Blue Engine Records—the in-house record label of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC)—is proud to present Everything Changes, a new live album featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (JLCO) alongside special guest vocalist and acclaimed scat singer Ashley Pezzotti. Composed and arranged by JLCO trombonist Vincent Gardner, this three-piece “bebopera” is available now on all major streaming platforms: jazz.org/changes
Commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center, Everything Changes received its world premiere in Rose Theater on November 8, 2024 as part of JALC’s Bebop Revolution concerts. With music direction by Vincent Gardner, the program featured the JLCO with Wynton Marsalis and guest vocalist Ashley Pezzotti paying tribute to the pioneering legends of bebop.
A bold new “bebopera,” Everything Changes showcases the JLCO at their finest, delivering a powerful display of swing and storytelling. Gardner transforms the spirit of bebop’s postwar revolution into a vivid three-movement work featuring explosive big band passages and soaring scat vocals.
This electrifying live recording honors the fearless young artists who forged a new musical language—one rooted in joy, intellect, and a demand for change. The result is a moving and modern tribute to the people and stories that shaped bebop.
“Everything Changes tells the story of the music and its impact and pays tribute to three of the masters that taught Dizzy Gillespie about Afro-Latin music: Alberto Socarras, Mario Bauza, and Chano Pozo,” Vincent Gardner says.
“Bebop is my favorite era of jazz music,” he continues. “It represents a time when young musicians took a stand after the horrors of World War II, and made this statement through a new music: everything must change—the world cannot remain the same. To make their statement, artists such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Max Roach created music that contained youthful fun; virtuosity and intellect; and, above all, the position that it didn’t matter what color or nationality you were. If you could learn how to play it, then you could participate.”
The release of Everything Changes continues the milestone 10th anniversary celebration of Blue Engine Records. In 2015, Jazz at Lincoln Center launched the label to release new studio and live recordings by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Since then, it has released works by both the most celebrated musicians in modern jazz and emerging artists as well as previously unreleased material from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s vast archives spanning nearly 40 years. The first Blue Engine title—Live in Cuba, recorded by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis—was released on August 21, 2015. Blue Engine also has released archival recordings, including Betty Carter’s The Music Never Stops (March 2019) and Roy Hargrove’s The Love Suite: In Mahogany (October 2023) from the organization’s performance history.
TRACKLISTING
Composed by Vincent Gardner
- No Hidin’
- Almarichan
- Lessons Learned?
PERSONNEL
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra:
TRUMPETS
Wynton Marsalis
Ryan Kisor
Kenny Rampton
Marcus Printup
TROMBONES
Chris Crenshaw
Vincent Gardner
Eliot Mason
SAXOPHONES
Paul Nedzela
Abdias Armenteros
Sherman Irby
Alexa Tarantino
Chris Lewis
Dan Nimmer – piano
Carlos Henriquez – bass
Obed Calvaire – drums
Special Guests
Ashley Pezzotti – vocals
Special guests on track 2:
Bobby Allende – bongos
Isaiah Bravo – congas
About Blue Engine
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 aligns with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s efforts to cultivate existing jazz fans worldwide and turn new audiences on to jazz. For more information on Blue Engine Records, visit blueenginerecords.org.