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News Updates – Chicago

  • A splendid run for Marsalis’ JALC Orchestra – with 1 singer too many

    Posted on April 29th, 2012 in Review

    The most haunting moment of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s three-concert Chicago residency came late Friday night, and it barely rose above a whisper.   Keep reading »

  • Wynton Marsalis heads to Symphony Center for weekend residency

    Posted on April 24th, 2012 in Review

    For most of us, turning 50 represents a major personal landmark. For Wynton Marsalis, it’s inevitably a public occasion, if only because for at least two decades he has been the world’s most widely recognized jazz artist.   Keep reading »

  • Wynton to be featured as a High-Impact speaker at the 2010 NSBA Conference

    Posted on April 1st, 2010 in Education | 7

    Wynton Marsalis will be a featured High-Impact speaker at the 70th Annual *National School Board Association (NSBA)* Conference in Chicago on Sunday, April 11, 2010.
    The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Arts education advocate will speak to Board Members, Superintendents and other school official representing over 1,500 of the nation’s largest school districts accounting for over 18 million school children. Other speakers include Charlie Rose, and Steve Wozniak.

      Keep reading »

  • ‘Congo Square’ a dialogue of eras

    Posted on June 26th, 2007 in Review | 4

    When Wynton Marsalis rocketed to stardom in the 1980s, he seemed poised to enjoy a long career as a hyper-virtuoso trumpeter.

    Though Marsalis remains a top-flight soloist, it’s his work as composer of epic scores that more deeply defines his art. Clearly, no one else in recent jazz history has produced a comparable list of vast compositions, including the thunderous “All Rise” (performed earlier this year by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), the incantatory “In This House, On This Morning” (a jazz evocation of a gospel church service) and the incendiary “Blood on the Fields” (the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize in music, in 1997).

      Keep reading »

  • CSO thunders gloriously with Marsalis’ `All Rise’

    Posted on January 20th, 2007 in Review

    Call it a tonic for troubled times.
    Wynton Marsalis’ “All Rise”—an epic work that addresses fundamental questions of faith, crisis and deliverance—does not go gently into the night.

      Keep reading »

  • All About Jazz reviews LCJO Chicago’s concert

    Posted on February 4th, 2006 in Review | 1

    The endless debate about Wynton Marsalis shows no sign of ever abating. Whether the Lincoln Center musical director/trumpeter is the greatest heir to the jazz tradition or a curmudgeonly and didactic reactionary who’s declared himself the final authority and what jazz is and, especially, isn’t, probably depends on your point of view. One thing, though, is certain: he and the 15-piece Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra put on a consistently good show.
    The band’s performance at Chicago’s Symphony Center was pretty typical of what they do: impeccably played, large-ensemble arrangements of the jazz-composer canon; smaller-group performances of the same; beautiful, crystal-clear horn voicings; a great drummer (currently Ali Jackson); a host of very good soloists, including Marsalis; and, yes, lots of spoken explanation from the musical director about the composers, the history of jazz, and why what the group is playing is good.
    Marsalis is wordy, and in his teaching mode, he can be annoying. But he’s usually pretty affable and often droll; certainly he shows no sign on the bandstand of being any sort of martinet, despite the band’s whip-tight playing.

      Keep reading »

  • Wynton’s woes

    Posted on January 27th, 2006 in Profiles & Interviews | 1

    Wynton Marsalis is the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music. He’s got a basketful of Grammys. And he’s become the music director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, which lands in Chicago for two gigs this weekend.
    So is there anything he can’t do? You bet. He can’t get his kids to stay awake during a symphony concert.

      Keep reading »

  • Marlsais’ young players bask in the spotlight

    Posted on April 18th, 2005 in Review

    It may be a bit early to place Wynton Marsalis firmly in the same role as drummer Art Blakey, whose Jazz Messengers band helped launch the careers of many great young artists (including Marsalis himself).   Keep reading »

  • Marsalis hinting at introspective change of pace

    Posted on October 21st, 2003 in Review

    Chicagoans have heard trumpeter Wynton Marsalis fronting all manner of ensembles, from the choral-orchestral forces that performed his oratorio “Blood on the Fields” to the radiant septet that played his devotional instrumental suite “In This House, On This Morning.”   Keep reading »

  • Marsalis has a kick with kids

    Posted on April 30th, 2001 in Review

    Sophisticated jazz isn’t for adults only, as Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra clearly established over the weekend at Symphony Center. The occasion of Marsalis, the leading jazz musician of his generation, sharing the stage with at least 30 kids from the audience—and trying to teach them the basics of improvisation—had to be seen to be believed.   Keep reading »