02-17 Jazz of 50s.qxp_GP 2/8/17 3:59 PM Page 1 Friday and Saturday Evening, February 17–18, 2017, at 8:00 Wynton Marsalis, Managing and Artistic Director Greg Scholl, Executive Director Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra CHRIS CRENSHAW, Music Director, Trombone WYNTON MARSALIS, Trumpet TATUM GREENBLATT , Trumpet KENNY RAMPTON, Trumpet MARCUS PRINTUP , Trumpet VINCENT GARDNER, Trombone ELLIOT MASON, Trombone SHERMAN IRBY , Alto Saxophone TED NASH, Alto Saxophone VICTOR GOINES, Tenor Saxophone (February 17 only) DAN BLOCK, Tenor Saxophone (February 18 only) WALTER BLANDING, Tenor Saxophone PAUL NEDZELA, Baritone Saxophone DAN NIMMER, Piano CARLOS HENRIQUEZ , Bass ALI JACKSON, Drums with STANTAWN KENDRICK, Saxophone There will be one 15-minute intermission during this performance. This program is presented as part of the Ertegun Jazz Concert Series. Jazz at Lincoln Center thanks its season sponsors: Amtrak, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Brooks Brothers, The Coca-Cola Company, Con Edison, Entergy, The Shops at Columbus Circle at Time Warner Center, SiriusXM, and United Airlines. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Please turn off your cell phones and other Rose Theater electronic devices. Frederick P. Rose Hall jazz.org 02-17 Jazz of 50s.qxp_GP 2/8/17 3:59 PM Page 2 Jazz at Lincoln Center Program SET I: to be selected from BENNY GOLSON Along Came Betty arranged by Sherman Irby CONSUELO VELÁZQUEZ Bésame Mucho arranged by Christopher Crenshaw DUBOSE HEYWARD, GEORGE GERSHWIN & IRA GERSHWIN Gone arranged by Gil Evans orchestrated by Christopher Crenshaw ORNETTE COLEMAN The Invisible arranged by Richard DeRosa THAD JONES & JACK MCDUFF Mutt and Jeff transcribed by Christopher Crenshaw ORNETTE COLEMAN Peace arranged by Wynton Marsalis JOHN COLTRANE Straight Street arranged by Christopher Crenshaw GERRY MULLIGAN Thruway GERRY MULLIGAN Walkin’ Shoes Intermission SET II: CHRISTOPHER CRENSHAW The Fifties: A Prism I. Flipped His Lid II. Just A-Slidin’ III. Conglomerate IV. Cha-Cha Toda la Noche V. Unorthodox Sketches VI. Pursuit of the New Thing “The Fifties: A Prism” was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center with the generous support of the Howard Gilman Foundation and first performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at Rose Theater, Frederick P. Rose Hall on February 17, 2017. 02-17 Jazz of 50s.qxp_GP 2/8/17 3:59 PM Page 3 Jazz at Lincoln Center Notes on the Program the JLCO performs a group of less traveled ’50s charts from the band’s vast library, By Ted Panken Crenshaw will present a quasi-suite titled “Crenshaw is sprinkled with magic dust. “The Fifties: A Prism,” consisting of six What is it that he cannot do? First of all, he original compositions that refract and juxta - pose the vocabularies of the latter cohort is thoroughly, absolutely cool at every level. into his individualistic argot. He occupies a very small space with his ego. He has perfect pitch. He can write an “When I was presented with the idea of unbelievable arrangement in one night. His coming up with a suite dealing with the arrangements and compositions are always 1950s, I immediately realized this was so intelligent, pointed, and so well-crafted.” going to cover all the genres of jazz, from —Wynton Marsalis, 2014 bebop to freedom music,” Crenshaw says. “I was ready for that challenge.” * * * That Crenshaw, 34, is fully equipped to ful - Not long before Chris Crenshaw joined the fill the assignment is evident from a JLCO trombone section of the Jazz at Lincoln corpus that includes arrangements of Center Orchestra in 2006, Music Director Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy,” Wayne Wynton Marsalis made a consequential Shorter’s “House of Jade” and “Nelly Bly,” decision. Noting the growth of the institu - Mulgrew Miller’s “From Day to Day,” and tion that he had founded, and the refine - the 2012 long-form original composition ment of the JLCO’s sound and concept, “God’s Trombones.” Marsalis, who had previously composed and arranged much of the band’s reper toire, “The band’s sound has changed from the began to delegate those responsibilities to time I joined,” Crenshaw says. “One day, his handpicked personnel, who, in the Wynton came in and said, ‘I want you all to course of playing innumerable concerts, start writing music for the big band to play.’ had internalized the band’s singular mission Once we started doing that, the spectrum to play music from across the timeline of of what we can do got wider and wider. the jazz century with idiomatic authority People brought in their ideas—new colors, and the spirit of now. new styles, new approaches, new ways of thinking—and shared them. It keeps us Marsalis likes to summarize the essence of fresh, individually and collectively, instead that mission with the pithy mantra, “All jazz of going by preconceived ideas or just is modern.” This notion will underpin doing what you know. The