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Jazz at Lincoln Center celebrates Fourth Annual Monk Festival with performances featuring the JLCO
Thelonious Monk’s music is playful, profound, and universally loved. Its deceptive simplicity unites musicians of all backgrounds and offers endless opportunity for interpretation and improvisation. *The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis* has been performing a steadily growing Thelonious Monk repertoire since its inception (now totaling more than 40 songs), and the JLCO will one day have arrangements of all 72 original Monk compositions. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis on his animal ballet, teen funk band days, kazoos and JALC’s 31 years
Before Wynton Marsalis mastered all that jazz — and more than 40 years before he debuted “Spaces,” his 2016 Jazz at Lincoln Center “animal ballet” now headed to San Diego — he cut his teeth playing in several New Orleans funk bands in the 1970s. Keep reading »
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An Interview with Wynton Marsalis
Everything old is new again. From the 1920s through the 1940s, the art of jazz revolved around the music of the great big bands. Led by men like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Fletcher Henderson, and Benny Goodman, these large ensembles typically divided 10 or more musicians into four sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and rhythm. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis and JLCO to interpret the music of Duke Ellington at Barclay
For someone with sterling credentials — a Pulitzer Prize, nine Grammy Awards, two Emmy nominations, a National Medal of Arts, National Humanities Medal, Down Beat Hall of Fame, 7 million albums sold worldwide, a reputation for working tirelessly with young musicians in countless workshops and master classes — it is rather surprising that Wynton Marsalis only wanted to talk about one thing. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra & Damian Woetzel – Spaces – New York
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is a most impressive ensemble; as I listened to them play Wynton Marsalis’s Spaces at the Rose Theater last Friday, the Vienna Philharmonic came to mind. Their playing has confidence, virtuosity, luster, and a wondrous sense of play. Each player is a powerhouse in his own right, further magnified by the give-and-take of his fellow musicians. Keep reading »
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Blue Engine Records announces the release of Una Noche Con Rubén Blades
The salsa giant and nine-time GRAMMY® Award-winning singer, songwriter, actor, and activist — collaborated with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in 2014 for an extraordinary series of performances on the Jazz at Lincoln Center stage. On these very special style-straddling, Americas-spanning nights, the worlds of salsa and swing collided. Keep reading »
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Father and son Ellis and Wynton Marsalis showcase taste, technical chops to jazz aficionados
Father and son Ellis and Wynton Marsalis showcase taste, technical chops to jazz aficionados at Tanglewood. Keep reading »
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Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, Episode 12: Wynton Marsalis on Jazz, Time, and America
Jazz occupies a special place in the American cultural landscape. It’s played in elegant concert halls and run-down bars, and can feature esoteric harmonic experimentation or good old-fashioned foot-stomping swing. Nobody embodies the scope of modern jazz better than Wynton Marsalis. As a trumpet player, bandleader, composer, educator, and ambassador for the music, he has worked tirelessly to keep jazz vibrant and alive. In this bouncy conversation, we talk about various kinds of music, how they might relate to physics, and some of the greater challenges facing the United States today. Thanks to KentPresents for bringing us together. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis finds a model for life in his father, Ellis
LENOX — For Wynton Marsalis, integrity is at jazz music’s core — and his father Ellis’. “He was always the least-prejudiced person I had ever met,” 56-year-old Wynton told The Eagle during a telephone interview Monday. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis talks Tanglewood, a fateful audition at 17, and his father’s enduring influence
The respective quintets of Wynton Marsalis and his 83-year-old father, pianist Ellis Marsalis, will perform Saturday to help close out the 2018 season at Tanglewood. The younger Marsalis, 56, plans to perform four new compositions of his own, collectively titled “The Integrity Suite,” backed by his longtime rhythm section of pianist Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez, and drummer Ali Jackson. Recent Juilliard graduate Julian Lee, 22, will round out the quintet on tenor saxophone and clarinet. Keep reading »