MBT PRESENTS
Beyond Black Codes:
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Sunday | October 8, 2023 | 4:00PM
Legendary jazz icon Wynton Marsalis and his bandmates revisit his greatest works on the MBT Main Stage!
Wynton Marsalis and his bandmates in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) reimagine Marsalis’s small group compositions as big band orchestrations. Beyond Black Codes features songs from Marsalis’s classic albums such as Black Codes from the Underground, The Majesty of the Blues, and more!
The world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (with guest artists spanning all genres and generations) produces thousands of performances, education, and broadcast events each season in their hometown of New York City and around the world for people of all ages. Jazz at Lincoln Center is led by Chairman Clarence Otis, Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, and Executive Director Greg Scholl.
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is comprised of 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today. JLCO spends over a third of the year on tour across the world. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in concert halls, dance venues, jazz clubs, and public parks around the globe. JLCO has performed with symphony orchestras, ballet troupes, local students, and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire. From rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, JLCO performs compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and current and former Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Ted Nash, Victor Goines, Sherman Irby, Chris Crenshaw, and Carlos Henriquez.
Wynton Marsalis (Music Director, Trumpet) is the Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961 to a musical family, Marsalis was gifted his first trumpet at age six by Al Hirt. By eight, he began playing in the famed Fairview Baptist Church Band led by Danny Barker. It was not until he turned 12 that Marsalis began his formal training on the trumpet. Around this time, Marsalis began performing in bands all over the city, from the New Orleans Philharmonic and New Orleans Youth Orchestra to a funk band called the Creators. His passion for music rapidly escalated. As a young teenager fresh out of high school, Marsalis moved to New York City in 1979 to attend The Juilliard School to study classical music. Once there, however, he found that jazz was his true calling. His career quickly launched when he traded Juilliard for Art Blakey’s band, The Jazz Messengers. By 19, Marsalis hit the road with his own band and has been touring the world ever since. To date, Marsalis has performed 4,777 concerts in 849 distinct cities and 64 countries around the world. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982 and has since recorded 110 jazz and classical albums, four alternative records, and released five DVDs. In total, he has recorded 1,539 songs at the time of this writing. Marsalis is the winner of 9 Grammy Awards, and his oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He’s the only musician to win a Grammy Award in two categories, jazz and classical, during the same year.
Production Genre: Symphony, Jazz, Live Music