Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
Jazz Trumpet Master and LCJO Will Perform “Congo Square” with African Drummer Yacub Addy and His Ensemble
Additional Summer Events to be Confirmed April 26 at Chairman’s Kick-off Reception at Camelback Ski Area Hosted by John Wolfington and Arthur Berry III
BUSHKILL FALLS, PA. —- Celebrated jazz trumpeter and bandleader Wynton Marsalis, the world’s leading exponent of American jazz, will bring his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra to the Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts to open MLCPA’s 2007 Summer Season on Saturday, June 16 at 8 p.m. Tickets, $20-$50, are on sale now to participants in MLCPA’s membership program, Harry’s Club, and will go on sale to the general public on Saturday, April 28 at 10 a.m. through TicketMaster, along with other 2007 Summer Season events to be announced. To join Harry’s Club, the public can call MLCPA’s Member Service Desk at 800.223.5040 (pre-season hours, Monday through Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.).
“I can’t think of a finer artist to open our 2007 season than Wynton Marsalis,” said Richard T. Bryant, President & CEO of the Mountain Laurel Center. “He is without doubt a towering genius of our time, an extraordinary talent and a tireless ambassador in bringing our uniquely American art form, jazz, to the world.”
MLCPA will confirm additional events for its 2007 Summer Season on April 26 at its “Chairman’s Kick-off Reception,” hosted by John Wolfington and Arthur Berry III at Cameltop, the highest point of the Camelback Ski Area. “Cameltop is an appropriate place to talk about our upcoming 2007 Summer Season because of its breathtaking view of so much of the Pocono Mountains - the region this once-in-a-lifetime performing arts project strives to serve,” said MLCPA Chairman Andrew Forte. “The setting also symbolizes our Board’s deeply held conviction that in the field of arts, culture, and entertainment, Mountain Laurel Center will achieve the same high level of recognition and success as Camelback and other leading Pocono Mountains destinations.
In addition to the presentation about MLCPA’s 2007 Summer Season, invited guests at the Cameltop reception will be serenaded by Riders In The Sky, the Grammy Award-winning singing cowboys who will gallop up to the reception directly from their day of performing for area students as part of MLCPA’s Arts-in-Education program. Riders In The Sky can be heard on the soundtracks for Disney’s “Toy Story 2” and “Monsters, Inc.”
For the opening of the 2007 Summer Season, Marsalis and the orchestra will perform a new composition, “Congo Square,” written by the trumpeter and the well-known Ghanian master drummer Yacub Addy. Addy and his nine-piece African drumming ensemble Odadaa! will join Marsalis and the LCJO onstage in a percussive performance of the evening-length composition, which draws deeply on the wellsprings of New Orleans tradition. From the mid-1700s to the late 1800s, New Orleans’ Congo Square was the only place in North America where slaves could legally gather to freely perform their own African music and dance. African music was banned in the British colonies, as it was thought it could incite slaves to riot, and its playing was punishable by death. But because New Orleans was a French colony, Congo Square became, as Marsalis says, “one little desperate outpost of soul” - and the impetus for the eventual birth of jazz in the city. “Congo Square” brings the ancestral sounds of African drumming together with the jazz that grew out of it, creating “a heady melange of soulful lyricism, festive rhythms and unbridled swing that proved hard to resist,” according to The Washington Post.
“I have known Wynton Marsalis for many years, and have promoted his concerts several times on both coasts,” said Richard Bryant. “Inviting him to open our 2007 Summer Season is a deliberate escalation of the relationship we are building between MLCPA and Jazz at Lincoln Center that began two years ago when we initiated our arts and education program in Pike and Monroe Counties with a full-week residency in the schools by Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble led by Arturo O’Farrill.”
Wynton Marsalis has been described as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation, as well as one of the world’s top classical trumpeters, a big-band leader in the tradition of Duke Ellington, a brilliant composer, a devoted advocate for the arts and a tireless and inspiring educator. Born in New Orleans, Marsalis grew up in a musical household - his father, Ellis, was a jazz pianist and educator and his brothers Branford, Delfeayo and Jason are accomplished musicians as well. In his youth, he studied jazz and classical trumpet and performed in church bands, at Jazz Fest and with the New Orleans Philharmonic. He moved to New York at age 18 to attend the Julliard School of Music. While at Julliard, he became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and that same year signed with Columbia Records. He formed his own quintet (brother Branford was a member) and recorded his first album as a leader.
Marsalis has recorded a total of 33 jazz albums, has won a total of nine Grammy awards for his jazz, classical and children’s recordings, and won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in music (the first and only jazz artist to do so) for his composition “Blood on the Fields.” His love of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and others drove Marsalis to pursue a career in classical music as well. He recorded the Haydn, Hummel and Leopold Mozart trumpet concertos at the age of 20, and has recorded 11 classical albums in all. He is the only artist ever to have won Grammys in both the classical and jazz idioms, and is also the only artist ever to have won a Grammy in five consecutive years.
In 1987 Marsalis co-founded the Jazz at Lincoln Center program in New York City, the world’s largest not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz. He serves as its artistic director as well as music director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Under his leadership, the program has developed an international agenda with up to 400 events annually in 15 countries. The programming is rich and diverse and includes performances, debates, film forums, dances, television and radio broadcasts, and educational activities.
Marsalis has a demonstrated commitment to jazz education, producing a television series, Marsalis on Music, and an award-winning radio series, Making the Music, for NPR. He also presents a Jazz for Young People series at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and is known for regularly teaching master classes and making time to talk with students. He has been an energetic and visible advocate for the rehabilitation of his beloved hometown, New Orleans, after the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe of 2005. He was named by Mayor Ray Nagin to the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, and was instrumental in organizing Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert.
Officers of the Mountain Laurel Center are Andrew Forte, Chairman; Richard T. Bryant, President & CEO; Rosemary Driebe Olofsson Vice-Chair; Howard J. Grossman, Secretary; and Thomas R. Wilkins, Treasurer. Board members include: W. Peter Ahnert, Anna Cervenak, Davis R. Chant, Nancy Kiesendahl Bloch, Virginia P. Kirkwood, Lee Oakes, Paul Olsen, John Duke Schneider, Marc A. Troutman, John Wolfington, Andy Worthington, and Robert Uguccioni (Ex-Officio).
Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts is a nonprofit performing arts center serving the beautiful Pocono Mountains and beyond. Its principal venue, the Tom Ridge Pavilion, offers 2,500 covered seats and room under the stars for up to 3,000 more on its comfortable lawn. MLCPA is dedicated to serving the region by providing world-class artists and entertainers through an ongoing series of performances and educational programming. For additional information about the Mountain Laurel Center, please call 570-426-2080 or visit mountainlaurelcenter.com.
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Contact:
Katrina Snyder
Marketing & PR Coordinator
Direct: 570.426.2084
Email: ksnyder@mlcpa.org
Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts
Bushkill Falls Road P.O. Box 1233
Bushkill, PA 18324
Administration: 570.426.2080
Fax: 570.588.5211
mountainlaurelcenter.com
