Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 35th Season Opens With The U.S. Premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Shanghai Suite
New York, NY (August 30, 2022) — To open Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 35th season, devoted to celebrating jazz as a global language, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis presents the U.S. debut of Shanghai Suite. Composed by Wynton Marsalis and originally performed in Shanghai in 2019, the work is a musical meditation on ancient and modern China, inspired by that civilization’s rich mythology, cuisine, and architecture, and set to the language of jazz rhythm. Tickets are available now for the premiere on September 30 and October 1 at 8:00pm ET. Visit jazz.org/shanghaisuite to purchase tickets and for more information.
On these opening night concerts, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with special guest clarinetist Ye Huang will interpret Wynton’s tone parallel to the lifestyles and traditions of China. Shanghai Suite joins iconic works by Wynton such as Congo Square, Vitoria Suite and Marciac Suite, that refract impressions gleaned on his travels, as Duke Ellington did on such late-period masterpieces as The Far East Suite, The Latin American Suite and The New Orleans Suite.
On his inspiration for the Shanghai Suite, Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director, said, “Like Chinese music, the blues and all the early Afro-American spirituals – and Anglo-Celtic music – is based on pentatonic scales. A lot of things Wayne Shorter wrote for Art Blakey are based on a pentatonic scale. Of course, China has many more pentatonic scales than we do, and their use of them is much more sophisticated – different scales have different meanings.” He continued, “We’re always looking for connections between other traditions and our music, and we look forward to presenting these musical connections throughout the season in the House of Swing.”
Shanghai Suite will take place at Frederick P. Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located at Broadway at 60th Street in New York, New York.
SEPTEMBER 30 – OCTOBER 1, 8:00PM ET