pieces are often described as a journey. This sure has been a rich and fascinating one, and I am thrilled to now share the results with you.”

Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto & Fiddle Dance Suite

Worldwide release date: July 12, 2019

Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto in D (43.25)

Wynton Marsalis Fiddle Dance Suite for Solo Violin (23.28)

Nicola Benedetti violin

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Cristian Măcelaru conductor