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Sonic pleasures - Marsalis and Barenboim marshal their forces for outstanding Ellington tribute
There has been no shortage of Duke Ellington tributes this year, but few have marshaled quite so many resources - or used them as ingeniously - as the program in Symphony Center this week. Keep reading »
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Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra: Live in Swing City Swingin’ With The Duke
What a responsibility, what an inspiring challenge, what an honor it is to have the opportunity to replicate and help preserve the greatest body of music America has yet given to the world! Intimidating and awesome, to be sure, but that is exactly what the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra has undertaken in its endeavor to keep the majesty of Duke Ellington’s music alive. Although sometimes assailed for a perceived conservatism by those who equate anarchy and iconoclasm with esthetic quality or “progress,” the LCJO is actually maintaining an honorable and ancient tradition, as exemplified by man’s innate need to revere and perpetuate by ritual the memory of his ancestors. Keep reading »
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Marsalis Swings Aboard His ‘Big Train’
Wynton Marsalis apparently wants to begin the New Year with a new slate. In the latter half of this year, no fewer than eight albums bearing the name of the Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter and composer will reach stores under the banner of “Swinging Into the 21st.” Keep reading »
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Homage to the Duke
Wynton Marsalis, they say, is somewhat exasperated by his reputation for proselytising seriousness and would like the world to know him more as a man with a mission who nevertheless knows how to have a good time. Keep reading »
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Maybe jazz can’t go home again
If jazz is America’s classical music, why aren’t there more groups like the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra? Keep reading »
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Ellington: The Keys To a Life
Toward the beginning of “Swingin’ With Duke,” Wynton Marsalis suggests that “when you start to play Duke Ellington’s music, you start to feel how he lived in the world.” Keep reading »
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An Ellington of Short Takes
The career of Duke Ellington is wonderfully logical; each successive step brings more resources to the music, so that it becomes richer and more varied, sometimes in surprising ways. Keep reading »
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Marsalis cheers blue Russia Music
“And the other,” said Marsalis, “is swing. Swing is the sound of a group of people working together, talking to each other, trying to coordinate.” The audience burst into applause, because they were hanging on every word Marsalis had to say, but this was the crux of it. Keep reading »
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Jazz at the White House: A Metaphor for Democracy (and a Help to the Boss)
It was everywhere, rustling through conversations the way a breeze moves through trees, in the smirks and jokes of some, in the extended, slightly nervous ovation the President and Mrs. Clinton received as they walked into the East Room of the White House on Friday night for a Millennium lecture on jazz. Keep reading »
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Latin Grace and Drive Bonding With Jazz
Creolization is such a profound, unceasing force in the United States that it is often overlooked, the way a great vista becomes blank after time. Keep reading »