Today at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, PBS and Chautauqua Institution announced the production of a new one-hour documentary film, CHAUTAUQUA AT 150: WYNTON MARSALIS’ ALL RISE, to air on PBS in early 2025. Produced by the award-winning production company Black Robin Media, CHAUTAUQUA AT 150: WYNTON MARSALIS’ ALL RISE will tell the institution’s story through the voices of its current patrons and partners, including those who have spoken and performed from Chautauqua’s iconic stages over the past several years. Chautauqua Institution, founded in the late 19th century as ..read more

Just in time for Juneteenth, Jazz at Lincoln Center has released an album called “Freedom Justice & Hope”. The album is a collaboration between Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, fronted by Wynton Marsalis. Stevenson provides some introductions and historical context. While the album features music from jazz legends like Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, as well as arrangements of spirituals, it also offers new compositions by Josh Evans and Endea Owens. Setting music to the story of Elaine, Arkansas Josh Evans “A lot of time when I compose ..read more

This week, Wynton Marsalis is playing his first residency at the famous Blue Note Jazz Club in over thirty years. The Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter will be playing with both the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Future of Jazz Septet through June 16. Marsalis discusses with us his residency, his favorite memories of playing at the Blue Note, and his continued education efforts in Jazz. This episode is guest-hosted by Kousha Navidar ..read more

As a prelude to “Rhythms of India,” the final concert of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2023-24 season, the composer and educator Kavita Shah on Friday night gave a brief but excellent talk describing various moments in the 1960s and ’70s when American jazz musicians tried to incorporate Indian music into their work. We heard excerpts from John Coltrane’s “India” (1961) and Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchidananda” (1971), as well as examples of John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti. At the end of the 30-minute presentation, though, she then hit us with the news that the concert we wer ..read more

The JALC season concludes on June 7-8, when the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis presents Rhythms of India, and continues its proud tradition of international community building and cultural exchange. In collaboration with master Indian artists – flautist Jay Gandhi, tabla artist Anubrata Chatterjee, ghatam artist Ghatam Umashankar, and vocalists Malini Awasthi and Roopa Mahadevan – the JLCO bonds the melodies and rhythms of raga-based music and different folk styles with the tradition of jazz – a union poised to captivate audiences of all ages. Drawing inspiration from ic ..read more

This past weekend (May 9 – 11), Jazz at Lincoln Center put the spotlight on the music of Duke Ellington as part of the Essentially Ellington program and to celebrate the 125 birthday of the man Wynton Marsalis, Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, calls “The highest level of what has come out of the United States of America.” More than 300 students and 15 band leaders descended on New York City over the weekend for a competition and festival encouraging students to learn and celebrate the music of the Duke. While there is a competitive element, with New Jersey’s Chameleon ..read more

New York, NY (May 14, 2024) – Blue Engine Records proudly releases Freedom, Justice, and Hope, the live recording of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s multidisciplinary concert that contextualizes jazz within Black Americans’ pursuit of equality. Featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in creative collaboration with social justice activist and founder of The Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson, the recording features new arrangements of some of the most important protest songs in jazz history and new works by featured guest artists Endea Owens and Josh Evans. On the occ ..read more

Set to Marsalis’ dynamic portrait of New York City, “Nighthawks” is Schreier’s homage to the two cities she loves — her native New York and Atlanta, her second home since she became Atlanta Ballet’s resident choreographer in 2020. In this collaboration, culturally diverse expressions resonate through boldly evocative artwork by Atlanta-based muralist Charity Hamidullah and costume designs by Abigail Dupree-Polston. Tom West, executive director of Atlanta Ballet, said that the collaboration between Schreier, Hamidullah and Polston stems from the company’s mission to produce high-caliber works t ..read more

This week, musicians of the Chicago Symphony get to do something they typically don’t during their regularly scheduled subscription concerts: be part of the audience. Then again, it’s not every day the CSO shares a crammed Orchestra Hall stage with an ensemble like the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis. Marsalis and the JLCO are annual visitors to Symphony Center’s jazz series and have memorably, if infrequently, linked up with our own house band for performances. Thursday night followed the recipe of earlier treats: perform a well-known suite in t ..read more

Of all our orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra is the closest to America in its brazen, sassy sound, and it has always been welcoming to American composers and conductors. So it was inevitable that when the new trumpet concerto from virtuoso jazz trumpeter, composer and band-leader Wynton Marsalis received its British premiere, it would be given by the LSO. It took place on Thursday night in front of a packed and rapt audience, with Britain’s star trumpeter Alison Balsom as soloist, and the orchestra’s soon-to-be Chief Conductor Antonio Pappano on the podium. A nine-time Grammy winner, M ..read more