Jazz at Lincoln Center on Tour
Konzert im KKL Luzern, 17. Februar 2001
Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, LCJO:
Wynton Marsalis, Music Director, tpt
Ryan Kisor, tpt
Marcus Printup, tpt
Ron Westray, trombone
Andre Hayward, trombone
Vincent Gardner, trombone
Wess Anderson, as, ss
Ted Nash, as, ss, cl
Walter Blanding, Jr., ts, cl
Victor Goines, ts, cl
Joe Temperley, bs, bass cl, cl
Farid Barron, p
Rodney Whitaker, b
Herlin Riley, dr

Hinzugefügt am 27. April 2010
Neu von Wynton Marsalis bei Siedler im Mai 2010: Jazz mein Leben. Von der Kraft der Improvisation. Buch bestellen bei Amazon.de. - Musiknoten von Wynton Marsalis.
 
Konzertkritik
Artikel vom 25. Februar 2001
 
Am 17. und 18. Februar 2001 war das Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO) unter der Leitung von Wynton Marsalis im Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern (KKL) zu Gast. Neben zwei Konzerten fanden ein Jazz Workshop mit Studenten der Jazzschule Luzern sowie eine Jam Session statt.
 
Wynton Marsalis und seine Jünger sind dem "echten" Jazz verpflichtet, von New Orleans über Swing bis Bebop. Zu recht lässt sich argumentieren, dass Jazz per Definition eine offene Form der Musik ist und deshalb dazu tendiert, sich beständig in unterschiedliche Richtungen weiter zu entwickeln. Die Tatsache bleibt allerdings bestehen, dass es Leute braucht, die der Tradition verpflichtet bleiben. Wir hören auch noch immer Bach, Mozart und Beethoven, obwohl es die Musik von John Cage und Pierre Boulez gibt.
 
Am 17. Februar demonstrierten die 14 Musiker des LCJO (ohne Trompeter Seneca Black) im KKL das Spektrum ihrer musikalischen Möglichkeiten, das von Kompositionen von Duke Ellinton über Sonny Rollins bis zu Wynton Marsalis reicht. Das Konzert war nicht, wie manche erwartet hatten, ein Teil der Jazz at Lincoln Center 100 Years of Armstrong Celebration - dieser musikalische Tribut erfolgte erst am darauffolgenden Tag.
 
Ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des Erfolgs des LCJO liegt in der Kontinuität seiner Mitglieder. Den Kern der Truppe bildet das Septett, mit dem Marsalis bereits in den Jahren 1990-94 Live at the Village Vanguard einspielt hat. Fügt man dieser Beobachtung noch die Tugenden harte Arbeit und Perfektionismus hinzu, die Wynton predigt, so wird der Erfolg des LCJO verständlich. Es handelt sich um Musiker, die zuerst die Grundbegriffe des Jazz gelernt haben, ehe sie darin gingen, ihren individuellen Ausdruck zu finden.
 
Das Jazz at Lincoln Center ist die grösste nicht-kommerzielle Organisation der Welt, die sich dem Jazz widmet. Zu ihren Aktivitäten gehören nationale und internationale Tourneen, ein wöchentliches Radioprogramm, Fernsehsendungen, Plattenaufnahmen, Publikationen, ein jährlicher High School Jazz Band Wettbewerb mit einem Festival, eine Akademie für Bandleader, Einführungen in den Jazz für Kinder, Kurse für Fortgeschrittene im Rahmen des Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, Workshops für Studenten und Lehrer, etc. Kaum jemand hat sich mehr Verdienste um das Wiederaufleben des Jazz erworben, als Wynton Marsalis und seine Mitstreiter, die oft von der "Avantgarde" angegriffen und geschmäht werden.
 
In Luzern betätigte sich der künstlerische Leiter des LCJO, Wynton Marsalis, mehr als Master of Ceremonies, denn als integraler Bestandteil des Orchesters. Er spielte nur in der einführenden Nummer sowie am Schluss des Konzerts mit. Während dem Rest des Abends beschränkte er sich darauf, die verschiedenen Gruppen und Stücke anzusagen. Alle Bandmitglieder sollten die Möglichkeit bekommen, ihre Fähigkeiten unter Beweis zu stellen.
 
