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  • JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS KICKS OFF LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC 2007/08 JAZZ SERIES WITH ITS “ELLINGTON LOVE SONGS” TOUR
  • Feb. 1, 2008
  • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2008, AT 8 PM

    Acura is the Sponsor for the Concert - All Acura Vehicles Park Free for the Evening

    The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall to open the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2007/08 Jazz Series on Friday, February 1, at 8 p.m. The appearance is part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s “Ellington Love Songs” tour in which they perform beloved love songs written and made famous by jazz legend Duke Ellington. The band also draws on other repertoire from the jazz canon including tunes by jazz luminaries and new and original music by members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

    A jazz musician, trumpeter, composer, bandleader and one of the most prominent jazz musicians of the modern era, Wynton Marsalis is the first jazz artist to be awarded with the Pulitzer Prize, is a nine-time Grammy Award-winner and was named one of “America’s 25 Most Influential People” by Time magazine. He has served as the world renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s artistic director as well as music director since its inception. The remarkably versatile orchestra, comprised of 15 of today’s finest jazz soloists and ensemble players, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra for more than 13 years.

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Jazz Series, under the guidance of Creative Chair for Jazz Christian McBride, offers a four-concert series featuring major artists from the world of jazz. The remainder of the 2007/08 season includes: A Tribute to Ella featuring Ann Hampton Calloway, Mark Murphy, Janis Siegel and Patrice Rushen on March 2, 2008; Bobby McFerrin/Chick Corea/Jack DeJohnette on April 16, 2008; and The Movement Revisited with Christian McBride on May 16, 2008.

    WYNTON MARSALIS, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, was born in New Orleans, in 1961. He began his classical training on trumpet at age 12, and soon began playing in local bands of diverse genres. Marsalis entered the Juilliard School at age 17, and joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He has recorded more than 30 jazz and classical recordings, which have won him nine Grammy Awards. In 1983, Marsalis became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammy Awards in the same year and repeated this feat in 1984. Marsalis’ rich body of compositions includes Sweet Release, Jazz: Six Syncopated Movements, Jump Start, Citi Movement/Griot New York, At the Octoroon Balls and In This House, On This Morning and Big Train. In 1997, he became the first jazz artist to be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, which was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has also recorded many albums, his most recent being Wynton Marsalis: Live at The House Of Tribes. Following Hurricane Katrina, Marsalis co-wrote a composition called Congo Square with Ghanaian drummer Yacub Addy and dedicated the piece to Marsalis’s native New Orleans. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, in collaboration with Yacub Addy’s group Odadaa!, premiered Congo Square on April 23, 2006, in New Orleans then performed the piece on tour from Florida to New York. Marsalis is also an internationally respected teacher and spokesman for music education, and has received honorary doctorates from dozens of universities and colleges throughout the U.S. He conducts educational programs for students of all ages and hosts the popular Jazz for Young People® concerts produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has also written four books, most recently Jazz ABZ, in collaboration with Phil Schapp, and illustrated by poster artist Paul Rogers. In 2001, Marsalis was appointed Messenger of Peace by Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and he has also been designated cultural ambassador to the United States of America by the U.S. State Department through their CultureConnect program. Marsalis serves on Lieutenant Governor Landrieu’s National Advisory Board for Culture, Recreation and Tourism, a national advisory board created to rebuild Louisiana’s tourism and cultural economies. He has also been named to the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s initiative to help rebuild New Orleans culturally, socially, economically, and uniquely for every citizen. He helped lead the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center’s new home – Frederick P. Rose Hall – the first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz, which opened in October 2004.

    The JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA, composed of 15 of today’s finest jazz soloists and ensemble players, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra for over 13 years. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s programming, the remarkably versatile Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S. and around the world; in many varied settings; and with symphony orchestras, ballet troupes, local students and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Education is a major part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s mission and its educational activities are coordinated with the orchestra’s concert and tour programming. These programs reach over 100,000 students, teachers and general audience members. The 1997 Peabody Award-winning Jazz at Lincoln Center weekly radio series, Jazz at Lincoln Center Radio, is distributed by the WFMT Radio Networks and produced in conjunction with Murray Street Enterprise, New York. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra spends over a third of the year on tour and performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works. Guest conductors have included Benny Carter, John Lewis, Jimmy Heath, Chico O'Farrill, Ray Santos, Paquito D’Rivera, Jon Faddis, Robert Sadin, David Berger, Gerald Wilson and Loren Schoenberg. Jazz at Lincoln Center also regularly premieres works commissioned from a variety of composers and over the last few years, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra 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. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has also been featured in several education and performance residencies in the last few years, including those in Vienne, France; Perugia, Italy; Prague, Czech Republic; London, England; Lucerne, Switzerland; Berlin, Germany; São Paulo, Brazil; Yokohama, Japan and others. Jazz at Lincoln Center has appeared on several XM Satellite Radio live broadcasts and seven Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts, carried by PBS stations nationwide; most recently on September 17, 2005, during Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Higher Ground Benefit Concert. The benefit concert raised funds to help the musicians, music industry-related enterprises and others from the areas in Greater New Orleans impacted by Hurricane Katrina as well as to provide general hurricane relief. The band is also featured in the Higher Ground Benefit Concert CD that was released on Blue Note Records following the concert. To date, 11 recordings featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis have been released and internationally distributed: Don’t Be Afraid…The Music of Charles Mingus (2005), A Love Supreme (2005), All Rise (2002), Big Train (1999), Sweet Release & Ghost Story (1999), Live in Swing City (1999), Jump Start and Jazz (1997), Blood on the Fields (1997), They Came to Swing (1994), The Fire of the Fundamentals (1993), and Portraits by Ellington (1992).

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, presents the finest in orchestral and chamber music, recitals, new music, jazz, world music and holiday concerts at two of the most remarkable places anywhere to experience music — Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to a 30-week winter subscription season at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil presents a 12-week summer festival at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the Association’s involvement with Los Angeles extends to educational programs, community concerts and children's programming, ever seeking to provide inspiration and delight to the broadest possible audience.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

    FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2008, 8 PM


    WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL, 111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles



    Jazz Series



    JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS

    WYNTON MARSALIS, Artistic Director, trumpet

    SEAN JONES, trumpet

    RYAN KISOR, trumpet

    MARCUS PRINTUP, trumpet

    VINCENT R. GARDNER, trombone

    CHRISTOPHER CRENSHAW, trombone

    ELLIOT MASON, trombone

    WALTER BLANDING, tenor/soprano saxophones, clarinet

    VICTOR GOINES, tenor/soprano saxophones, B-flat/bass clarinets

    SHERMAN IRBY, saxophones

    TED NASH, alto/soprano saxophones, clarinet

    JOE TEMPERLEY, baritone/soprano saxophones, bass clarinet

    DAN NIMMER, piano

    CARLOS HENRIQUEZ, bass

    ALI JACKSON, drums

    Acura is the sponsor for the concert - all Acura vehicles park free for the evening.

    Tickets ($35-95) are on sale now online at LAPhil.com, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office, or via credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full-time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person; cash only. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and seating areas. For all information, please call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Adam Crane, 213.972.3422, acrane@laphil.org; Lisa Bellamore, 213.972.3689, lbellamore@laphil.org; Lisa White, 213.972.3408, lwhite@laphil.org; Photos: 213.972.3034