Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Fall 2016 concerts showcase a diverse and extensive range of performances and artists on the stages in the organization’s home, Frederick P. Rose Hall. Jazz at Lincoln Center is located on Broadway at 60th Street in New York, New York.
The 2016-17 season kicks off in Rose Theater with Handful of Keys: A Century of Jazz Piano from September 22-24 featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, 89-year old American treasure Dick Hyman, 13-year-old Indonesian prodigy Joey Alexander, and special guest pianists Larry Willis, Helen Sung, and Isaiah J. Thompson. On the same weekend, across from Rose Theater and adjacent to the newly-renovated Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Atrium, Grammy and Tony Award-winning vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater journeys through 100 years of jazz song in Songs We Love in The Appel Room on September 23-24. For the complete season schedule, visit http://www.jazz.org/events/2016-17-season/.
Throughout September, Dizzy’s Club Coca–Cola hosts the seventh annual Coca–Cola Generations in Jazz Festival. The festival kicks off on September 1 with dynamic rising star Bruce Harris and the Big Sax Section followed by a weekend of engagements featuring Joanne Brackeen, Tom Harrell, and Dave Holland. In keeping with tradition, this year’s festival, which runs through October 2, also features extraordinary artists including Marilyn Maye, Catherine Russell and more spanning three generations with programming that honors iconic musicians and composers alongside emerging artists and bandleaders of today. For the complete Generations in Jazz Festival line up, visit http://www.jazz.org/dizzys/month/2016/09/.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Fall 2016 Concert Highlights
Handful of Keys: A Century of Jazz Piano
Featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Joey Alexander, Dick Hyman, Helen Sung, Isaiah J. Thompson, Larry Willis
Sep 22-24, 2016, 8pm
Rose Theater
Our season-opening concert features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and some of today’s top pianists, including our own Dan Nimmer. Performing definitive compositions by piano geniuses like Jelly Roll Morton, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, and Marcus Roberts, tonight’s special guests will showcase an astonishing evolution of jazz piano that now spans over 100 years. Guest musicians range in age from 13-year-old prodigy Joey Alexander (featured on CBS’ 60 Minutes) to 89-year-old American treasure Dick Hyman, met in the middle by several extraordinary pianists including Helen Sung, Isaiah J. Thompson, and Larry Willis. Alongside the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, their virtuosic performances will allow the living continuum of jazz to unfold before your eyes in the House of Swing.
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Sep 23-24, 2016, 7pm & 9:30pm
The Appel Room
Grammy and Tony Award-winning superstar Dee Dee Bridgewater takes you through 100 years of jazz song in our season-opening weekend of Singers Over Manhattan. On Friday (9/16), she will be joined by music director/trumpeter Riley Mulherkar and his ensemble; Vuyo Sotashe, finalist of the 2015 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition; and Brianna Thomas, whom the Wall Street Journal says “may well be the best young straight-ahead jazz singer of her generation.” Combining their distinct talents, the group will sing their way through four decades of music, beginning with the early blues and jazz of the 1920s and ending in the early 1950s. Iconic singers to be explored include Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, and Sarah Vaughan. On Saturday (9/17), Bridgewater returns with a new group, featuring a band led by music director/drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr.; the thoughtfully eclectic Theo Bleckmann, who exemplifies the notion of “voice as instrument;” and Brooklyn’s own internationally rising star Alicia Olatuja, known for navigating jazz traditions with a taste of gospel and R&B. They will perform the socially conscious music of the 1950s through today, featuring the works of Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, Carmen McRae, and more. Each of these two nights will be a completely unique program, and passionate fans can attend both for a century-spanning, comprehensive experience.
Ibrahim Maalouf
Featuring Frank Woeste, Scott Colley, Rick Margitza, and Clarence Penn
Sep 30-Oct 1, 2016, 7pm & 9:30pm
The Appel Room
Hailed by The New York Times as a “virtuoso of the quarter-tone trumpet,” Maalouf combines jazz improvisation and European classical influences with the sounds of his native Lebanon and home in France, a far-reaching blend of cultures. Tonight’s concert features a stellar ensemble of Frank Woeste, Scott Colley, Rick Margitza and Clarence Penn. They will pay homage to one of the greatest Arabic divas of all time–Egyptian icon Oum Kalthoum–with a sprawling, one-of-a-kind interpretation of her most beloved hit: “Alf Leila wa Leila.” Maalouf explains, “This piece is one of the all-time classics that is celebrated across the Arab world, and yet it remains virtually unknown in the rest of the world, so this is an opportunity for me to present this symphonic masterpiece.” Maalouf is an inspirational cross-cultural visionary, and Kalthoum–to be performed in its entirety–is a gripping synthesis of powerful musical traditions.
