Kurt Elling
Thursday, October 8, 2009, 7:00 & 9:00 PM, Manship Theatre
 
Kurt Elling is widely recognized as the preeminent young male jazz singer today. Elling has earned seven Gammy nominations and his quartet has toured the world, performing to critical acclaim in Europe, the Middle East, South America, Asia and Australia, and at jazz festivals and concert halls across North America.
 
Kurt Elling is celebrated as a writer and performer of vocalese, the art of putting words to improvised solos of jazz artists.  The natural heir to jazz pioneers Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure, and Jon Hendricks, Elling is the contemporary voice in vocalese, setting the solos of Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarret, Dexter Gordon, Pat Metheny, and others to his own deeply spiritual and compelling lyrics. Elling infuses his lyrics with passion, humor, and a startling intellectual depth. He has a warm baritone voice which soars and seduces audiences with its beauty and intrinsic musicality.
 
The Chicago Tribune stated, "Kurt Elling is going to change many listeners' minds on the meaning and purpose of jazz singing." The Guardian (UK) declared, "Elling is an omni-competent artist of almost ruthless efficiency...He is truly a musical phenomenon."
 
"possibly the greatest jazz singer of all time"  Jazz Review (UK)
 
"Kurt Elling is arguably the most interesting and innovative jazz singer to come along in years..." Artie Shaw
 
"Elling is a cool breeze in the desert of male jazz singers. Elling sings, scats, does vocalese, tells stories and reads poetry in a baritone voice that bounces from sweet to tangy." Philadelphia Daily News
 

 
Ahmad Jamal - NEA Jazz Master Artist
Thursday, November 19, 2009, 7:00 & 9:00 PM, Manship Theatre
 
A genuine jazz icon, celebrated pianist-composer Ahmad Jamal continues to perform around the world, as he has for well over the last four decades. Noted for his outstanding technical command and identifiable sound as a piano stylist, Jamal considers his trio to be an orchestra. He creates a unified sound, and subtly inserts independent roles for the bass and drums. The hallmarks of Mr. Jamal's style are rhythmic innovations and colorful harmonic perceptions. He incorporates a unique sense of space in his music, and his musical concepts and phrasing are exciting without being loud in volume. Jamal's repertoire includes a unique selection of standards and his own compositions.
 
In his autobiography, trumpeter Miles Davis praises Mr. Jamal's special artistic qualities and cites his influence on how the legendary trumpeter interprets his own music. In 1994, Mr. Jamal received the American Jazz Masters fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The same year he was named a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University, where he performed commissioned works with the Assai String Quartet.
 
Mr. Jamal's most recent release, After Fajr, has already climbed to the top of the jazz charts and is currently a best seller.
 
Ben Ratliff of The New York Times said, "The rows of shocking diversions and riffs on this new album by a 1950's master could be mistaken for the work of a younger, experimental-minded pianist."
 
"Ahmad Jamal is to me, the most exciting, creative keyboard artist living." John King, Melody Maker from Jazz The Rough Guide - Penguin
 
 

  

   
Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 8:00 PM, River Center Theater for the Performing Arts
 
Louisiana native, Wynton Marsalis has been described as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation, as one of the world's top classical trumpeters, as a big band leader in the tradition of Duke Ellington, a brilliant composer, a devoted advocate for the arts and a tireless and inspiring educator. He carries these distinctions well along with the recent additional distinction as the Artistic Director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO), which has been hailed as "an extraordinarily versatile orchestra" by the Los Angeles Times. The Orchestra is composed of 15 of jazz music's leading soloists under the leadership of Mr. Marsalis. The LCJO is internationally and critically acclaimed as "the finest big band in the world today," said the Daily Telegraph, UK.
 
The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra spends over a third of the year on tour. The big band performs a vast repertoire including rare historic compositions, beloved standards, compositions by Mr. Marsalis and other members of the orchestra, and LCJO's commissioned works including masterworks and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonius Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman and Charles Mingus.
 
"One rarely hears this music played with such technical brilliance, stylistic authenticity and tonal sheen...Here were the throaty reeds, percussive trumpet blasts and visceral sense of swing that have made the LCJO the greatest large jazz ensemble working today." The Chicago Tribune
 
"The LCJO is not just a band on tour, but a religious congregation, spreading the word of jazz." Down Beat