The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and special guest Catherine Russell will ring in the holiday season in 10 U.S. cities on the 2016 Big Band Holidays Tour. The world renowned ensemble will perform new arrangements of holiday classics both sacred and secular, from Billie Holiday’s “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” to favorites like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” each with a modern jazz twist. The 2016 Big Band Holidays Tour will culminate on December 14-18 with five appearances – including a Relaxed Performance on Sunday, December 18 at 2pm for families of children and adults with autism and learning disabilities – at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, located at Broadway at 60th Street in New York, New York. See tour dates below.
In this much-anticipated annual tradition, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will offer swinging and soulful performances of favorite holiday music. Saxophonist Sherman Irby will serve as music director of the 2016 Big Band Holidays Tour and demonstrate what Huffington Post calls his “soulful solid sound and innate sense of swing.” Special guest vocalist Catherine Russell is the next generation of jazz royalty. The daughter of singer Carline Ray and Luis Russell, Louis Armstrong’s musical director, Ms. Russell possesses a transcendent voice. Ms. Russell will undoubtedly bring “spirit, understanding and sense of fun” (New York Times) to the 2016 Big Band Holidays Tour.
Every holiday season, for more than a decade, the critically acclaimed Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and an all-star roster of guest vocalists have explored the canon of holiday standards to perform new and traditional arrangement of Yuletide favorites. These Big Band Holidays concerts have become a seasonal tradition among jazz lovers and families, especially since the release of the “Big Band Holidays” album on Blue Engine Records. That album—which captures highlights from holiday performances through the years and features guest vocalists Cécile McLorin Salvant, René Marie, and Gregory Porter—will be available for sale on CD and vinyl at all tour performances.
The 2016 Big Band Holidays Tour Featuring The Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
and Special Guest Catherine Russell
December 1, 2016 – Kansas City, MO – Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland
December 2, 2016 – Omaha, NE – Holland Performing Arts Center, Peter Kiewit Hall
December 3, 2016 – Salina, KS – Stiefel Theater
December 4, 2016 – Columbia, MO – Missouri Theatre
December 5, 2016 – Carmel, IN – The Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts
December 7, 2016 – Granville, OH – Denison University, Swasey Chapel
December 8, 2016 – Huntington, WV – Marshall Artists Series, Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center
December 9, 2016 – Nashville, TN – Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Laura Turner Concert Hall
December 10, 2016 – Chapel Hill, NC – University of North Carolina
December 11, 2016 – Blacksburg, VA – Virginia Tech Center for the Arts, Moss Arts Center – Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre
December 14-18, 2016 – (includes evening performances and 12/18 matinee) New York, NY – Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater
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.