The Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra (JLYCO) makes its international debut at the Barbican in London, England on February 27- March 1, 2018. As part of the bi-annual Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis residency at the Barbican, 22 NYC-area high school jazz musicians will spend a week abroad for a music and cultural exchange with public performances, workshops, and jam sessions.
A testament to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s ever-expanding mission of teaching young people democracy and freedom of expression through jazz and improvisation, the collaboration will bring together the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, led by JLYCO Director and JLCO saxophonist Ted Nash and New York trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt; National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland; and young musicians from The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra for a world –premiere concert event at Milton Court Concert Hall at the Barbican Centre on March 1. For ticket information, visit www.barbican.org.uk.
The event, entitled Miles Ahead, will be a showcase of the future of jazz. The program will feature pieces by Gil Evans (including Miles Ahead) and Miles Davis – whose classic collaboration has inspired generations of young musicians- as well as other classic jazz standards such as John Coltrane’s Africa Brass.
World-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), led by managing and artistic director Wynton Marsalis, are the Barbican’s International Associate Ensemble and they return to the Centre for a residency from 27 February – 1 March 2018. The residency provides an opportunity to experience fifteen of America’s finest soloists, ensemble players, and arrangers in jazz music today in concerts, workshops and master classes. JLCO often honour the iconic artists, albums, movements and events that left distinctive marks on the jazz scene, and the residency in 2018 celebrates two game changers of modern music: “King of Swing” American clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman, and master educator, composer and musical thinker Leonard Bernstein.
The residency opens on Tuesday 27 February 2018, with a concert recreating Benny Goodman’s legendary debut at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall on 16 January 1938 – the first interracial concert in the hall, and a watershed moment in American music history.
Goodman was a classically trained Jewish clarinet prodigy from Chicago who became a jazz and swing musician and bandleader, known as the “King of Swing”. In the mid-1930s, against a backdrop of racial segregation, Goodman led one of the first well-known racially integrated jazz groups and his big band plus guest soloists were invited to play a jazz concert in New York’s Carnegie Hall. This landmark performance in the American temple of classical music on 16 January 1938 was in many ways a “debut” of jazz itself, as Goodman led one of the first well-known racially integrated jazz groups on a stage of unparalleled prestige, introducing the public to real jazz elements and extensive improvisation, to an ecstatic response. AllMusic has described his concert as “the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz’s “coming out” party to the world of “respectable” music”.
Revisiting the spirit of the event, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, with UK guests, will perform pieces straight from the set list of that historic evening at Carnegie Hall in 1938, including material by those made famous by Goodman himself: Count Basie, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Fats Waller, Louis Prima, and more. The programme will feature new and classic arrangements, blistering solos, and a new take on the mid-concert jam session that went down in history.
In the second event of the residency, on Wednesday 28 February 2018, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra pay tribute to another musical all-rounder, Leonard Bernstein. Composer and arranger Richard DeRosa, nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 2016, will work with JLCO lead trombonist Vincent Gardner to craft unique arrangements of Bernstein’s music for the Orchestra, including classics like West Side Story and Candide, as well as unexpected gems from Bernstein’s vast repertoire. Inspired by the composer’s informative approach to music, JLCO will also provide insightful background about Bernstein himself and the musical selections presented. The 2018 JLCO Barbican residency will also feature workshops and master classes.
Public Performances
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Benny Goodman: King of Swing
Tuesday, February 27, 2018 / Barbican Hall / 8pm
Tickets £30 – 45
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Leonard Bernstein at 100
Wednesday, February 28, 2018 28 / Barbican Hall / 8pm
Tickets £30 – 45
Miles Ahead: The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, and National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland
Thursday, March 1, 2018 / Milton Court Concert Hall / 7pm
Tickets £8
For additional information visit: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/series/jazz-at-lincoln-center-orchestra-residency”
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2017–18 season celebrates the organization’s 30th anniversary. Since the first downbeat of its summer concert series in 1987, Jazz at Lincoln Center has been a vital part of the global cultural landscape. Jazz at Lincoln Center was established as an independent non-profit organization in 1996; opened Frederick P. Rose Hall, the “House of Swing”, in 2004, making it the world’s first venue designed specifically for jazz; and launched Blue Engine Records in 2014 to share its vast archive of recordings. Over the past three decades, Jazz at Lincoln Center has become an important advocate for jazz, culture, and arts education globally, reaching an audience of nearly 2 million people of all ages and experiences through concerts, webcasting, musical instruction, and distribution of music scores—the vast majority of which is free of charge. To date, Jazz at Lincoln Center has produced more than 1,200 original concerts in the New York City area, with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra having performed in over 446 cities in 41 countries on five continents.
This milestone season reflects on 30 years of celebrating the universal language of music and the influence of jazz in the present day. Throughout the 2017–18 season, Jazz at Lincoln Center will bring together a wide array of events, projects, virtuoso musicians, composers, and educators to illustrate the collaborative nature of the art form. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2017–18 season features performances by renowned artists including Joey Alexander, Chick Corea, Paquito D’Rivera, Eliane Elias, Ellis Marsalis, Dick Hyman, Marilyn Maye, Steve Miller, and Dianne Reeves; as well as Jazz at Lincoln Center debuts by the Harlem Quartet and vocalist and songwriter Somi. The milestone season will conclude with a grand finale world premiere by Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Managing and Artistic Director.
For more information about Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 30th anniversary season, go to jazz.org.
Additional information may be found at jazz.org |
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YouTube: youtube.com/jalc | Livestream: jazz.org/live
About the Barbican
A world-class arts and learning organisation, the Barbican pushes the boundaries of all major art forms including dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts. Its creative learning programme further underpins everything it does. Over 1.1 million people attend events annually, hundreds of artists and performers are featured, and more than 300 staff work onsite. The architecturally renowned centre opened in 1982 and comprises the Barbican Hall, the Barbican Theatre, The Pit, Cinemas One, Two and Three, Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, foyers and public spaces, a library, Lakeside Terrace, a glasshouse conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants. The City of London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre.
The Barbican is home to Resident Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra; Associate Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra; Associate Ensembles the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia, Associate Producer Serious, and Artistic Partner Create. Our Artistic Associates include Boy Blue Entertainment, Cheek by Jowl, Deborah Warner, Drum Works and Michael Clark Company. International Associates are Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Jazz at Lincoln Center proudly acknowledges its major corporate partners:
Bloomberg, Brooks Brothers, Centene Charitable Foundation,
The Coca-Cola Company, Con Edison, Entergy, SiriusXM, Steinway & Sons,
The Shops at Columbus Circle at Time Warner Center, and United Airlines.