Crescent City Gospel with Wycliffe Gordon

May 4, 5, 6, 2006 at 7:30pm in The Allen Room
New Orleans Celebration Includes Singer Topsy Chapman
Final Featured City in Season: Jazz From Coast to Coast

New York, NY (April 4, 2006): The saints will be rockin' when Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra trombonist Wycliffe Gordon brings his Crescent City Gospel to Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 4, 5, 6, 2006. The first half of the show will feature Wycliffe Gordon (trombone) with Eric Reed (piano), Reginald Veal (bass), Alvin Atkinson (drums) and Damien Snede (organ). The second half of the show will showcase New Orlean's singers including Topsy Chapman. The New Orleans Celebration completes the six major jazz cities in Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2005-06 season entitled Jazz From Coast to Coast. Other cities featured included: Kansas City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit. Tickets for New Orleans: Crescent City Gospel are $40, $75 and $130, and available at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office on Broadway at 60th St., by calling CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500 or via www.jalc.org.

As a longstanding member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Mr. Gordon knows how to get the audience involved in the show; clapping hands and stomping feet! His trombone playing mixes powerful, intricate runs with sweet notes extended over clean melodies, and has been hailed by The New York Times as “masterful." Mr. Gordon plays with passion and is as fun to watch as he is to hear. Mr. Gordon promises to raise the roof in The Allen Room as you're dazzled by the amazing view of the Manhattan skyline.

Gordon brings his gospel, hymns and spirituals with a distinctly New Orleans flavor. This show revisits the 1920's, when the jazz revolution was brimming in the Crescent City and the 1930's when jazz styles found their way into the churches, bringing in more diverse instruments and paving the way for emerging gospel groups.

Gordon explains, “the musicians in this show have a background in the church, they understand the sound of the church. A key focus will be on the music of New Orlean's own Mahalia Jackson. It's not a tribute to her, but in the spirit of Mahalia Jackson and Louis Armstrong. We're gonna have a good time!"

This series in The Allen Room is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center's New Orleans Festival. Just across Frederick P. Rose Hall in Rose Theater during the same dates, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in collaboration with Odadaa! will perform a world premiere composition called “Congo Square" co-written by Wynton Marsalis and Yacub Addy who leads Odadaa! The new work is dedicated to Mr. Marsalis' native New Orleans. Also, next door in Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, the New Orleans celebration features Wess “Warmdaddy" Anderson all week, May 2-7.

Wycliffe Gordon
Wycliffe Gordon enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator, receiving high praise from audiences and critics alike. Gordon tours the world performing hard-swinging, straight-ahead jazz for audiences ranging from heads of state to elementary school students. His trombone playing, which mixes powerful, intricate runs with sweet notes extended over clean melodies, has been universally hailed by jazz critics. Gordon is rapidly becoming one of America's most persuasive and committed music educators. Currently serving on the faculty of the newly established Jazz Studies Program at The Juilliard School and serves as Artist-In-Residence at the School of Music at Michigan State University. His work with young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over the world is extensive, and includes master classes, clinics, workshops, children's concerts and lectures--powerful evidence of his unique ability to relate musically to people of all ages.

Topsy Chapman
Growing up in Kentwood, Louisiana, Topsy Chapman became interested in music at an early age due to the fact that her father was a vocal music instructor. After high school she moved to New Orleans where she developed a gospel group, The Chapmans, which performed at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and for many clubs in and around the Crescent City area. Ms. Chapman also composes and arranges music for the group. As one of the original members of the Broadway hit “One Mo' Time," Ms. Chapman gained international recognition. The cast album was nominated for a Grammy. She has toured the world and performed with a wide variety of artists, including Nicholas Payton, Herb Ellis and Dick Hyman. Ms. Chapman has endeared herself to crowds all over the world with her authentic style and clear melodious voice.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz. With the world-renowned Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio and television programs, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, music publishing, children's concerts, lectures, adult education courses and student and educator workshops. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, Chairman of the Board Lisa Schiff, Executive Director Katherine E. Brown and Jazz at Lincoln Center board and staff, Jazz at Lincoln Center will produce hundreds of events during its 2005-06 season. In October 2004, Jazz at Lincoln Center opened Frederick P. Rose Hall - the first-ever performance, education and broadcast facility devoted to jazz. For more information, visit www.jalc.org.