Swing Into Summer with Jazz at Lincoln Center
New York, NY (June 15, 2021) Jazz at Lincoln Center swings into summer with more than a dozen live outdoor concerts throughout New York City, and education programs online.
The organization’s summer outdoor concert series kicks off on June 17 as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis opens SummerStage in Central Park, New York’s largest free outdoor performing arts festival. Jazz at Lincoln Center continues its collaboration with SummerStage later this summer to present Willie Jones III - A Charlie Parker Centennial Celebration Featuring Sarah Hanahan, Godwin Louis, Justin Robinson, Erena Terakubo with Donald Vega and Endea Owens in Marcus Garvey Park (August 29).
This season, Jazz at Lincoln Center launches a collaboration with Rooftop Films Summer Series to feature jazz performances before films at select events. Jazz trio New Jazz Underground (June 17) will perform at Green-Wood Cemetery for the opening night of the annual film summer series.
There will be no shortage of live jazz in the heart of the city as Jazz at Lincoln Center curates Times Square Alliances’ Jazz in Times Square every Thursday through September. Etienne Charles Quartet (July 8) opens this unique series featuring rising jazz stars (Thursdays from July 8 - September 30) in Times Square.
Join us for a weekend of blues, swing, and improvisation at Bryant Park Picnic Performances as Jazz at Lincoln Center-curated artists Young Stars of Jazz featuring Isaiah J. Thompson, Endea Owens, Kyle Poole, Anthony Hervey, Alexa Tarantino, and Julian Lee (August 13); and Camille Thurman and the Darrell Green Trio: Reimagining Burt Bacharach (August 14) take the stage. In addition to performances in front of live audiences at Bryant Park, the sets will be available via livestream.
For families with children ages eight months to two years-old, Jazz at Lincoln Center offers solace from the summer heat with educational livestream offerings. These virtual family events include the interactive 45-minute concert WeBop Family Jazz Party ¡Vamos a Gozar! A Latin Jazz Jam (Streaming June 26 to July 18), and the WeBop Virtual Summer Term (Tuesday, August 3 – Saturday, August 28) which explores the lives and music jazz titans Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams and Tito Puente.
Additional Jazz at Lincoln Center summer events will be announced in the following weeks.
For ticketing and safety protocols, visit the websites of each presenting organization.
2021 JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER SUMMER CONCERT AND EDUCATION SCHEDULE:
SummerStage: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Thursday, June 17, 2021, at 7:00pmET
Central Park
New York, NY
Tickets: Free on summerstage.org
Live webcast: summerstage.org
Wynton Marsalis’s name looms large in the world of jazz, and for good reason — the GRAMMY® -winning trumpeter, composer, and bandleader has helped shepherd the cultural institution of jazz into a new millennium. Under his direction, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the resident orchestra of Jazz at Lincoln Center, 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 many others. For this unique performance, the world-renowned orchestra’s performance will honor Juneteenth and explore freedom and may include tunes by Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Ted Nash, and Charles Mingus.
Since the orchestra’s founding in 1988, the group’s performances leave its global audiences inspired and uplifted with the full vigor, vision, and depth of America’s music. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis’ vast, innovative body of original work over the past decade demonstrates the orchestra composers’ and arrangers’ thematic ambitions, distinctive musical personalities, and unprecedented range.