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Marsalis, Allen, Keezer and Nimmer Slated for Mary Lou Williams Centennial Nov. 13-14
Born in Atlanta and raised in Atlanta, jazz pianist, arranger and composer Mary Lou Williams (1910 _1981) first performed in public at age six and went on to work with Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey and Cecil Taylor. Williams would become a stalwart of the bebop movement, collaborating with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. Keep reading »
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Congo Square Rising Up
Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center bring comfort and jazz to the city of New Orleans.
It’s been about nine months since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. Today, the area is slowly being rebuilt. Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis has led efforts to heal his native city but his journey there this past month was planned well before the unforeseen disaster. Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO) performed a series of free events for people of all ages, including concerts, master classes, clinics, and workshops during a weeklong residency, April 17-23. The events were co-sponsored by the state of Louisiana and the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans.
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William Vacchiano, Wynton’s trumpet professor, died at 93
William Vacchiano, a trumpeter whose musical career started in Maine and took him to the New York Philharmonic and The Juilliard School, died at 93 on September 19, 2005. Vacchiano was principal trumpet for 31 years at the New York Philharmonic and he never missed a performance before leaving in 1973. He continued to a teach until 2002 at The Juilliard School, where his students included Wynton Marsalis and Miles Davis.
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Wynton Marsalis Pens Music for Rattner’s Eatonville
Amas Musical Theatre, whose previous productions include Zanna, Don’t! and Little Ham, will offer a new play with music this fall.
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The 35-year-old multi-ethnic, not-for-profit theatre company will present — from Oct. 21-Nov. 23 — Bonnie Lee Rattner’s Eatonville, which boasts an original jazz score and songs by Wynton Marsalis. Based on Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Eatonville is set in 1920’s Eatonville, Florida, one of the first all-black incorporated American towns.