with Wynton Marsalis and Ashley Pezzotti
Big Band Holidays!
When: Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 7:00 PM
Venue: First Baptist Church
1600 S. 8th St. – Fernandina Beach – Directions…
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S. and around the globe; in concert halls; dance venues; jazz clubs; public parks; and with symphony orchestras; ballet troupes; local students; and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs 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.Education is a major part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s mission; its educational activities are coordinated with concert and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra tour programming. These programs, many of which feature Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members, include the celebrated Jazz for Young People™ family concert series; the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival; the Jazz for Young People™ Curriculum; educational residencies; workshops; and concerts for students and adults worldwide. Jazz at Lincoln Center educational programs reach over 110,000 students, teachers and general audience members.
Wynton Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator. He is the world’s first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full jazz spectrum, from its New Orleans roots to bebop to modern jazz. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, tap dance to ballet, Wynton has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers.
Born in New Orleans, he performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band at age eight, and at 14 he played with the New Orleans Philharmonic, New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, New Orleans Youth Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony and various jazz bands. At 17, Wynton became the youngest musician ever to be admitted to Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center, where he was awarded the school’s prestigious Harvey Shapiro Award for outstanding brass student. Wynton moved to New York City to attend Juilliard in 1979.
In 1980 Wynton joined the Jazz Messengers to study under master drummer and bandleader Art Blakey. In the years to follow, he performed with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Sweets Edison, Clark Terry, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock and countless other jazz legends.
Ashley PezzottiÂ
This year the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is joined by Ashley Pezzotti who developed her love of music as a child when her Dominican father would sing her classic Spanish songs. In addition to performing with Wynton Marsalis and The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, she has performed with Arturo Sandoval, Joey Alexander, Dave Holland, Jon Secada, and country star Keith Urban. In the spring of 2019, Ashley participated in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program where she was mentored by Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jason Moran, Casey Benjamin, Marcus Printup, and Peter Martin and performed her original compositions at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C..