Das LCJO begann mit Wynton Marsalis und Ted Nash an der Trompete, Farid Barron am Piano, Rodney Whitaker am Bass, Herlin Riley am Schlagzeug sowie einem etwas schwächeren Posaunisten. Das Sextett spielte eine etwas schüchterne Version von Staple Cats. Die Musiker schienen vom ausverkauften und hochmodernen KKL, das vom französischen Stararchitekten Jean Nouvel gebaut wurde, erstaunlicherweise beeindruckt, geradezu eingeschüchtert.
 
Doch bereits im zweiten Stück, Dizzy Gillespies A Night in Tunisia, schien sich ihre Nervosität (teilweise) gelegt zu haben. Die Rhythmussektion hatte sich aufgewärmt. Ein Quintett ohne Marsalis und die andern Bläser des Auftaktstückes, dafür neu mit Andre Hayward an der Posaune und Wess Anderson am Saxophon, spielte gross auf.
 
Clifford Browns Sand Dune, vom obigen Quintett dargeboten, bildete den ersten Höhepunkt eines teilweise etwas klinischen Jazzabends. Anderson beeindruckte am Saxophon mit seinem klaren, starken Ton. Im Mittelteil des Stückes überzeugte das Rhythmustrio mit seiner zurückhaltenden Spielweise.
 
In The Olive Tree begeisterte der Mann des Abends, der Trompeter Marcus Printup, mit seinem warmen, glasklaren und kräftigen Sound sowie seiner Fähigkeit, mühelos Höhen zu erklimmen.
 
The Inquiry war eine fröhliche, rasche Nummer, erneut mit Marcus Printup als dem herausragenden Musiker. Im Quintett wurde er erfolgreich vom Saxophonisten Walter Blanding junior sekundiert. In der Rhythmusgruppe zeigte sich Pianist Farid Barron von seiner besten Seite.
 
Daraufhin folgte die Ballade Can't Get Started, von einem Quartett mit einem Posaunisten gespielt, der es verstand, Gefühle auszudrücken und zum Publikum zu sprechen. Danach glänzte Joe Temperley am Saxophon in einem swingenden Stück, bei dem vor allem der Austausch zwischen ihm und dem Schlagzeuger Herlin Riley gefiel.
 
The Single Petal Flower aus Duke Ellingtons Queen Suite war wunderbar. Der romantisch-traurige und klassisch-elegante Sound, mit Joe Temperley am Saxophon als dem herausragenden Mann, war berauschend. Temperleys Timing und Klangfarbe waren exzellent.
 
Nach der Pause übertraf sich der weisse Trompeter Ryan Kisor in einer Originalkomposition selbst, nur von der Rhythmusgruppe einfühlsam begleitet. Der elegant-zeitlose Standard The End Of A Love Affair, in der gleichen Zusammensetzung gespielt, gefiel nicht zuletzt dank Farid Barrons fliessendem Klavierspiel.
 
Victor Goines und Ted Nash, beide am Saxophon, begleitet von Rodney Whitaker am Bass und Herlin Riley am Schlagzeug, boten eine heisse Nummer von Sonny Rollins, dem ersten und einzigen Moment des Abends, an dem eine Ahnung von dem aufkam, was seit dem Bebop noch im Jazz geschehen ist.
 
Schlagzeug und Bass lieferten sich daraufhin einen heissen Duo-Wettkampf, der das Publikum mitriss. Riley und Whitaker, die sonst zumeist im Schatten der Bläser standen, zeigten in diesem subtilen Duell ohne Gewinner, was sie drauf haben.
 
Ein Quartett bestehend aus der Rhythmusgruppe sowie Ron Westray an der Posaune offerierte Body and Soul, ehe Wynton Marsalis das letzte Stück des Abends ankündigte, seine Komposition Sunflowers aus dem Album The Marciac Suite. Ein Septett mit Marsalis spielte das fröhliche Stück, bei dem das Publikum den Rhythmus mitklatschte. Zwischendurch entschwebte der Pianist in höhere Sphären. Zum Schluss bliesen die Bläser, zum Gaudi des Publikums, was das Zeug hielt.
 
