Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and Naseer Shamma

×

Expand

Frank Stewart

People plahing instruments.

Wynton Marsalis (center) and members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Led by music director and trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra revives music from all eras and also moves jazz in new directions. Their current tour is an example of the latter; the music of the Middle East will blend with jazz as the orchestra collaborates with oud player Naseer Shamma, performing arrangements by Shamma, Marsalis and orchestra members.

media release: Experience “Middle East Meditations” when Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis featuring Naseer Shamma, oud, play at Overture Center on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall. Tickets ($35-85) are available at overture.org.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) comprises 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today. 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, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Benny Goodman and many others.

JLCO and Wynton Marsalis will be joined by internationally renowned musician and humanitarian, Naseer Shamma. Known for being one of the world's greatest oud (an ancient Middle Eastern stringed instrument) virtuosos, he has also received numerous awards for his contributions to promoting and advancing the oud and Arabic music all over the world. This tour will celebrate the first collaboration for JLCO and oud and will feature new works arranged by Marsalis, Shamma and JLCO members.

Shamma and Wynton Marsalis first met at the behest of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival in 2017, which led to more than a revelatory musical meeting of the minds, but to a shared belief in the power of music and collaboration to bring cultures and people together, beyond politics and religion. They reunited later that year for a concert in Marciac, France, where reviews called it an “unprecedented fusion between Jazz and the oud instrument.”

Middle East Meditations continues the orchestra’s season of cross-cultural offerings that illuminate, actualize and reaffirm the notion of jazz as a global language and the music’s power to bridge divides and coalesce distinct communities.

Naseer Shamma

Born in 1963, Naseer Shamma is a renowned Iraqi musician and composer. He graduated from the Institute of Musical Studies in Baghdad in 1987 and went on to gain a PhD in Musical Philosophy. Shamma has won more than 60 awards, including the award for the Best Artist in Iraq, the British Royal Academy Award and the Rotterdam Arab Festival Award. During his career, Shamma has focused on promoting the teachings of the Oud instrument and, as result, established the Arab Oud House in Cairo, Alexandria, Abu Dhabi, Baghdad and Khartoum. These institutions have gone on to attract students from all over the world. He has produced many memorable performances, including those with the Metropolitan Orchestra in Montreal, with jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, and with the Lebanese National Orchestra of Oriental-Arab Music. In 2000, he founded the 2350BC Orchestra with some of the most prominent graduates of the Oud House and renowned guest musicians to perform shows all over the world. He is also the founder of Eastern Orchestra, which includes 75 musicians from the far-east MENA and European regions as well as the "Global Ensemble,” a group of leading Western musicians, united for peace and justice and recently re-branded as the "Peace Builders.” Shamma has widely contributed to the globalization of the oud instrument, and he has been named “The Oud Master.” He has famously performed on his instrument using only one hand and rallying that all humans can contribute to art and culture. He has tirelessly fought for human rights and advocated for humanitarian plights. In addition to the preservation of human heritage, he currently serves as ambassador to “The Non-Violence Project,” The International Federation of Red Crescent/Cross Societies and UNESCO.

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis (Music Director, Trumpet) is the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in New Orleans, La., in 1961 to a musical family, Marsalis was gifted his first trumpet at age six by Al Hirt. By eight, he began playing in the famed Fairview Baptist Church Band led by Danny Barker. Yet it was not until he turned 12 that Marsalis began his formal training on the trumpet. Subsequently, Wynton began performing in bands all over the city, from the New Orleans Philharmonic and New Orleans Youth Orchestra to a funk band called the Creators. His passion for music rapidly escalated. As a young teenager fresh out of high school, Wynton moved to New York City in 1979 to attend The Juilliard School to study classical music. Once there, however, he found that jazz was calling him. His career quickly launched when he traded Juilliard for Art Blakey’s band, The Jazz Messengers. By 19, Wynton hit the road with his own band and has been touring the world ever since. From 1981 to date, Wynton has performed 4,777 concerts in 849 distinct cities and 64 countries around the world. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982 and has since recorded 110 jazz and classical albums, four alternative records, and released five DVDs. In total, he has recorded 1,539 songs at the time of this writing. Marsalis is the winner of nine GRAMMY Awards, and his oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He’s the only musician to win a GRAMMY Award in two categories, jazz and classical, during the same year (1983, 1984).

Our show sponsors for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis featuring Naseer Shamma, oud, are Nelnet and American Family Insurance. Overture is grateful for this community support that helps make these experiences possible.

OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Madison, Wis., is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization that features seven state-of-the-art performance spaces and four galleries where national and international touring artists, nine resident companies and hundreds of local artists engage people in nearly 700,000 educational and artistic experiences each year. With the vision to provide “Extraordinary Experiences for All,” Overture’s mission is to support and elevate our community’s creative culture, economy and quality of life through the arts. overture.org