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Dizzy Gillespie, the Man and the Music
Sometimes concerts break up into small parts of great brilliance, and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s ‘‘Dizzy’s Big-Band Bop,’’ the opening concert of its season and a tribute to the orchestral work of Dizzy Gillespie, did just that. Keep reading »
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Marsalis and Co.‘s Mellow Feeling
Although trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year for his jazz opera “Blood on the Fields,” is in greater demand than ever, he remains loyal to the small clubs that helped nurture his talent. That’s the good news. The bad news is his engagement at Blues Alley through Sunday night is sold out. Keep reading »
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Returning Duke’s Love for a City
The thick knot of politicians heaved like longshoremen as they pulled on a yellow rope dangling from a pulley yesterday afternoon at Fifth Avenue and 110th Street. The band played ‘‘Satin Doll.’’ Lost somewhere in the cluster of raised arms were Bobby Short, the cabaret singer, and Robert Graham, the sculptor, who had made the event possible. Keep reading »
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Marsalis Unbound
Following a limited number of concert performances, Wynton Marsalis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning composition “Blood on the Fields” has finally arrived on CD, allowing it the wider audience it deserves. Keep reading »
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A Swinging Travelogue, With Ellington as Guide
How Chinese is Duke Ellington’s ‘‘Chinoiserie,’’ how African is his ‘‘Liberian Suite’‘? Do they become more so by a particularly forceful rendering of a little pentatonic melody, a particularly dense malleting of the tom-toms? Keep reading »
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For Basie, Red Hot Blues
The blues settled into Alice Tully Hall on Thursday night with the arrival of the singer Dennis Rowland. Mr. Rowland was there to play the role of Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s show, ‘‘Swingin’ the Blues for Count Basie.’’ Keep reading »
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Marsalis’s ‘Blood’: The Spirit Moves It
It’s not the ambition of Wynton Marsalis’s “Blood on the Fields” that’s astounding, but the composer’s assurance in addressing the shameful institution of American slavery. Keep reading »
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Tapestry in Jazz
Wynton Marsalis looked uncharacteristically apprehensive when he stepped on stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Thursday night. “I’m nervous,” he acknowledged, looking out at the audience still streaming into seats for the West Coast premiere of his jazz oratorio, “Blood on the Fields.” Keep reading »
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The Kennedy Center Honors: The Grand Prize
Last night’s Kennedy Center Honors gala paid tribute to the artistic journey. Sure, it celebrated playwright Edward Albee, composer and instrumentalist Benny Carter, country music star Johnny Cash, actor Jack Lemmon and dancer Maria Tallchief. Keep reading »
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Exuberant Motion And Rollicking Jazz
ONE of the most brilliant conceits of Lincoln Center Festival ‘96 was the pairing of Judith Jamison, the artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Wynton Marsalis, the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Keep reading »