Interview: The JLCO Kicks Off Jazz At Lincoln Center's 2024-25 Season with HOT JAZZ & SWING

Jazz at Lincoln Center is kicking off its 37th season and celebrating the 20th anniversary of Frederick P. Rose Hall with Hot Jazz & Swing, featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), the world’s premier big band. The concert will play nightly from September 19 to 21 at 7:30 pm in JALC’s Rose Theater. It delves into the vibrant music of the 1920s and ’30s, highlighting works from pivotal bands of the era, including Fletcher Henderson’s “Blue Skies,” Duke Ellington’s “The Flaming Sword,” and Paul Whiteman’s “San,” presenting these jazz classics as they were meant to be heard: vibrant, living pieces infused with contemporary spirit, not like pieces in a museum.

This special event will feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, alongside guest vocalists Kurt Elling and Shenel Johns. The concerts will be co-music directed by Wynton Marsalis and Loren Schoenberg, the Grammy Award-winning composer, saxophonist, and senior scholar at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Schoenberg, known for his collaborations with jazz legends like Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Heath, and Marian McPartland, reunites with Marsalis and the JLCO for their first collaboration since 2002.

Read a Q&A with Schoenberg about this exciting new concert, and make sure to grab your tickets now on JALC’s website.

This is your first collaboration with the JLCO since 2002. How does it feel to be coming back?

Hard to believe it’s been that long, although I do a lot with the Jazz at Lincoln Center and the JLCO team all the time. They [the JLCO] are the closest thing we have to Ellington’s band -- they know each other so well that they can play in a way that only comes with that kind of intimate musical knowledge. On top of that, the JLCO is a true family, and I can’t wait for this reunion!

What are you most looking forward to about HOT JAZZ & SWING?

It’s a difficult thing to interpret music from almost a century ago and bring it to life in a way that makes sense in 2024. Everyone in the JLCO is a great contemporary soloist, and it’ll be so interesting to hear how they breathe the life into these classic arrangements without making it a musical museum.

The concert is going to feature "revitalized arrangements of 1920s and 30s tunes." Why do you think it's important to look back at historic jazz pieces like these?
Shakespeare’s plays still speak to us - if you dig into them, you’ll see people you know. These pieces may be from another era, but they are so perfectly composed that contemporary players can still express themselves honestly and somehow make the music come alive. The more you know about the past, the more you’ll be able to deal with the future, and the same goes for jazz!

What have you been listening to lately?

I’ve been so busy listening to the music for this concert - but I’m also checking out a number of different things - Pee Wee Russell, Sullivan Fortner, Ekep Nkwelle, Eddie Sauter and Mildred Bailey. 

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Tickets to Hot Jazz & Swing are available online at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s website.

Header photo credit: Courtesy of Jazz at Lincoln Center

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