Nach einer Standing Ovation boten die 14 auf der Bühne versammelten Musiker eine New Orleans-Version von Happy Birthday, die ihrem Soundtechniker sowie dem Publikum gewidmet war. Der Abend in Luzern war gewiss kein Feuerwerk an Kreativität gewesen, hin und wieder fast steril, doch der traditionelle Sound war solide und zumeist unterhaltsam. Der Trompeter Marcus Printup beeindruckte am meisten. Er ist ein ehrenwerter Anwärter auf Sachtmos Thron. Wynton Marsalis hat harte Konkurrenz aus seiner eigenen Truppe bekommen. Zumindest in Luzern behielt Printup die Oberhand.
 

Meine Lieblingsaufnahmen mit Wynton Marsalis, die CD-Box Live at the Village Vanguard. Sony/Columbia, 1999/2000. Zusammen mit drei verschieden zusammengesetzten Septetten zwischen 1990 und 1994 im New Yorker Village Vanguard live aufgenommen. Wynton Marsalis, Trompete, Herlin Riley, Schlagzeug, Todd Williams, Victor Goines und Wessel Anderson, Saxophon, Wycliffe Gordon, Posaune, Marcus Roberts und Eric Reed, Klavier, Ben Wolfe und Reginald Veal, Bass. Bestellen bei Amazon.com, Amazon.fr. Eine Auswahl auf einer CD: Selections From The Village Vangurad bei Amazon.com, Amazon.fr.
 

Hier nochmals die Kritik aus Cosmopolis Nr. 18: Wynton Marsalis Septet: The Marciac Suite. Sony/Columbia, 2000. Bestellen bei Amazon.de. Die CD ist nach dem französischen Dorf Marciac mit 1300 Einwohnern benannt, das seit den späten 1970er Jahren Veranstaltungsort eines jährlichen Jazz Festivals ist. Es verdankt seine Existenz der Initiative des Bürgermeisters und Rektors des collège von Marciac, Louis Guillhaumon. Alles begann mit dem Trompeter Bill Coleman und dem Tenorsaxophonist Guy Laffite, die beide in der Region wohnten und die Guillhaumon deshalb eines Tages fragte, ob sie nicht in im Ort auftreten möchten. Heute lockt das Festival jährlich, in nur zehn Tagen im August, über 100,000 Jazzfans an. Wynton Marsalis tritt seit 1991 jeden Sommer in Marciac auf, wobei er im collège auch Meisterklassen unterrichtet. 1997 gab Guillhaumon eine lebensgrosse Bronzestatue von Marsalis bei Bildhauer Daphne du Barry in Auftrag, um den Musiker und seine Treue zum kleinen französischen Ort zu ehren. Marsalis erwiderte die Geste, indem er die nun auf CD vorliegende Marciac Suite komponierte. Die über 76 Minuten lange Suite ist in dreizehn Kompositionen unterteilt. Die Stücke reichen von der Ballade Mademoiselle D'Gascony über das karnevaleske und zirkusähnliche Marciac Fun bis zu Jean-Louis Is Everywhere und dem finalen Sunflowers mit seinem einfachen Rhythmus. Die genannten Kompositionsteile bilden die Höhepunkte der Suite. Wynton Marsalis wird oft vorgeworfen, seine Musik sei epigonal, zu stark der Vergangenheit verhaftet und deshalb völlig überhalt. Mit The Marciac Suite beweist Wynton, dass dem nicht so ist. Auch wenn die Suite nicht als "Avantgardemusik" bezeichnet werden kann, was immer das auch sein mag, so kann sie dennoch eindeutig als zeitgenössische Musik identifiziert werden. Wie immer bei Marsalis sind nicht nur die Kompositionen von erstklassiger Qualität, sondern auch die Interpretation erfolgt durch herausragende Musiker, was ein entsprechend begeisterndes Resultat ergibt.
 

Wynton Marsalis und das Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra: Big Train. Sony/Columbia, 1999. Mit Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Printup und Ryan Kisor an der Trompete, Wess Anderson, Victor Goines, Walter Blanding Jr. und Joe Temperley am Saxophon. Bestellen bei Amazon.com, Amazon.de.
 
Die bisher acht Aufnahmen des LCJO, alle bei Columbia Jazz erschienen: Big Train (1999), Sweet Release & Ghost Story (1999), Live in Swing City (1999), Sweet Release and Ghost Story (1999), Jump Start and Jazz (1997), the 1997 Pulitzer Prize winning Blood on the Fields (1997), They Came to Swing (1994), The Fire of the Fundamentals (1993) sowie Portraits by Ellington (1992). - Musiknoten von Wynton Marsalis.

Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra



Biografien der Musiker des Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
Wynton Marsalis is the Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center (J@LC). Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at 12 and soon began playing in local bands of diverse genres.  He entered The Juilliard School at 17 and joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982 and over the past 17 years has recorded more than 30 jazz and classical recordings, which have won him eight Grammy Awards. In 1983, he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammies in the same year and repeated this feat in 1984. In 1997, Marsalis became the first jazz artist to be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, which was commissioned by J@LC. In 1999, he released 8 new recordings in his unprecedented Swinging into the 21st series, and premiered several new compositions, including the ballet Them Twos, for a June 1999 collaboration with the New York City Ballet, and the monumental work All Rise, commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic along with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Morgan State University Choir in December 1999. Marsalis is an internationally respected teacher and spokesman for music education and has received honorary doctorates from dozens of universities and colleges throughout the U.S. He regularly conducts master classes for students of all ages and hosts the popular Jazz for Young People concerts produced by J@LC. Marsalis has also been featured in the video series Marsalis on Music and the radio series Making the Music and, in 1994, he wrote the book Sweet Swing Blues on the Road in collaboration with photographer Frank Stewart. - Musiknoten von Wynton Marsalis.
 
Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson (Alto and Sopranino Saxophones) began playing the saxophone at 14. He attended Jazzmobile workshops in Harlem, studied with Frank Wess, Frank Foster, and Charles Davis and frequented jam sessions led by saxophonist Sonny Stitt at the Blue Coronet. Before entering Southern University, where he studied with clarinetist Alvin Batiste, Anderson met Wynton and Branford Marsalis. In 1988, he became a member of Wynton Marsalis’s Septet, with which he toured and recorded for seven years, and has been a member of the LCJO since it began touring in 1992. As a leader, Anderson has recorded and released three solo albums entitled Warmdaddy in the Garden of Swing (1994), The Ways of Warmdaddy (1996) and Live at the Village Vanguard (1998). An accomplished educator, Anderson is a frequent participant in J@LC educational events and is on the faculty of the new Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies.
 
Farid Barron (Piano) was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has performed with Ralph Peterson, Johnny Coles, Mickey Roker, Bobby Durham, Wynton Marsalis and many others. From 1993 to 1997, Barron served in the U.S. Air Force, based in San Antonio, Texas. He has performed with the LCJO since 1999 and frequently participates in J@LC productions.
 
Seneca Black (Trumpet) was born on April 15, 1978 and was inspired to pursue jazz after being introduced, at age 14, to the music of Duke Ellington by Wynton Marsalis. After studying trumpet at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, Mr. Black moved to New York City to study with master trumpeter Lew Soloff at the Manhattan School of Music. Black has performed with Chico O’Farrill’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, the New York State of the Art Jazz Orchestra and the Manhattan Jazz Orchestra, and has been a member of the LCJO since 1997. Seneca Black was not part of the lineup in Lucerne, were "only" 14 musicians performed.
 
Walter Blanding, Jr. (Tenor and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet) was born on August 14, 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio to a musical family and began playing the saxophone at 6. In 1981, he moved with his family to New York City and, by 16, he was performing regularly with his parents at the Village Gate. Blanding attended LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts and continued his studies at the New School for Social Research. Blanding lived in Israel for 4 years, where he had a major impact on the music scene, importing great artists such as Louis Hayes and Eric Reed, among others. He also taught in several Israeli schools and toured the country with his ensemble. His first album, Tough Young Tenors, was acclaimed as one of the best jazz albums of 1991. Since then, he has performed or recorded with many artists, including including Cab Calloway, Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Illinois Jacquet, Eric Reed, and Roy Hargrove, among others. His latest release, The Olive Tree, features fellow members of the LCJO.
 
