Plus - Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet with Wynton Marsalis performing The Democracy! Suite
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988 and spends over a third of the year on tour across the world. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Centerโs programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S., and around the globe, in concert halls, dance venues, jazz clubs, public parks, and with symphony orchestras; ballet troupes; local students; and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and current and former Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Ted Nash, Victor Goines, Sherman Irby, Chris Crenshaw, and Carlos Henriquez....
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Plus - Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet with Wynton Marsalis performing The Democracy! Suite
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988 and spends over a third of the year on tour across the world. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Centerโs programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S., and around the globe, in concert halls, dance venues, jazz clubs, public parks, and with symphony orchestras; ballet troupes; local students; and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and current and former Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Ted Nash, Victor Goines, Sherman Irby, Chris Crenshaw, and Carlos Henriquez.
Wynton Marsalis (Music Director, Trumpet) is the Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961 to a musical family, Mr. Marsalis was gifted his first trumpet at age 6 by Al Hirt. By 8, he began playing in the famed Fairview Baptist Church Band led by Danny Barker. Yet it was not until he turned 12 that Marsalis began his formal training on the trumpet. Subsequently, Wynton began performing in bands all over the city, from the New Orleans Philharmonic and New Orleans Youth Orchestra to a funk band called the Creators. His passion for music rapidly escalated. As a young teenager fresh out of high school, Wynton moved to New York City in 1979 to attend The Juilliard School to study classical music. Once there, however, he found that jazz was calling him. His career quickly launched when he traded Juilliard for Art Blakeyโs band, The Jazz Messengers. By 19, Wynton hit the road with his own band and has been touring the world ever since. From 1981 to date, Wynton has performed 4,777 concerts in 849 distinct cities and 64 countries around the world. Mr. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982 and has since recorded 110 jazz and classical albums, four alternative records, and released five DVDs. In total, he has recorded 1,539 songs at the time of this writing. Marsalis is the winner of 9 GRAMMY Awards, and his oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Heโs the only musician to win a GRAMMY Award in two categories, jazz and classical, during the same year (1983, 1984).
The Democracy! Suite
โJazz music is the perfect metaphor for democracy,โ says famed trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. At a time when Americaโand indeed, the whole worldโfinds itself at a crossroads, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer has been inspired to write a poignant and buoyant work, The Democracy! Suite, which proves that the joy and beauty of jazz can bring us all closer together.
That new suite is now a digital album from Marsalis and a septet composed of members of the famed Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Recorded live in Jazz at Lincoln Centerโs Appel Room during the Covid-19 lockdown, the work is irresistible and irrepressible. Tracks like โOut Amongst the People (For J Bat)โ and โBe Presentโ are impassioned reflections of turbulent times that find peerless musicians working as a harmonious community, urging us to reflect on the past and reconsider the future.
โThe question that confronts us right now as a nation is, โDo we want to find a better way?โโ Marsalis says. The music of The Democracy! Suite may be instrumental, but it speaks for itself, urging us onto actionโto get out of our seats and fight for the world we believe in.
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