Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at Symphony Hall

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The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was first presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston in October 1992, and has appeared on the series thirteen times since, most recently in November 2015. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis made his debut on the Series as featured soloist with the Eastman Wind Ensemble in March 1987 and has also been presented as headliner with septet (November 1993), quartet (April 2004), and sextet (October 2005). He also performed with his father, Ellis, and brothers Branford, Delfeayo, and Jason on a program billed as “Ellis Marsalis & Sons” in March 2003.

Drummer Ali Jackson will propel the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in a virtuosic display of big band drums and rhythm. Jackson will arrange the music of Buddy Rich, an innovative big band genius who would have turned 100 this year. Rich was a renowned musical powerhouse for most of the 20th century, influencing generations and offering a visceral excitement that few drummers could capture. For the program’s second half, audiences will witness the Boston premiere of Jackson’s Living Grooves: A World in Jazz Rhythm, an extended piece written in the innovative spirit of drum greats like Rich.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

The members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra are 15 of the best soloists, ensemble players, and arrangers in jazz. This remarkably versatile band celebrates jazz’s large-ensemble tradition by performing a vast repertoire of masterpieces by legends of the genre, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, Chick Corea, Oliver Nelson, and many others, as well as original works and arrangements. The JLCO has performed collaborations with many of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston, Chicago and London Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestra Esperimentale in São Paolo, Brazil, and others.

Wynton Marsalis is the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and a world-renowned trumpeter and composer. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at age 12, entered The Juilliard School at age 17, and then joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and has since recorded more than 60 jazz and classical recordings, which have won him nine GRAMMY Awards. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz GRAMMYs in the same year and repeated this feat in 1984. Marsalis is also an internationally respected teacher and spokesman for music education, and has received honorary doctorates from dozens of U.S. universities and colleges. He has written six books; his most recent are Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!, illustrated by Paul Rogers and published by Candlewick Press in 2012, and Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life with Geoffrey C. Ward, published by Random House in 2008.

Celebrity Series of Boston will present Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in their program Buddy Rich Centennial: Celebrating the Jazz Drum on Sunday, April 9, 2017, at 5pm at Symphony Hall. Tickets start at $35, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at Symphony Hall’s Hall Box Office, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA.