Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis Coming to Overture Hall This Fall

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) with Wynton Marsalis, "the greatest large jazz ensemble working today" (Chicago Tribune) will perform in Overture Hall on Sat., Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m. with Badger High School Jazz Ensemble of Lake Geneva performing as the opening act. The stop in Madison also offers somewhat of a homecoming for pianist Dan Nimmer, who grew up in Wisconsin.

Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, JLCO spends over a third of the year on tour performing a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and many others. JLCO, comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today.

JLCO has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988 with the mission to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for Jazz through performance, education and advocacy. Its educational activities are coordinated with concert and JLCO tour programming, including providing local schools the opportunity to perform as an opening act.

The musicians performing in Madison at Overture Center are:

Wynton Marsalis, Music Director, Trumpet

Greg Gisbert, Trumpet

Kenny Rampton, Trumpet

Marcus Printup, Trumpet

Vincent Gardner, Trombone

Chris Crenshaw, Trombone

Elliot Mason, Trombone

Sherman Irby, Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Flute, Clarinet

Ted Nash, Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Flute, Clarinet

Victor Goines, Tenor and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet

Walter Blanding, Tenor and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet

Paul Nedzela, Baritone and Soprano Saxophones, Bass Clarinet

Dan Nimmer, Piano (from Milwaukee, learn more below)

Carlos Henriquez, Bass

Ali Jackson, Drums

Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at age 12, entered The Juilliard School at age 17 and joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and has since recorded more than 70 jazz and classical albums which have garnered him nine GRAMMY Awards. In 1983, he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz GRAMMY Awards in the same year; he repeated this feat in 1984. Marsalis serves on former Lieutenant Governor Landrieu's National Advisory Board for Culture, Recreation and Tourism, a national advisory board to guide the Lieutenant Governor's administration's plans to rebuild Louisiana's tourism and cultural economies. He has also been named to the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, former New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin's initiative to help rebuild New Orleans culturally, socially, economically, and uniquely for every citizen.

Tickets start at $35 and are on sale now at overture.org, in person at 201 State Street, or by phone at 608.258.4141. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for discounted tickets; contact 608.258.4159.

Overture's Diversity and Inclusion initiative is partnering with Café CODA a local jazz venue with some of Madison biggest jazz enthusiasts to provide a pre-show reception. Live local jazz artists will perform to get the crowd prepared for the concert.

JLCO with Wynton Marsalis is part of Overture Center's Music Series, was sponsored by Full Compass and generously underwritten by Joe & Mary Ellyn Sensenbrenner.

DAN NIMMER (Piano) was born in 1982 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With prodigious technique and an innate sense of swing, his playing often recalls that of his own heroes, specifically Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, Erroll Garner, and Art Tatum. As a young man, Nimmer's family inherited a piano and he started playing by ear. He studied classical piano and eventually became interested in jazz playing gigs around Milwaukee. Upon graduation from high school, Nimmer left Milwaukee to study music at Northern Illinois University. After becoming a busy Chicago pianist, Nimmer decided to leave and make the big move to New York City where he immediately emerged in The New York scene and became a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Quintet. Nimmer has worked with Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Dianne Reeves, George Benson, Frank Wess, Clark Terry, Tom Jones, Benny Golson, Lewis Nash, Peter Washington, Ed Thigpen, Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson, Fareed Haque, and many more. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman, The View, The Kennedy Center Honors, Live from Abbey Road, and PBS' Live from Lincoln Center, among other broadcasts. He has released four of his own albums on the Venus label (Japan).

OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Madison, Wis., features seven state-of-the-art performance spaces and five galleries where national and international touring artists, ten resident companies and hundreds of local artists engage people in nearly 700,000 educational and artistic experiences each year. Go to Overture.org for more.

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