Jazz at Lincoln Center has announced the 2021 Spring Virtual Concert Season designed, in four concerts, to illuminate the artistic, social, and historic liberties that were made possible by the pioneering efforts of jazz musicians throughout history. The series launches on Saturday, February 20 at 6 PM ET with a Family Concert: Legacies of Excellence, featuring Catherine Russell.
Russell hosts an ensemble of jazz musicians in this concert for families and student audiences. The contributions of iconic jazz artists such as Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald will be explored in a performance demonstrating the icons’ lasting legacies. Following live premiere, program will be available on demand through February 24.
On March 26, 2021, The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and a roster of special guest vocalists will perform songs by some of the most powerful singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Under the music direction of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra trombonist and vocalist Chris Crenshaw, this brand-new program looks back at four great singers whose unapologetically honest art has stood the test of time in its meaning and musicality. Melanie Charles, Shenel Johns, and Ashley Pezzotti—rising star vocalists adept in jazz, blues, folk, and beyond—will lend their voices to new big band charts arranged by Crenshaw and members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The repertoire will span decades of songs written or made famous by Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, and Nina Simone. Following live premiere, program will be available on demand through March 31.
On May 21, 2021, Freedom, Justice, and Hope, features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. , will also Endea Owens, and Special Guest Bryan Stevenson. The concert debuts new music by bassist Endea Owens (Jon Batiste’s Stay Human band) and emerging composer/trumpeter Josh Evans. Music Director Wynton Marsalis and Bryan Stevenson—a globally acclaimed activist, public interest lawyer, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative—will create an evening featuring readings, and new and familiar jazz works that consider large, international questions of freedom, social justice, and hope. Following premiere, program will be available on demand through May 26.
On June 10, 2021, the final concert, Coltrane: A Love Supreme also. features the Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and Camille Thurman. The JLCO will perform a big-band rendition of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, as well as a number of Coltrane classics related to freedom. With special guest Camille Thurman, the band will re-introduce listeners to one of the most powerful pieces of music ever created. Universally hailed as a masterpiece, A Love Supreme is a perfectly paced suite of music and a musical embodiment of Coltrane’s complex spirituality. Beyond this most-famous example, Coltrane’s songbook is a rich and diverse body of work. The band will reinterpret a number of his timeless pieces, with an emphasis on the concept of “freedom,” for this rare all-Coltrane Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performance. Following live premiere, program will be available on demand through June 16.
Tickets: Virtual ticket per concert: $20.00. Subscriber Price: $15.00. Member Price: $0 – $15.00. Access to all performances: $80.00
To purchase tickets go to jazz.org.
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