Jazz at Lincoln Center on Tour For
sheet music by
Wynton Marsalis click here
Concert in Lucerne, February
17, 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
Article
added on February 20, 2001
Concert review
On February 17 & 18, 2001, in the
context of "LucerneConcerts meet Jazz", Wynton Marsalis' Lincoln Center
Jazz Orchestra (LCJO) played two concerts in Switzerland, accompanied by a
jazz workshop and a jam session, held together with teachers and students
of "Jazzschule Luzern".
Marsalis and his followers are dedicated
to the "real jazz", from New Orleans and Swing to Bebop. One can
argue that jazz is by definition an open form of music which naturally
tends to develop in various directions, but it remains a fact that someone
has to maintain the tradition. We still play and listen to Mozart despite
the fact that we now have Boulez.
On February 17, 2001, the LCJO with its 14
musicians (Seneca
Black, tpt, was not present) offered at the sold out KKL concert hall in
Lucerne an overview over their musical possibilities, ranging from
compositions by Duke Ellinton through Sonny Rollins to Wynton Marsalis. The
concert was not, as some may have expected, part of the Jazz at
Lincoln Center 100
Years of Armstrong celebration.
An
essential part in the LCJO's success is its steady
personnel, several present musicians can be found in the lineups of the 1990-94
recordings of the CD-box set Live
at the Village Vanguard. If you add the
virtue of hard work and perfectionism, which Marsalis professes, the
orchestra's performance can be fully appreciated. These are people who have
learned the basics before they went on to find their individual voices.
By
the way, Jazz
at Lincoln Center is the world’s largest
non-profit arts organization
dedicated to jazz. Among its activities are national and international tours,
residencies, a weekly national radio program, television broadcasts,
recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and
festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for
children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz
Studies, music publishing, children’s concerts, lectures, film programs,
and student and educator workshops.
At
Lucerne, Wynton Marsalis, the Centers Artistic Director, acted more as a
master of ceremonies than an integral part of the orchestra, performing only
in the first tune as well as at the very end of the concert. He announced
different groups of musicians to play, in order to give all the members of his band a
chance to shine.
The
LCJO began with a sextet, including Wynton Marsalis and Ted Nash on
trumpet,
Farid Barron on piano, Rodney
Whitaker on bass, Herlin Riley on drums and a weaker trombone player. It
was a rather timid performance of Staple Cats, the musicians seemed
impressed, even intimidated by the crowd in the sold out concert hall
designed by French star architect Jean Nouvel.
By
the second tune, Dizzy Gillespie's A Night in Tunisia, the
rhythm section had warmed up. In a quintet without Marsalis, with new
Andre Hayward on trombone and Wess Anderson on saxophone, they
demonstrated their qualities.
Clifford
Brown's Sand Dune, played by the same quintet, was the first
highlight of the evening. Anderson on saxophone, with his pure and strong
tone, offered an outstanding performance. In the trio section in the middle
of the tune, the rhythm section convinced with its subdued manner.
In
The Olive Tree, the man of the evening, trumpeter Marcus Printup,
with his clear, strong, warm sound and the ability to climb heights with
astonishing ease, enchanted the public.
The
Inquiry was a cheerful and fast paced tune, again with trumpeter
Marcus Printup as the man of the moment. In the quintet, he was
successfully seconded by saxophone player Walter Blanding junior. The
rhythm section, especially the pianist Farid Barron, had improved as well.
Then,
a quartet played the ballad Can't Get Started, with the trombone
player expressing feelings, talking to the audience through his
instrument. The next tune, with Joe Temperley on saxophone, was another
highlight. His swinging rhythm as well as his musical exchange with
drummer Herlin Riley was astonishing.
The
Single Petal Flower from Duke Ellington's Queen Suite was next.
The romantic and blue feeling of the classical sound was marvelous, with
Joe Temperley on saxophone once more as the shining light. His timing and
color were excellent.
After the
break, the white trumpeter Ryan Kisor excelled in an original composition,
accompanied by the rhythm section. The standard tune The End Of A Love
Affair saw the same lineup again, this time playing an elegant and
timeless composition. Farid Barron's floating piano sound was
remarkable.
A hot tune by Sonny
Rollins was next. Victor Goines and Ted Nash, both on saxophone, were
accompanied by Rodney Whitaker on bass and Herlin Riley on drums. It was
the first and only "avant-garde" tune of the evening.
An
entertaining duo competition with bass and drums cheered up the audience.
Riley and Whitaker, normally in the shadow of the horn players, excelled
in a subtle duel with no winner. They proved they know more than the
jazz basics.
A quartet, including the
rhythm section and Ron Westray on trombone, offered Body and Soul,
before Wynton Marsalis announced the last tune of the evening, his
composition Sunflowers, from The Marciac Suite. A
septet, including Marsalis, played the joyful tune which included the handclapping
rhythm of the public. In between, the pianist rose to higher spheres. In
the end, the wind section blew their horns to the maximum.
After
a standing ovation, the 14 musicians offered a New Orleans version of Happy
Birthday to their sound technician as well as the audience. The
evening in Lucerne was no firework of imagination, a somewhat sterile
performance, but a solid and entertaining one with a traditional sound. Trumpeter
Marcus Printup convinced
most. He
is a honorable heir to Satchmo's throne. Wynton Marsalis has stiff
competition within his group and, in Lucerne at least, his fellow
musician Printup kept the upper hand.
(paragraph updated on February 25; names of Kisor and Printup mixed up
before; Kisor, of course, convinced in Lucerne too).
The
LCJO not only offered two concerts in Lucerne, with another one the following
day dedicated to the music of Louis Armstrong, but also a jazz workshop on Saturday morning. Students of the local
faculty played in front of Ted Nash, Rodney Whitaker and Ron Westray. The
three jazz stars not only commented, but also demonstrated how to play and
improve their sound. The essence of their lesson: to rely on timing and
melody.
After Saturday's concert, a
jam session took off at 10 pm at the "Luzerner Saal". The
members of the LCJO were joined by teachers and students from the MHS
Fakultät III (Jazzschule Luzern). This time, Wynton Marsalis played a
more prominent role, even blowing his horn from time to time in the
audience, reacting to what was going on on stage.
My favorite collection remains the sensational CD-box set Live
at the Village Vanguard. Sony/Columbia, 1999/2000.
Recorded live by Wynton Marsalis
with three different septet lineups at Village Vanguard from 1990 to 1994.
Wynton Marsalis on trumpet, Herlin Riley on drums, Todd Williams, Victor
Goines and Wessel Anderson on sopranino and alto saxophones, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon,
Marcus Roberts and Eric Reed alternate on piano, Ben Wolfe and Reginald Veal on
bass. Get it from Amazon.com,
citydisc
Schweiz, Amazon.fr.
Get Selections From The Village Vangurad from Amazon.com,
Amazon.fr.
Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra: Big Train.
Sony/Columbia, 1999. Recorded together with trumpeters Marcus Printup and Ryan Kisor,
saxophonists Wess Anderson, Victor Goines, Walter Blanding Jr. and Joe Temperley.
Get it from Amazon.com
or Amazon.de.
Until today, eight recordings featuring the LCJO have been released by Columbia Jazz: 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
theFields (1997), They Came to
Swing (1994), The Fire of the
Fundamentals (1993) and Portraits
by Ellington (1992).
Lincoln
Center Jazz Orchestra - biographies
Wynton
Marsalis is
the Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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.
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.
