Making Legends - A peek into the process of legendary jazz musician, Wynton Marsalis
For any fan of jazz, Lincoln Center in New York City is synonymous with the best of the best. From swing to blues to any number of hybrid rhythms, it's a place where top-talent lives and legends perform. This March 3, Jazz at Lincoln Center will bring some of their best and brightest rising stars to the Jack Singer Concert Hall stage, and with them, bring an unforgettable performance celebrating some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.
But for any craft to excel and evolve, mentorship is an important and integral part of the process. This is something Wynton Marsalis understands well. The current managing and artistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center, Louisiana-born trumpeter Marsalis has more than a half-dozen GRAMMY awards to his name and a Pulitzer Prize for music to boot. Marsalis's passion for the genre is deep-rooted and well-respected, and he takes pride in being able to disseminate this passion to new artists.
"The most prized possession in this music is your own unique sound," writes Marsalis in his acclaimed book Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life. "Through sound, jazz leads you to the core of yourself and says “Express that.” Through jazz, we learn that people are never all one way. Each musician has strengths and weaknesses. We enjoy hearing musicians struggle with their parts, and if we go one step further and learn to accept the strong and weak parts of people around us and of ourselves, life comes at us much more easily."
The Jazz at Lincoln Center ensemble embodies just such individuality that Wynton Marsalis speaks of, and the creation of new, unique works and distinctive musical personalities is what makes their tours so popular. Even more notably, this mentality has given the band a reputation for being among the most stylistically diverse groups in music history.
On March 3, 2022, Jazz at Lincoln Center: Songs We Love performs as part of the Arts Commons Presents TD Jazz series. Under the musical direction of Riley Mulherkar – the 2020 recipient of the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award – the band is set on bringing Calgary four decades of music history, spanning from the 1920s through 50s in an iconic set exploring Ma Rainey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra (among many others).
With the tutelage and artistic guidance of Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents touring initiative provides an affordable opportunity to present great jazz programming featuring up-and-coming musicians who have been identified as rising stars by JALC. Learn more about Arts Commons Presents Jazz at Lincoln Center: Songs We Love here, and join us this March in the Jack Singer Concert Hall!
Thank you to TD Bank for sponsoring the Arts Commons Presents TD Jazz series and their ongoing support.