language you tonight’s proceedings, as Crenshaw music- learn when you arrange and write seeps directs a concert inspired by the multi-polar into whatever it is you’re thinking about jazz landscape of the 1950s, when the when you’re improvising. Stuff you once founding fathers and mothers of the idiom struggled with becomes second nature. So (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Sidney you’re able to create new stories, create Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, new ideas, and be more spontaneous Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, and Ella because you have more in your bag, so to Fitzgerald, as a short list) crossed paths speak. Writing keeps your brain active, so with such younger masters as Charlie you’re able to be the person you want to Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, J.J. be, or be the character you need to be, or Johnson, Horace Silver, and Gil Evans. add something to a character that’s already Following an opening segment in which been given to you.” 02-17 Jazz of 50s.qxp_GP 2/8/17 3:59 PM Page 4 Jazz at Lincoln Center gratefully acknowledges Mica and Ahmet Ertegun for their gift of the Atrium, for their extraordinary generosity to Jazz at Lincoln Center, and for their indelible impact on the world of jazz. The Erteguns’ advocacy for jazz and their tireless support for Jazz at Lincoln Center have advanced the art form, and sustained the master musicians who perform it. Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, brought the world the legendary work of luminaries such as John Coltrane and Ray Charles. His leadership as a founding member of Jazz at Lincoln Center and its Board of Directors and his strong support of maintaining a house orchestra were vital to the organization’s early development, and to the creation of the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, named for his brother. Mica Ertegun joined Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Board of Directors in 2006. Her continued stewardship as a valued leader is carrying her husband’s vision forward. 02-17 Jazz of 50s.qxp_GP 2/8/17 3:59 PM Page 5 Jazz at Lincoln Center Meet the Artists Center and a world-renowned trumpeter and composer. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, Marsalis began his clas - sical training on trumpet at age 12, entered The Juilliard School at age 17, and then Z joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messen gers. E N I T He made his recording debut as a leader in R A 1982, and has since recorded more than 60 M E O Chris Crenshaw J jazz and classical recordings, which have Chris Crenshaw ( Music Director, won him nine Grammy Awards. In 1983 he Trombone ) was born in Thomson, Georgia became the first and only artist to win both on December 20, 1982. Since birth, he classical and jazz Grammys in the same has been driven by and surrounded by year and repeated this feat in 1984. music. When he started playing piano at Marsalis is also an internationally respected age three, his teachers and fellow stu - teacher and spokesman for music educa - dents noticed his aptitude for the instru - tion, and has received honorary doctorates ment. This love for piano led to his first from dozens of U.S. universities and col - gig with Echoes of Joy, his father Casper’s leges. He has written six books; his most group. He picked up the trombone at age recent are Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! 11 and hasn’t put it down since. He grad - Whomp! Whomp! , illustrated by Paul Rogers and published by Candlewick Press uated from Thomson High School in 2001 in 2012, and Moving to Higher Ground: and received his bachelor’s degree with How Jazz Can Change Your Life with honors in jazz performance from Valdosta Geoffrey C. Ward, published by Random State University in 2005. He was awarded House in 2008. In 1997 Marsalis became Most Outstanding Student in the VSU the first jazz artist to be awarded the presti - music department and College of Arts. In gious Pulitzer Prize in music for his oratorio 2007 Crenshaw received his master’s Blood on the Fields, which was commis - degree in jazz studies from The Juilliard sioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 2001 he School where his teachers included Dr. was appointed Messenger of Peace by Mr. Douglas Farwell and Wycliffe Gordon. He Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United has worked with Gerard Wilson, Jiggs Nations, and he has also been designated Whigham, Carl Allen, Marc Cary, Wessell cultural ambassador to the United States of Anderson, Cassandra Wilson, Eric Reed, America by the U.S. State Department and many more. In 2006 Crenshaw joined through their CultureConnect program. the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Marsalis was instrumental in the Higher in 2012 he composed “God’s Trom - Ground Hurricane Relief concert, produced bones,” a spiritually focused work that by Jazz at Lincoln Center.