Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, WYnton Marsalis Celebrate Swing

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

August 31, 2007

The "greatest large jazz ensemble working today" (The Chicago Tribune), the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) is dedicated to inspiring and growing audiences for jazz. The Orchestra’s red-hot performances -- featuring 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today and classic American jazz standards -- leave the bandstand smokin' with the heat and passion of swing!

Led by Music Director Wynton Marsalis, JLCO is celebrating their 20th anniversary with the Jazz Masterpieces Tour, a thrilling evening of swing coming to The Paramount Theater on Tuesday, September 11 at 8 pm. Special Media Sponsor for this performance is WHTJ Charlottesville PBS.

Jazz musician, trumpeter, composer, bandleader, advocate for the arts, and educator, Wynton Marsalis has helped propel jazz to the forefront of American culture. His role in this effort was solidified in April 1997, when he became the first jazz artist to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in music for his work Blood on the Fields, commissioned by JLCO.

Marsalis’ more than 40 jazz and classical recordings have won him nine Grammy awards, and he holds the distinction of being the only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammys in the same year (a feat he accomplished in both 1983 and 1984). Marsalis has served as JLCO's music director since its inception.

A vast and ranging repertoire is one of JLCO's trademarks. The Orchestra's concerts typically feature music from a variety of eras, from rare historic compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, Sy Oliver, Oliver Nelson, and many others to JLCO-commissioned works.

The Orchestra's Paramount program will highlight big band arrangements of the legends of Blue Note Records (Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, and Horace Silver), the timeless swing of Count Basie's Kansas City Suite, and the lilting and impressionistic worlds of the legendary Gil Evans.

Also on the concert are selections from Portrait in Seven Shades, new and original music composed by JLCO soloist Ted Nash, and inspired by the works of Chagall, Dali, Picasso, Pollock, Matisse and other modern masters of the art world.

Since 1988, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has toured over 900 cities in more than 35 countries on 5 continents. JLCO has collaborated on projects with 20 of the world's leading symphony orchestras, dance companies, and other ensembles, and been featured on ten national and international TV and radio broadcasts. Compiling a library of nearly a thousand previously-unavailable pieces of jazz music, the Orchestra has released eleven recordings.

Remarkably versatile, JLCO has performed and led educational events, such as the Jazz for Young People family concert series, the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, the Jazz for Young People Curriculum, educational residencies, and workshops and concerts for students and adults, in New York, across the U.S. and around the world.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra personnel includes Music Director and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis; trumpeters Ryan Kisor, Blandon Lee, and Marcus Printup; trombonists Chris Crenshaw, Vincent Gardner, and Elliot Mason; reeds Walter Blanding, Victor Goines, Sherman Irby, Ted Nash, and Joe Temperley; pianist Dan Nimmer; bass player Carlos Henriquez; and drummer Ali Jackson -- musicians dedicated to lifting spirits and creating community through the fine art of swing.

Tickets for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at The Paramount on Tuesday, September 11 are $65.50, $85.50, $100.50, and $125.50. Half-price student rush tickets and group discounts are also available.

Tickets may be purchased online or through The Paramount’s Box Office at 434.979.1333.

For more information about JLCO, please visit www.jalc.org.