Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra to Make Its International Debut at London’s The Barbican
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra (JLYCO) makes its international debut at the Barbican in London, England on February 27- March 1, 2018. As part of the bi-annual Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis residency at the Barbican, 22 NYC-area high school jazz musicians will spend a week abroad for a music and cultural exchange with public performances, workshops, and jam sessions.
A testament to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s ever-expanding mission of teaching young people democracy and freedom of expression through jazz and improvisation, the collaboration will bring together the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, led by JLYCO Director and JLCO saxophonist Ted Nash and New York trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt; National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland; and young musicians from The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra for a world –premiere concert event at Milton Court Concert Hall at the Barbican Centre on March 1. For ticket information, visit www.barbican.org.uk.
The event, entitled Miles Ahead, will be a showcase of the future of jazz. The program will feature pieces by Gil Evans (including Miles Ahead) and Miles Davis – whose classic collaboration has inspired generations of young musicians- as well as other classic jazz standards such as John Coltrane’s Africa Brass.
World-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), led by managing and artistic director Wynton Marsalis, are the Barbican’s International Associate Ensemble and they return to the Centre for a residency from 27 February – 1 March 2018. The residency provides an opportunity to experience fifteen of America’s finest soloists, ensemble players, and arrangers in jazz music today in concerts, workshops and master classes. JLCO often honour the iconic artists, albums, movements and events that left distinctive marks on the jazz scene, and the residency in 2018 celebrates two game changers of modern music: “King of Swing” American clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman, and master educator, composer and musical thinker Leonard Bernstein.
The residency opens on Tuesday 27 February 2018, with a concert recreating Benny Goodman’s legendary debut at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall on 16 January 1938 – the first interracial concert in the hall, and a watershed moment in American music history.
Goodman was a classically trained Jewish clarinet prodigy from Chicago who became a jazz and swing musician and bandleader, known as the “King of Swing”. In the mid-1930s, against a backdrop of racial segregation, Goodman led one of the first well-known racially integrated jazz groups and his big band plus guest soloists were invited to play a jazz concert in New York’s Carnegie Hall. This landmark performance in the American temple of classical music on 16 January 1938 was in many ways a “debut” of jazz itself, as Goodman led one of the first well-known racially integrated jazz groups on a stage of unparalleled prestige, introducing the public to real jazz elements and extensive improvisation, to an ecstatic response. AllMusic has described his concert as “the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz’s “coming out” party to the world of “respectable” music”.
Revisiting the spirit of the event, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, with UK guests, will perform pieces straight from the set list of that historic evening at Carnegie Hall in 1938, including material by those made famous by Goodman himself: Count Basie, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Fats Waller, Louis Prima, and more. The programme will feature new and classic arrangements, blistering solos, and a new take on the mid-concert jam session that went down in history.
In the second event of the residency, on Wednesday 28 February 2018, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra pay tribute to another musical all-rounder, Leonard Bernstein. Composer and arranger Richard DeRosa, nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 2016, will work with JLCO lead trombonist Vincent Gardner to craft unique arrangements of Bernstein’s music for the Orchestra, including classics like West Side Story and Candide, as well as unexpected gems from Bernstein’s vast repertoire. Inspired by the composer’s informative approach to music, JLCO will also provide insightful background about Bernstein himself and the musical selections presented. The 2018 JLCO Barbican residency will also feature workshops and master classes.
Public Performances:
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Benny Goodman: King of Swing
Tuesday, February 27, 2018 / Barbican Hall / 8pm
Tickets £30 – 45
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Leonard Bernstein at 100
Wednesday, February 28, 2018 28 / Barbican Hall / 8pm
Tickets £30 – 45
Miles Ahead: The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, and National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland
Thursday, March 1, 2018 / Milton Court Concert Hall / 7pm
Tickets £8
For additional information visit: barbican.org.uk