Brad Mehldau
Sep 30-Oct 1, 2016, 8pm
Rose Theater
Visionary pianist Brad Mehldau, called “a graceful powerhouse” by The New York Times, makes his long-awaited return to Rose Theater for two distinct concerts. On Friday (9/30), Mehldau will perform alongside saxophonist Joshua Redman, showcasing one of the most celebrated pairings in contemporary jazz. Mehldau and Redman are both truly unique improvisers, and they engage in an almost trancelike state as they combine two unmistakable voices into one equally distinctive and powerful whole. The intensity of this seemingly telekinetic connection will keep you transfixed across a broad selection of original pieces, jazz standards, and pop favorites. On Saturday (10/1), Mehldau will treat audiences to a solo concert, a challenging format for which he is highly renowned. An impressionistic genius, Mehldau takes a wildly diverse range of music and makes it entirely his own, isolating a potent moment or theme from each piece and expanding it into a rhapsodically lyrical exploration. His cohesive and emotionally vibrant approach to such an enormous range of influences makes for a refreshing and frequently cathartic experience.
Jazz 100: The Music of Dizzy, Ella, Mongo & Monk
Featuring Danilo Perez, Wycliffe Gordon, Chris Potter, Avishai Cohen, Ben Street, Ramon Diaz, Adam Cruz, Ledisi
Oct 14-15, 2016, 8pm
Rose Theater
With excitement and great reverence we celebrate the centennials of four visionary icons: Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Mongo Santamaría, and Thelonious Monk. This program will reveal not only their powerful unifying traits, but also the diverse ways they have influenced the evolution of jazz. Tonight’s carefully selected all-star band matches their ambition and artistry; the group includes music director Danilo Perez, Wycliffe Gordon, Chris Potter, Avishai Cohen, Ben Street, Ramon Diaz, Adam Cruz, and powerhouse vocalist Ledisi, recently seen and heard in the award-winning film Selma. All of these musicians are world-class bandleaders and composers, virtuosos of their respective instruments, and some of the most recognizable descendents of tonight’s Jazz 100 honorees. Together, this diverse group of virtuosos will offer an enlightening and original reflection of history’s most important artists.
Elio Villafranca’s Letters to Mother Africa
Featuring Elio Villafranca, Billy Harper, David Murray, Lewis Nash
Oct 14-15, 2016, 7pm & 9:30pm
The Appel Room
Elio Villafranca’s Cinque – Music of the Caribbean was an absolute favorite amongst audiences in 2015. With Letters to Mother Africa, the visionary Cuban pianist and composer brings us another ambitious and culturally enlightening program. Leading an all-star band featuring Billy Harper, David Murray, and Lewis Nash – as well as additional percussionists and various African instruments – Villafranca will examine a wide range of jazz written with great reverence not just of Africa, but to it. In addition to original compositions by members of the ensemble, the group will perform diverse and transformative arrangements of music by Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Eric Dolphy, Randy Weston, and Art Blakey. By arranging such a vast array of music for this unique ensemble, Villafranca will explore this powerful tradition within jazz and uncover inspiring new avenues of expression.
Jimmy Heath: Life of A Legend
Featuring Roberta Gambarini, Jon Faddis, Stanley Cowell and more.
Oct 21-22, 2016, 7pm & 9:30pm
The Appel Room
Tonight we celebrate the life and 90th birthday of a true living legend, saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath. With music, stories, conversation, and images from Heath’s extensive personal archive, this intimate performance in The Appel Room will be an insightful look into the colorful career of a profoundly influential artist. Heath’s earliest career highlights include long-term partnerships with icons like Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis, and after 70 years he remains a major fixture and creative leader in jazz. He has released over 100 albums, and his compositions have been recorded throughout the jazz world by Clark Terry, Cannonball Adderley, Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, and countless others. These days, Heath leads his own Big Band, works with various small groups, and co-leads the highly successful Heath Brothers. Audiences tonight will get a full taste of Heath’s brilliance as he performs original pieces for both his big band and a small group featuring internationally renowned vocalist Roberta Gambarini, trumpet virtuoso Jon Faddis, and long-time collaborator Stanley Cowell. WBGO-FM radio icon Gary Walker will host the proceedings, engaging Heath in dialogue between musical segments.
The Jazz Age: Untamed Elegance
Featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Oct 28-29, 2016, 8pm
Rose Theater
A grand decade when “the parties were bigger, the pace was faster, the buildings were higher, the morals looser,” jazz defined the Roaring Twenties – a time also known as the Jazz Age. 100 years after the first known jazz recording, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis transports audiences to the wild and sophisticated 1920s. Led by master saxophonist and veteran JLCO member Victor Goines, the Orchestra will showcase the hot jazz of New Orleans, the sweet sounds of 1920s dance bands, and demonstrate how the integration of the two led to the Swing Era of the 1930s. This concert will feature essential compositions by artists including Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and Louis Armstrong and His Hot 7. Goines will also debut a brand new composition written for the Orchestra, inspired by the sounds, styles, and culture of the Prohibition years. He is an expert at these early jazz styles, and he also possesses a vast knowledge of contemporary jazz vocabulary, as demonstrated in his original work Crescent City, composed for fellow New Orleans native Branford Marsalis. The combination of Goines’ deep vocabulary with the hot and sweet sounds of the 1920s will make for an upbeat and swinging affair, bringing the untamed elegance of the Jazz Age to New York’s House of Swing.
