Dear Jazz Fan, 

On Saturday June 9th, I attended a concert at Rose Hall to hear Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra play a program of seldom heard post-WWII compositions of Duke Ellington.  It was a remarkable evening.  The musicianship of the members of the band was “beyond category” as Duke himself would have said.

The talents and achievements of Wynton Marsalis are so numerous that there is not enough space here to cite them all, but if Wynton had dedicated his career to just preserving and performance of the entire oeuvres of Duke Ellington, it would be a monumental contribution.  The concert featured portions of The Queen’s Suite, Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, The Far East Suite, and the New Orleans Suite (which I commissioned for the 1970 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest), among others.

For me the highlight of the evening was when Victor Goines came downstage, planted himself firmly in front of the band and played an exhilarating, uninhibited clarinet solo that brought down the house.  If Duke himself was there he would have hired Victor on the spot, even if it meant “raiding” the JALC band, as he did with Clark Terry when he talked him into leaving Count Basie.

Each soloist impressed that night, but Marcus Printup showed me he could play with anyone, anytime, anyplace.  What moved me most was the haunting memory of the sound of Harry Carney’s baritone saxophone as preserved by only one man that I know of, Joe Temperley. I love Joe Temperley. As Carney anchored the sax section of the Ellington band, so Joe is the heart and soul of the JALC Orchestra.

Wynton and the JALC Orchestra are playing at the Newport Jazz Festival on Friday night, August 1st, at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino and at Fort Adams State Park on Saturday, August 2nd.  I think they will be playing some Ellington at the Friday evening concert.

Wynton himself has also generously agreed to perform on Saturday evening,August 2nd, at our fundraising gala for the Newport Festivals Foundation at the historic Vanderbilt summer home, The Breakers.  Thank you, Wynton.

To purchase tickets to the Friday night concert at the International Tennis Hall of Fame or other Newport Jazz Festival events, use the following link:http://www.newportjazzfest.org/tickets
 
Don’t lose the beat,

George Wein