[Dixielandjazz] Lincoln Center JAZZ programs become more inclusive

[Steve barbone]

Lincoln Center is broadening its approach to Jazz performances noting that
"music lives in the present regardless of when it was written." Note also
that Wynton Marsalis  "will lead a group patterned after Louis Armstrong's
Hot Five and, during a gospel festival", as part of the program.

Cheers,
Steve 

Jazz at Lincoln Center Plans More 'Sweep' in New Season

NY TIMES - By NATE CHINEN - March 8, 2006

Conservatism has been the charge most often leveled at Jazz at Lincoln
Center by its critics over the years. So it is significant that the
organization's next season, its third since it established a permanent home
in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, advances the theme
"Innovations in Jazz."

With a range of concerts intended to capture "the sweep of jazz" ‹ including
free jazz and fusion ‹ the new schedule, to be announced today, is a
departure from the purist approach of seasons past. But it affirms Jazz at
Lincoln Center's claim to comprehensiveness, a big-tent philosophy espoused
increasingly in recent years by the organization's artistic director, Wynton
Marsalis. 

"We're pushing ourselves in different directions, while at the same time
being true to our origins," said Derek Gordon, Jazz at Lincoln Center's
president and chief executive. "We have a curatorial responsibility, an
educational responsibility. And we have a responsibility to our audiences,
that they have a good time. We like to think that we can meet all of those
responsibilities well when we adopt the mindset that music lives in the
present regardless of when it was written, and whether it's music that we're
traditionally identified with or not."

The keyboardist Joe Zawinul, a pioneer of fusion, falls under the category
of "not," but he will headline two nights this October in the main theater
at Frederick P. Rose Hall. Next March, the pianist Cecil Taylor and the
saxophonist and composer John Zorn, two very different heroes of the
avant-garde, will perform at the same theater. And the electric bassist
Marcus Miller will coordinate the funky portion of a concert titled "The
Many Modes of Miles."

The season opener, in September, will commemorate what would have been John
Coltrane's 80th birthday, with a tribute from the Lincoln Center Jazz
Orchestra. A three-day Coltrane festival will also feature Kevin Mahogany in
the Allen Room, singing ballads associated with Coltrane, and, a bit more
provocatively, a panel discussion called "Did Coltrane Lose His Way?"

Past and present innovations, loosely defined, make up the rest of the
schedule. Mr. Marsalis will lead a group patterned after Louis Armstrong's
Hot Five and, during a gospel festival, revisit his own suite "In This
House, on This Morning." Three Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra shows in
February will feature pieces inspired by modern art, including a premiere by
one of the band's saxophonists, Ted Nash. A classical hybrid venture with
the American Composers Orchestra will include a commissioned work by Derek
Bermel as well as Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." The Afro-Latin Jazz
Orchestra, a resident ensemble formed by Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2002,
will perform "Suite Cubana," by the Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés.

Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, the nightclub ensconced in the northeast corner of
the complex, will continue to book music 365 nights a year, with a focus on
Tuesday-through-Sunday engagements. For most of September, its programming
will come under the banner of the second annual Diet Coke Women in Jazz
Festival. 

In the Allen Room, the Singers Over Manhattan series will include not only
Dianne Reeves but also Willie Nelson, who will dig into the blues on Jan. 12
and 13 with Mr. Marsalis as a guest. A new model for the venue will take
effect: two separate 75-minute sets, instead of a concert with intermission,
and a flat ticket price of $60, instead of a hierarchy that tops out beyond
$130. 

The lowering of ticket prices ‹ which affects the Rose Theater as well, less
drastically ‹ is a direct response to criticism. It detrimentally affects
the operating budget, of course. But in practical terms, for audiences, it
may turn out to be the best innovation of the season.