Celebrate Black Excellence

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  • Freedom, Justice, and Hope with Bryan Stevenson

    In creative collaboration with social justice activist and Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson, Jazz at Lincoln Center presents Freedom, Justice, and Hope with Bryan Stevenson, a multi-disciplinary concert event performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. ...

  • Black, Brown, and Beige and The Best of Basie

    The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis play essential big band music by Duke Ellington and Count Basie. The first set finds the JLCO swinging through a number of classic Basie standards, including "April in Paris," "Swinging the Blues," and "Jumpin' at the Woodside." The second...

  • Voices of Freedom

    Experience the essential works of some of the 20th century’s most powerful singers and songwriters, performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and vocalists Melanie Charles, Shenel Johns, and Ashley Pezzotti. Under the music direction of JLCO trombonist and vocalist Ch...

  • Hugh Masekela

    The legendary trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and lyricist Hugh Masekela presented a retrospective extravaganza in Rose Theater to celebrate his 75th birthday and to mark the 20th anniversary of a democratic South Africa in this timelessly special performance from 2014.

    Since his passing in...

  • Endea Owens & The Cookout

    Detroit-raised bassist Endea Owens has been mentored by jazz icons, is becoming a regular on Tiny Desk, and is known to be one of jazz’s most vibrant emerging artists.

    In 2020, during the pandemic, Endea founded the Community Cookout, a non-profit that provides meals and music to underserved n...

  • The Fantastic Mr. Jelly Lord

    The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis delivers a joyous celebration of New Orleans legend Jelly Roll Morton (1890–1941). Jazz's first great composer, musical intellect, and piano virtuoso, Morton gave us the musical blueprint of an eternal New Orleans and jazz as we know it to...

  • Isaiah J. Thompson

    This March, pianist Isaiah J. Thompson's first live album—The Power of the Spirit—is coming out on Blue Engine Records. "A young musician and composer with a mature touch and rare combination of talent, creativity, humility and honesty” (NPR), Thompson is an emerging, generational talent who has ...

  • Lush Life: Celebrating Billy Strayhorn

    Legend has it that Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967) wrote the American songbook icon, “Lush Life,” at the tender age of 16. Though this early date has been disputed by some scholars, what isn’t in question is that Duke Ellington's first recordings of Strayhorn’s work were published when Strayhorn was ...

  • McCoy Tyner and Charles McPherson

    Pianist McCoy Tyner and saxophonist Charles McPherson, both 80 years old the night of this concert in 2019, were honored by the JLCO with Wynton Marsalis with a bevy of new arrangements featuring their compositions. McPherson, a singular bebop saxophonist, even joined the JLCO onstage for the per...

  • Azar Lawrence Experience

    A saxophonist for many of jazz's greats (including McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and more), Azar Lawrence brings the seven-piece Azar Lawrence Experience to Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club. The Experience encompasses Azar's music, art and spirituality; in this performance, the g...