Wynton Marsalis & The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - Benny Goodman: The King of Swing - New York City Article

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, artistic director, Wynton Marsalis:
“Benny Goodman: The King of Swing”
Rose Theater
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
Broadway at 60th Street, 5th Floor, (212) 721 6500
Thursday (January 10) through Saturday (January 12)

It was 80 years ago, on January 16, 1938 that Benny Goodman changed the world. The Chicago-born clarinetist and bandleader, who was only 28 at the time, did more than bring jazz into Carnegie Hall: he showed the world that homegrown American music was worthy of a place alongside the symphony and the opera in the most prestigious of all concert halls that, up until then, had been the mostly exclusive province of the great musical traditions inherited from Europe. Goodman proved that a jazz orchestra could play with the precision and dedication - the fire and the fury as it were - of the best philharmonic organizations, and made musical history in the process.
Honoring the 80th anniversary of that momentous event, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will recreate the historic concert, from the first downbeat on “Don’t Be That Way” to the climactic “Sing, Sing, Sing,” and the final encore of “Big John’s Special,” with no less than five major clarinet soloists on hand, Anat Cohen, Janelle Reichman, and the brilliant Ken Peplowski and Ted Nash (both of whom are veterans of Goodman’s own final band) along with musical director Victor Goines. Also on hand will be the guest vibraphonist Joseph Doubleday, filling in for Lionel Hampton, and the brilliant young jazz vocalist Veronica Swift, who will take us on an international excursion with the only two vocals of the original concert, the traditional Scottish song “Loch Lomond” and the Yiddish “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon.”
Eighty years after Goodman and company brought down the house at Carnegie, the Lincoln Centurians, located just around the corner at Columbus Circle, will show us exactly what Benny Goodman and company achieved, and why we have been basking in the afterglow of it ever since. The most monumental evening in all of American music surely deserves nothing less.

for more information, and tickets, please click here.