Vincent R. Gardner (Trombone) was born in Chicago in 1972 and raised in Virginia. His family had a strong musical background, including his mother, his brother and his father, Burgess Gardner, a trumpeter and music educator who has been very active on the Chicago music scene since the 1960s. Singing in church from an early age, he began playing piano when he was six, and soon switched to the violin, saxophone, and French horn before finally deciding on the trombone at age 12. Mr. Gardner became interested in jazz while attending high school and upon graduating went on to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida and the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. In college, he took a summer job performing with a jazz band at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where he caught the ear of Mercer Ellington, who hired him on his first professional job. After graduating in 1996, he moved to New York to pursue his professional career. Gardner has performed, toured, and/or recorded with The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Bobby McFerrin, The Count Basie Orchestra, Frank Foster, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Chaka Kahn, A Tribe Called Quest, Nancy Wilson, McCoy Tyner, Nicholas Payton, Illinois Jacquet, Wynton Marsalis, Tommy Flanagan, Marcus Roberts, Matchbox 20, Jimmy Heath, Lauryn Hill, and others. He has previously toured with the LCJO in 2000.
 
Victor Goines (Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet) was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Goines began studying clarinet at age eight, and continued his studies through high school.  He received a Bachelor of Music Education in 1984 from Loyola University and a Master’s Degree at Virginia University in 1990. Goines toured internationally with Ellis Marsalis’s quartet before joining the orchestra of the Broadway musical Black and Blue. In 1993, he joined Wynton Marsalis’s Septet and toured with the band until 1994, at which time he joined the LCJO. Goines has recorded or worked with Lionel Hampton, Terence Blanchard, James Moody, Dianne Reeves, and Dizzy Gillespie, among many others. He has released three acclaimed albums as a leader: Genesis (1991), Joe’s Blues (1998), and To Those We Love So Dearly (1999). He has been performing with the LCJO since 1993, currently serves as Education Consultant to Jazz at Lincoln Center, and serves as the Director of the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies - a collaboration between The Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
 
Andre Hayward (Trombone) was born in Houston, Texas in 1973. He started playing trombone and tuba at 11, performing in his junior high school jazz band and studying with local trombonist Steve Baxter. Hayward attended Texas Southern University and landed his first engagement with Roy Hargrove, touring with the trumpeter to Europe. Summers spent performing at Walt Disney World gave him the opportunity to perform with many noted singers, including Joe Williams, Diane Schuur, Eartha Kitt, Rosemary Clooney and others. Hayward performed with the late singer/bandleader Betty Carter for five years and has performed and/or recorded with Illinois Jacquet, Russell Gunn and the Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington.
 
Ryan Kisor (Trumpet) was born on April 12, 1973, in Sioux City, Iowa and began playing trumpet at 4. In 1990, he won first prize at the Thelonious Monk Institute’s first annual Louis Armstrong Trumpet Competition. Kisor enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music in 1991, where he studied with trumpeter Lew Soloff. He has performed and/or recorded with the Mingus Big Band, the Gil Evans Orchestra, Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Jim Hall, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Philip Morris Jazz All-Stars, and many others. As well as being an active sideman, Kisor has recorded several albums as a leader, including Battle Cry (1997), The Usual Suspects (1998), and Point of Arrival (2000).  He has been a member of the LCJO since 1994.
 
Ted Nash (Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet) the son of Dick Nash and nephew of Ted Nash, both well-known jazz and studio musicians, first came to New York at 18. Soon after, he released his first album as a leader, Conception. Within a couple of years he joined the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, an association that lasted for more than ten years. It was in this fertile environment that Nash began to write his first arrangements, which have been featured on two of the band’s recordings. In 1994, Nash was commissioned by the Davos Musik Festival (Switzerland) to compose for a string quartet in a jazz setting, works that were premiered at a Jazz Composers Collective Concert.  This commission was the inspiration for Rhyme and Reason, his most recent release, which was voted one of the top five CDs of 1999 by Jazz Times Magazine. Besides being a regular member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Mr. Nash has recently toured Europe with the Carnegie Hall Big Band, and toured and recorded with Marcus Roberts and with Joe Lovano. He also can be heard on several critically acclaimed CDs produced by the Jazz Composers Collective, including the Herbie Nichols Project’s Love is Proximity and Dr. Cyclops' Dream and Ben Allison’s Medicine Wheel and Third Eye as well as recordings by Wynton Marsalis.
 
