What makes a great jazz orchestra?
“Balance in all the sections, strength in each of them, a strong rhythm section," said Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and famed trumpeter, in a phone interview. “Musicians with an identity able to play something that is them, with their own way of playing, with good phrasing and dynamic control. Great soloists. Above all, the band has to be able to swing."
Dallasites will be able to judge for themselves, when Marsalis' big band, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, performs at Meyerson Symphony Center later this week.
His 15-piece ensemble, one of only a handful of itinerant jazz big bands, is on a 19-city tour across the U.S.; Dallas is the only multiday stop on the tour. Last month, the orchestra released Portrait in Seven Shades, its first CD in almost four years.
Marsalis invited band member Ted Nash (alto and soprano saxophones, clarinet) to compose, and Nash delivered a seven-tableaux suite. It's a tribute to Nash's favorite painters: Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Marc Chagall and Jackson Pollock.
“Balance in all the sections, strength in each of them, a strong rhythm section," said Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and famed trumpeter, in a phone interview. “Musicians with an identity able to play something that is them, with their own way of playing, with good phrasing and dynamic control. Great soloists. Above all, the band has to be able to swing."
Dallasites will be able to judge for themselves, when Marsalis' big band, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, performs at Meyerson Symphony Center later this week.
His 15-piece ensemble, one of only a handful of itinerant jazz big bands, is on a 19-city tour across the U.S.; Dallas is the only multiday stop on the tour. Last month, the orchestra released Portrait in Seven Shades, its first CD in almost four years.
Marsalis invited band member Ted Nash (alto and soprano saxophones, clarinet) to compose, and Nash delivered a seven-tableaux suite. It's a tribute to Nash's favorite painters: Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Marc Chagall and Jackson Pollock.
