A Home That Jazz Can Call Its Own
FOR many months, Wynton Marsalis has written in a spiral-bound red notebook. The notes, in a small, neat pencil script, deal with how to create the new $128 million performing arts complex for Jazz at Lincoln Center, of which he is the artistic director.
“A. Celebrate the timeless qualities of jazz,” begins the first page. “B. Highlight past glories which need not be altered. C. Reinvigorate songs which carry the identity of this music. D. Establish the importance of high-level improvisation in all styles. E. Feature what we have done and will do. F. Integration of styles, generations and forms. G. Use ensembles of differing sizes. H. Focus on music of New Orleans, 20’s and after the 50’s.”
The notes reflect Mr. Marsalis’s cast of mind: he starts with grand theories and gradually translates them into mundane details. Ultimately, that philosophy has shaped the programming for the inaugural season of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s three new theaters, which begins on Monday. (PBS will cover the event live.)
It will be an eclectic season — radical in parts by Jazz at Lincoln Center’s own standards, and predictable in others. But above all it will be a demonstration of the possibilities of the new spaces.
For the first night — which is also Mr. Marsalis’s 43rd birthday — he took a sharp turn away from programming what’s currently hot, influential or venerated in jazz. “It’s more a celebration of the human side of the music,” Mr. Marsalis said recently as he sat, with the notebook in his lap, eating takeout near the 50-foot-tall glass window overlooking Central Park in the Allen Room, one of the theaters in the new complex.
Mr. Marsalis chose as the name of Monday’s opening concert, and as its theme, “One Family of Jazz.” Aside from appearances by musicians like Abbey Lincoln, Tony Bennett, the saxophonist Joe Lovano and the violinist Mark O’Connor — and an opening fanfare composed by Slide Hampton — the concert will reinforce the notions of jazz musicians as an extended family and Jazz at Lincoln Center as a house in which to hold a reunion. The concert will include performances by Mr. Marsalis’s father, Ellis, and his brothers Branford, Delfeayo and Jason, as well as the musically inclined parents of the members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
Sounds great: Team Jazz trots onto the field. The parents of the musicians in the Lincoln Center Jazz orchestra. The family of jazz. And yet it takes confidence to propose all this for the opening of the first concert hall built specifically for jazz. For argument’s sake, another way of planning the opening concerts might have been as simple as invoking the gods: Wayne Shorter. Ornette Coleman. Keith Jarrett. Herbie Hancock. Sonny Rollins.
There would have been practical considerations, of course. Mr. Jarrett’s manager, Steve Cloud, said last week that had he been asked to play, Mr. Jarrett would have declined on the grounds that he has good working relationships with Carnegie Hall and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and generally plays only in theaters with at least 2,500 seats. (Mr. Jarrett’s very different views of what constitutes the jazz tradition might have gotten in the way, too.)
Aspects of a Vision
But still, the opening concert, and the rest of the three-week opening festival — through Nov. 5 — is a way of quickly projecting Jazz at Lincoln Center’s own style onto a much greater canvas. And as the season progresses, the programming seeks to demonstrate the broad potential of the organization’s new physical spaces.
No longer will it be squatting in someone else’s territory, as it was at Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. Now Jazz at Lincoln Center can create concerts with a much greater sense of freedom in the practical aspects of scheduling and staging than it could in the past. The new complex, within the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, includes three performance spaces: the Allen Room, a 310- to 550-seat amphitheater-style hall designed to allow for performances without amplification; the 1,100- to 1,231-seat Rose Theater; and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, a nightclub that seats 140.
Some of the concerts in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2004-05 season, its 14th as a year-round producer of jazz concerts and educational programming, clearly show Mr. Marsalis’s thumbprint.
Representing the early-90’s-period Marsalis, when he gained a reputation as the protector of jazz tradition and history, there is “The Duke and the Count” (Oct. 25 in the Allen Room), a program of works by two of his major influences, Basie and Ellington — including the suite “Black, Brown and Beige.” It may not be the sexiest-looking program on the list, but this is the kind of concert that the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra probably does best. It sheds light on the inner workings of Ellington and Basie’s music, the way those bandleaders arranged and composed for maximum impact. To hear that music in the smaller of the theaters, without amplification, will be even more remarkable.
As for the recent-period Marsalis, builder of large, cross-discipline works, there is “Let Freedom Swing” (Oct. 28 to 30), an ambitious evening involving a cast of new compositions inspired by old texts, with all the music played by Mr. Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. For that event, the pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi has written a piece based on words written by Eleanor Roosevelt; the saxophonist Jimmy Heath has written another based on a speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson; the Czech jazz pianist Emil Vicklicky has put Vaclav Havel’s words to music; the pianist Billy Childs wrote a score for a text by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The various speeches will be read by Morgan Freeman, Glenn Close and other actors.