Marcus Printup (Trumpet) was born on January 24, 1967 and raised in Conyers, Georgia, where his first musical influences were the spirituals and gospel music he heard in church. He discovered jazz as a senior in high school and while attending the University of North Florida, he won the International Trumpet Guild Competition. In 1991, Printup met and began touring with pianist Marcus Roberts, who introduced him to Wynton Marsalis. Printup has performed and/or recorded with Betty Carter, Carl Allen, Dianne Reeves and Mr. Roberts, among others. Currently, Printup tours and performs regularly with the LCJO and his own band. He has recorded four solo albums, Songs for the Beautiful Woman, Unveiled, Hub Songs with trumpeter Tim Hagans and, most recently, Nocturnal Traces. Printup made his screen debut in the movie Playing by Heart and recorded on its soundtrack.
 
Herlin Riley (Drums) was born into a musical family in New Orleans, Louisiana and began playing the drums at age three. Riley was a member of Ahmad Jamal's band from 1984 through 1987 and has performed and/or recorded with Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Dr. John, Harry Connick, Jr., George Benson, Steve Turre and The Clayton Brothers, among others. His theater experience includes playing in One Mo' Time and Satchmo: America's Musical Legend. In the spring of 1988, he joined Wynton Marsalis’s Septet, with which he toured and recorded for six years. He appeared on the cover of the April 1995 issue of Modern Drummer and is featured in an instructional video, “New Orleans Drumming Ragtime and Beyond - Evolution of a Style.” Riley has performed regularly with the LCJO since it began touring in 1992. He has recently released a recording as a leader, Watch What You’re Doing, which features fellow LCJO members.
 
Joe Temperley (Baritone Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Clarinet) was born in Scotland and first achieved prominence in the United Kingdom as a member of Humphrey Lyttelton’s band from 1958 to 1965, which toured the U.S. in 1959.  In 1965, he came to New York City, where he performed and/or recorded with Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Joe Henderson, Duke Pearson, the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra and Clark Terry, among many others. In October 1974, he toured and recorded with The Duke Ellington Orchestra as a replacement for Harry Carney. Temperley played in the Broadway show Sophisticated Ladies in the 1980s and his film soundtrack credits include the Cotton Club, Biloxi Blues, Brighton Beach Memoirs, When Harry Met Sally and Tune In Tomorrow, composed by Wynton Marsalis. Temperley is a mentor and a co-founder of the FIFE Youth Jazz Orchestra program in Scotland, which now enrolls 70 young musicians ages 7 to 17 playing in three full-size bands. Temperley has released several albums as a leader, including Nightingale (1991), Sunbeam and Thundercloud with pianist Dave McKenna (1996), With Every Breath (1998) and most recently Double Duke (1999) with several fellow LCJO members. He is an original member of the LCJO and serves as a member of the faculty for the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies.
 
Ron Westray (Trombone) was born on June 13, 1970 in Columbia, South Carolina. He began studying piano at 5 and was introduced to the trombone at 11. In 1991, while studying at South Carolina State University, Westray met Wynton Marsalis and Marcus Roberts in a Columbia jazz club and soon joined the Marcus Roberts Septet for several recordings and national tours. Westray received his B.A. in Trombone Perfomance from South Carolina State University and his M.A. from Eastern Illinois University. Westray toured Europe as a member of the group Jazz Futures II in the summer of 1992. In addition to leading his own ensembles and working as a sideman, Westray recorded a widely acclaimed album with fellow LCJO trombonist Wycliffe Gordon entitled Bone Structure. He first performed with the LCJO in 1993. Currently, Ron Westray serves as lead trombonist and frequently contributes new compositions and arrangements to the LCJO.
 
Rodney Whitaker (Bass) was born on February 22, 1968, in Detroit, Michigan. He began playing violin at 8 and later began studying bass. Whitaker has performed with Branford Marsalis, Johnny Griffin, Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman, Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Garrett and Donald Harrison, among others. Whitaker has also appeared with Branford Marsalis on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” and performed on Spike Lee’s film soundtracks for Jungle Fever and Malcolm X. His compositions have been included on Roy Hargrove’s Kindred Souls album and Junko Onishi’s Crusin’ and Piano Quintet Suite albums. Whitaker has appeared on over 70 recordings, including several acclaimed albums as a leader: Children of the Light, Hidden Kingdom, Brooklyn Sessions (Blues & Ballads), and Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.  He is the Director of the Jazz Studies program at Michigan State University and serves on the faculty of the Julliard Institute for Jazz Studies. Whitaker has toured extensively with the LCJO and has led many workshops and master classes produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center.