Well this whole week felt like the longest Wednesday. A senate election, an insurrection, raging covid infections–2021 is off to an overwhelming start. The ways that I have been coping is mostly by trying to take an hour to watch mindless tv or read. I finished Eileen (which I think could have been a novella, tbh), and just started watching Scorsese’s newest project, a seven-part documentary on Fran Lebowitz, Pretend it’s a City. While each episode is really a love letter to New York, which makes me melancholy, it also has brought levity in to this dark week to witness different times. If my brain weren’t completely smooth, I’d try to form something slightly more coherent about all of it, but for now, I’d like to leave you with this screenshot of Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein from the second episode (which you should watch if only to catch Spike Lee’s amazing pink cardigan). In the pantheon of iconic duos, this one ranks pretty high.
Mood Indigo and Age of Anxiety together, what better way to sum up how we’re all feeling these days?
It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Staff, Board of Directors, and Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, say goodbye to our beloved orchestra member, saxophonist Joe Temperley.
A former member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Joe was a founding member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. For more than 25 years, he performed and toured with the band, and spent a lifetime tirelessly teaching and inspiring students around the world.
“With Joe, there’s the sound, and the integrity in the sound, the originality of it. When you hear his sound, you know him automatically, because it’s so full of warmth, soul and feeling,” Wynton Marsalis said. “We would always have Joe play at or near the end of pieces because his sound carried the meaning of our music. For someone from another country and culture to exhibit the depth of belief that animated his sound was, and still is, truly miraculous. From the coal mines of Scotland, to clubs and concert halls all over the world, Joe’s journey was epochal, and he did it with integrity, style, and piss and vinegar. We will miss him deeply and his spirit will forever live on in the sound of our orchestra.”
We celebrate the memories of our time with Joe and the privilege of having in our Orchestra the big, full, singular sound of such an accomplished musician and wonderful person.
MUSIC MONDAY: Born #OnThisDay in 1917 – “First Lady of Song” Ella Fitzgerald (LISTEN)
MUSIC MONDAY: Born #OnThisDay in 1917 — “First Lady of Song” Ella Fitzgerald (LISTEN)
[Photo: Ella Fitzgerald via ellafitzgerald.com] by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson) GBN is pulling a trifecta today — celebrating #MusicMonday, #JazzAppreciationMonth, and dropping in on absolutely one of the best singers past, present — or ever — Ella Fitzgerald! Born 105 years ago #OnThisDay, through her stunningly timeless gifts (and vast catalog), Ella Fitzgerald is still surprising…
Lady Writes The Blues: Billie Holiday’s Singing and Songwriting Artistry (LISTEN)
Lady Writes The Blues: Billie Holiday’s Singing and Songwriting Artistry (LISTEN)
[Billie Holiday, from March 23, 1949. Photographer: Carl Van Vechten. from the Yale University Archives at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library] by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson) In continued celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth, today we drop in on Billie Holiday, the singer and artist who not only influenced peers and progeny alike with her innovative interpretation of and…
MUSIC MONDAY: “A Love Supreme” - The Best of Sacred Jazz (LISTEN)
MUSIC MONDAY: “A Love Supreme” – The Best of Sacred Jazz (LISTEN)
by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest) It’s Music Monday! In celebration of Easter and #JazzAppreciationMonth, here is a collection of Sacred Jazz. When jazz emerged in the first half of the 20th century as music of liberation, entertainment and modernism, it provoked a backlash among cultural and religious-establishment figures. Many of them…
Celebrating Jazz Piano Virtuoso Oscar Peterson for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson) In continued celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth, today we drop in on virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson, who hailed from Canada, composed the de facto Civil Rights Movement anthem “Hymn to Freedom,” and was dubbed the “Maharaja of the Keyboard” by none other than fellow piano master Duke Ellington. To read about Peterson, read on. To hear about him,…
Mahalia Jackson singing alongside composer, pianist and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, Duke Ellington at Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island, July 1958.
Addison Scurlock (June 19, 1883 – December 16, 1964) was an African American photographer, founder of The Scurlock Studio, and businessman who became prominent in the early and mid-20th century for photographing Black Washington.