And in December, “Suite for Human Nature,” a commissioned piece that pairs Mr. Marsalis’s music with a text by the lyricist Diane Charlotte Lampert, a project that has been evolving for over a decade, will be performed in the Rose Theater.
Expanding Definitions
Toward the end of the opening festival, several collaborations involving jazz and dance (Nov. 3 to 5) with the dancers and choreographers Peter Martins, Elizabeth Streb, Savion Glover and Garth Fagan, will also be presented in the Rose Theater. These performances will test the possibilities of the hall, which can raise or lower its stage, change into a theater in the round and lower its ceiling, depending on the circumstances.
And in the festival’s second week, a curious series called “Three Shades of Blues” (Oct. 25 to 27) moves jazz onto a level field with African music, the blues, gospel and country music.
Jazz and dance is one thing. Certainly jazz and Brazilian music. But jazz and country music? There was a time when Mr. Marsalis saw jazz musicians who played the songs of someone else’s tradition as near traitors. Is he still keeping watch?
“Wynton is so important to the institution that sometimes our identity gets completely confused with him,” says Jonathan F. P. Rose, the chairman of the building committee for Jazz at Lincoln Center, who has been involved with the organization since its inception, in 1987. “But in fact there’s a healthy difference between us. In fact, Wynton often programs music that isn’t his own taste but displays to the world a range of music. If you look at our programming coming up this year, Wynton is really enthusiastic about the fact that we have a John Scofield concert.”
The fact that the world’s first theater made for jazz is booking John Scofield (in March, a double-bill with the pianist Brad Mehldau) is hardly earth-shaking news: he is one of the greatest guitarists in jazz. But as jazz tea-leaf reading, it’s something to think about, since Mr. Scofield has long blended his music with rock and funk, and Mr. Marsalis has retained a position of public skepticism toward blending or diluting the form.
On to the Road Ahead
Mr. Rose’s comment must be taken to heart. The bookings in these theaters are not to be seen from stem to stern as the public expression of Mr. Marsalis’s taste in music. It can still be hard to grasp this point, however, given how much Wynton Marsalis there is in the season. Eventually the organization may have to bring its agenda more into line with the working life of jazz in all its styles. That is where Dizzy’s Club might come in handy: it could operate as a kind of research lab, drawing in new possibilities for the ambitious programming of the theaters as it percolates nightly with its more casual setting.
Anyway, Mr. Marsalis’s own position toward genre-blending is perhaps not what it was. He tends to dismiss musical fusions built on plainly commercial principles, and he has been especially suspicious of anything coming from youth culture. But in the last few years, he has explored beyond the fundamentals of jazz, incorporating music from Latin America and Africa and Europe into his orchestra.
Working to that end will be “Brasil Livre!,” a two-night concert on Oct. 29 and 30 featuring the Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal. Mr. Pascoal, blind since birth, who taught himself harmony by banging on different pieces of metal in his grandfather’s blacksmith shop, has been a kind of secret influence on many jazz performers, from Miles Davis (with whom he played, on the album “Live Evil”) to the pianist Jason Moran. Mr. Pascoal has expanded the palette of Brazilian vernacular roots music and jazz harmony to include the sounds of animals and traffic. He will appear on a double bill with Beat the Donkey, a loud and mirthful percussion band led by the New York-based, Brazilian-born percussionist Cyro Baptista, who, though not a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, has nevertheless become part of Mr. Marsalis’s wider circle.
Jazz at Lincoln Center will continue to commission new work — one of its greatest virtues, whether or not the compositions have succeeded. On April 22 and 23, there will be evenings of new music composed by the pianists Marcus Roberts and Mr. Moran. As for more surefire audience attracters, it will also book nights with some of jazz’s more popular vocalists, including Cassandra Wilson (Oct. 22) and Dianne Reeves with Freddy Cole (Oct. 23).
Sitting in the Allen Room, Mr. Marsalis talked more about his plans in his soft, sandpapery voice. Nobody in jazz expresses himself quite like Mr. Marsalis: the discussion takes on a language of slow, righteous perseverance, and the long-range goals extend wider, into the arena of culture in general, not just of music. He keeps referring to a five-year plan to use jazz as a point of departure in integrating all the arts — “to say, in effect, this is what this music is and to be proud of it — and to feel like we don’t need a piggyback from other people and we don’t need to be ashamed to say that we have aesthetic objectives and these are what they are.”
“The hardest part is before us,” Mr. Marsalis said, closing the notebook. “Thank the good Lord for being here, to get to that hard part. You know what I mean? It’s like making a football team. O.K., you made the team, but now, here are the games.”
