[Dixielandjazz] A New Season of Jazz at Lincoln Center

[Stephen G Barbone]

NY Times - March 5, 2008 -  By Ben Ratliff
Jazz at Lincoln Center Unveils New Season

Jazz at Lincoln Center has announced its 2008-9 program, with what it  
calls its biggest season ever: more than 3,000 events.
The plans show an increase in educational events, concerts for  
children and worldwide touring by the Jazz at Lincoln Center  
Orchestra, which started working regularly in 1992 with Wynton  
Marsalis as leader. “All the expansions are based on specific  
requests,” said Mr. Marsalis, the executive director of Jazz at  
Lincoln Center.

The pianist Ahmad Jamal will perform with his trio and in  
collaboration with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Sept. 18 to  
20). There will be a meeting of East Coast and West Coast big-band  
styles with the orchestra and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra  
(Oct. 23 to 25). A mini-festival built around Thelonious Monk from  
Nov. 20 to 22 will include the pianist Marcus Roberts with the  
orchestra at the Rose Theater and a performance by the pianist Danilo  
Perez, doing his Latin-rhythm reinventions of Monk in the Allen Room.

There will also be a two-night stand by Eddie Palmieri’s Latin-jazz  
big band (Feb. 6 to 7); a 50th-anniversary concert in honor of two  
landmark albums, John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” and Miles Davis’s “Kind  
of Blue” (Feb. 12 to 14); and a run of concerts by a quintet led by  
the keyboardist Chick Corea and the guitarist John McLaughlin (April  
23 to 25).

In addition, the season will include the 14th annual Essentially  
Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival, one of the  
organization’s most effective educational projects (May 8 to 10); a  
swing dance party in the Allen Room (May 29); and a series of duo  
concerts.

Topics of the talks, panel discussions and jazz history classes at the  
organization’s Irene Diamond Education Center will include Bix  
Beiderbecke, Ornette Coleman, Lester Young (who will be the subject of  
a class taught by the clarinetist and saxophonist Don Byron) and the  
question of why there are not more women in jazz.

Full details on dates and ticket sales are available at:  http://www.jalc.org 
.