Family Concert: Who is Count Basie?
Featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Nov 5, 2016, 1pm & 3pm
Rose Theater
Piano player and bandleader William “Count” Basie brought America out of the Depression with the elegant and irresistible swing of Kansas City. Establishing 4/4 swing as a primary jazz style, The Count led one of the greatest big bands of all time, featuring the hard-swinging All-American Rhythm Section, iconic soloists, and a communal feeling that kept the dance floor moving all night. In this hour-long narrated concert featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, crowd participation, and engaging storytelling by Wynton Marsalis, families will learn about Basie’s exciting career and infectious music. After nearly 25 years, this beloved family-oriented series continues to be a wellspring of enlightenment for curious minds, with concerts “as illuminating as they are entertaining” (Chicago Tribune).
Battle of the Big Bands
Featuring Sammy Miller and the Congregation Big Band, Evan Sherman Big Band and more
Nov 11-12, 2016, 7pm & 9:30pm
The Appel Room
Tonight’s big band battle is a feel-good, dance-up-a-storm, interactive jazz experience akin to those that originated in Harlem’s Swing Era landmarks. This special event showcases two of New York’s hottest young big bands–together on one stage–in a high-energy evening with dancers and repertoire chosen in part by the audience. Drummer/bandleaders Sammy Miller and Evan Sherman will deliver a full sensory experience through fast-paced music, friendly one-upmanship, and the welcome additions of choreographed and improvised dance, audience participation, and a bit of comedy. Both bands are inter-generational all-star groups, and they have repeatedly proven their ability to rouse up a crowd at New York City hot spots. Join them in The Appel Room for an entertaining night of great music and uplifting companionship.
The Swing Era: Revolution in Rhythm
Featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Nov 17-19, 2016, 8pm
Rose Theater
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis showcases the timelessness of swing as a genre, cultural period, and musical concept. The big bands that emerged during the Swing Era defined the sound of America – bringing people out of the Depression and ushering in a new sense of possibility. For the occasion, music director and JLCO trumpeter Marcus Printup will arrange a combination of Swing Era classics and rarely heard works, adding a modern twist to some, and demonstrating what made jazz the definitive dance music of the 1930s. Jazz also led the country in its quest for civil rights, integrating the bandstand through extraordinary effort and increasing the connection between audiences and musicians, both of whom were actively engaged with changing the status quo. Printup and the JLCO will honor that ideal, embodying the sounds, uplifting feelings, and sense of community associated with an era of great music and productive engagement.
Rosa Passos Quartet with Special Guest Kenny Barron
Dec 9-10, 2016, 7pm & 9:30pm
The Appel Room
Iconic Brazilian vocalist Rosa Passos makes a long-awaited return to the United States, offering a spellbinding evening of bossa nova in The Appel Room. Passos has been anointed the “female João Gilberto,” but she is a prolific and distinct artist in her own right and a true leader of the craft. Passos’ versatile, world-class band will be joined by NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron, a nine-time GRAMMY Award®-nominee and one of the most important jazz pianists alive. In their first ever performance together, the Rosa Passos Quartet and Kenny Barron will impress not only Brazilian jazz fans and lovers of the Jobim songbook, but also classic jazz fans who appreciate a swinging rhythm section, masterful solos, and effortlessly captivating vocals.
Steve Miller: T Bone Walker
A Bridge From Blues to Jazz
Dec 9-10, 2016, 8pm
Rose Theater
Renowned blues-rock guitarist, singer/songwriter, and lifelong jazz fan, Steve Miller returns to Jazz at Lincoln Center for a no-holds-barred look at T-Bone Walker and the solo electric guitar of Texas blues. Having learned his first chords at age five from his godfather Les Paul, how to play lead guitar from T-Bone Walker at age nine, and then working with the best bluesmen in Chicago – Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, and Paul Butterfield – Miller has incorporated his affinity for the blues into all of his major recordings. Backed by an all-star jazz quintet, his own iconic guitar playing and vocals, and a few unannounced surprises, Miller has chosen music that takes audiences across the bridge from blues to jazz.
All single tickets for The Appel Room and Rose Theater can be purchased through jazz.org 24 hours a day or CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, open daily from 10am to 9pm. Tickets can also be purchased at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, located on Broadway at 60th Street, ground floor. Box Office hours: Monday-Saturday from 10am to 6pm (or 30 minutes past curtain) and Sunday from noon to 6pm (or 30 minutes past curtain).
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola reservations can be made by calling 212-258-9595 or visiting jazz.org/dizzys.
Prices vary. Dinner served nightly.
General Admission: $20-$45 (unless noted otherwise).
Students: $5-$30 with valid student ID (selected sets only).
Late Night Session: $5-$20.
Minimum of $10 applies to all.
Jazz at Lincoln Center proudly acknowledges its major corporate partners: Amtrak, Bloomberg, Brooks Brothers, The Coca-Cola Company, Con Edison, Entergy, HSBC Premier, SiriusXM, Steinway & Sons, The Shops at Columbus Circle at Time Warner Center, and United Airlines.