Where to Take Part in the Festivities
Concerts that are part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Grand Festival will run Monday through Nov. 5 in the new halls of Jazz at Lincoln Center, on the fifth floor of the Time Warner Center, Broadway and 60th Street, Manhattan: they are the Rose Theater, the Allen Room and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. The opening night, on Monday at 8, will feature three simultaneous performances in the three spaces. Attendance is by invitation only, but parts of each concert will be broadcast live on PBS, as part of “Live From Lincoln Center,” as well as on National Public Radio (WBGO-FM, 88.3) and wbgo.org. Performing that evening will be the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Tony Bennett, Abbey Lincoln and others in the Rose Theater; the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Paquito D’Rivera in the Allen Room; and the Bill Charlip Trio, with Frank Wess, in Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. A gala on Wednesday night at 7 in the Rose Theater, featuring the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and special guests, is sold out. A Dizzy Gillespie Festival will run from Oct. 21 through Nov. 7 in Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, featuring the Bill Charlap Trio, Mr. D’Rivera and others; unless otherwise noted, the club’s cover is $30 with a $10 minimum at tables, $5 at the bar. Some festival shows are sold out; returned tickets may be available an hour before the performance. Unless otherwise noted, tickets range from $10 to $150. Information: (212) 721-6500. The schedule of festival public events:
Thursday
“STAND UP FOR JAZZ,” with Bill Cosby and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis; Rose Theater, 8 p.m.
DIZZY GILLESPIE FESTIVAL; SMALL BAND DIZZY, with the Bill Charlap Trio, Charles McPherson and Nicholas Payton; Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Also Oct. 22-24, same times with additional 11 p.m. shows on Oct. 23 and 24.
Next Friday
CASSANDRA WILSON, Rose Theater, 8 p.m.
“SPEAKING OF JAZZ,” with Amiri Baraka, John Sinclair, Gil Scott-Heron, Oscar Brown Jr. and others; Allen Room, 7:30 p.m. Also Oct. 23, same time.
Oct. 23
“DIANNE REEVES AND FREDDY COLE,” Rose Theater, 8 p.m.
Oct. 25
“THE DUKE AND THE COUNT,” the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis; Allen Room, 7:30 p.m.
“THREE SHADES OF BLUES — NIGHT 1: AFRICAN ROOTS,” with Taj Mahal, Randy Weston, Corey Harris, Abou M’Boup and Mamadou Diabate; Rose Theater, 8 p.m.
UPSTARTS! AT DIZZY’S CLUB COCA-COLA, featuring high-school and college musicians, some from Juilliard Jazz; 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.; cover, $15, with a $10 minimum at the tables, $5 at the bar.
Oct. 26
“THREE SHADES OF BLUES — NIGHT 2: COUNTRY,” with Ricky Skaggs, Wycliffe Gordon and Mark O’Connor; Rose Theater, 8 p.m.
DIZZY GILLESPIE FESTIVAL: LATIN DIZZY, with the Paquito D’Rivera Sextet; Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, 7:30 and 9:30. Also Oct. 27 to 31, with additional 11 p.m. shows Oct. 30 and 31.
Oct. 27
“THREE SHADES OF BLUES — NIGHT 3: SOUL,” with the Holmes Brothers, Marie Knight, Joey DeFrancesco and Houston Person; Rose Theater, 8 p.m.
Oct. 28 to 30
“LET FREEDOM SWING: A CELEBRATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE,” readings from works by Vaclav Havel, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt and others, set to music by Toshiko Akiyoshi, Darius Brubeck, Darin Atwater, Jimmy Heath and others; featuring the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis; Rose Theater, 8 p.m. Also Oct. 29 and 30, same time.
Oct. 29
BRASIL LIVRE! with Hermeto Pascoal, and Cyro Baptista’s Beat the Donkey Special Edition; Allen, 7:30 p.m. Also Oct. 30, same time.
Nov. 2
DIZZY GILLESPIE FESTIVAL: BIG BAND DIZZY, with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, Tom Harrell and others; Dizzy’s Club, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Also Nov. 3 to 7, same times, with 11 p.m. shows Nov. 6 and 7.
Nov. 3
“JAZZ IN MOTION,” with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, and New York City Ballet, Savion Glover, Garth Fagan Dance, the Joe Chambers Percussion Ensemble and the Elizabeth Streb company; Rose Theater, 8 p.m. Also Nov. 4 and 5, same time.
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK Correction: October 22, 2004, Friday An article in Weekend last Friday about the new complex of Jazz at Lincoln Center at Time Warner Center referred imprecisely to the Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal, who is to play on Oct. 29 and 30. He is visually impaired but not blind.
by Ben Ratliff
Source: New York Times