Today, thirty years to the day Jazz at Lincoln Center produced its first concert series at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Jazz at Lincoln Center announced the latest project from its in-house record label, Blue Engine Records: All Jazz is Modern: 30 Years of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Reflecting the organization’s three-decade history, this series of 30 iconic singles will be released digitally throughout the 2017-18 season. The first three singles are available today for download and on streaming platforms:
Premiere Tracks for All Jazz is Modern:
- “The Strawberry” – The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis featuring Myra Melford (recorded in 2016)
- “Single Petal of a Rose” – The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis featuring Joe Temperley and Dan Nimmer (recorded in 2015)
- “Ring Shout – ‘Peace of Mind’ ”– The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (recorded in 2010)
More tracks will be released to digital platforms in the coming months.
“We’re excited to celebrate our 30th anniversary by revisiting some of the greatest performances we’ve staged over the past three decades,” says Gabrielle Armand, the label head for Blue Engine Records. “Throughout our 2017-18 concert season, we’ll be digging deep into our archives and releasing at least 30 digital singles that showcase our organization’s incredibly rich and diverse programming history and proving Managing and Artistic Director, Wynton Marsalis’s belief that ‘All jazz is modern.’”
The first three singles from All Jazz is Modern were recorded more recently but are deeply symbolic of the institution’s history. “The Strawberry,” a composition by guest pianist Myra Melford, was recorded with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) during the 2016-17 concert season, demonstrates Jazz at Lincoln Center’s commitment to the idea that All Jazz Is Modern with its bold, playful ménage of the blues, Latin rhythms, and avant-garde harmony. “Ring Shout,” a Marsalis original, was recorded during the JLCO’s history-making trip to Cuba, which also provided the material for “Live in Cuba,” Blue Engine’s inaugural release. And “Single Petal of a Rose” is a poignant ballad featuring Joe Temperley, a long-time member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra who occupied the JLCO’s baritone saxophone chair from the group’s inception until his passing last year at the age of 86.
Blue Engine Records’ All Jazz is Modern: 30 Years of Jazz at Lincoln Center digs into the institution’s extensive concert recording archives, which feature—in addition to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis—a long list of jazz luminaries including Tony Bennett, Betty Carter, and Benny Carter. Many of these songs are still archived in analog and outdated digital formats (DTRS) and will be digitized in order to be preserved and ultimately released. These singles, including newly digitized and remixed archival recordings from the late 1980s onward, will be available to a global audience launching first as playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, for download and on streaming platforms. The project will likely see a physical release in spring or summer 2018.
About Blue Engine Records
Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s platform that makes its vast archive of recorded concerts available to jazz audiences everywhere, launched on June 30, 2015. Blue Engine Records releases new studio and live recordings as well as archival recordings from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s performance history that date back to 1987 and are part of the R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library. Since the institution’s founding in 1987, each year’s programming is conceived and developed by Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis with a vision toward building a comprehensive library of iconic and wide-ranging compositions that, taken together, make up a canon of music. These archives include accurate, complete charts for the compositions – both old and new – performed each season. Coupled with consistently well-executed and recorded music performed by Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, this archive has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concert dates. The launch of Blue Engine is aligned with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s efforts to cultivate existing jazz fans worldwide and turn new audiences onto jazz. For more information on Blue Engine Records, visit blueenginerecords.org.
Additional information may be found at jazz.org/modern|
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