Folk, Blues, and Spirituals
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

About the Concert

Wynton Marsalis has always championed the vernacular music of America—what he calls “Root American Musics,” encompassing blues, folk, gospel, country, and spirituals. Equally influential is the American landscape itself: its shining skyscrapers, expansive highways, rural roads, and ever-changing terrains. These are the foundational elements in Marsalis' music. Growing up on a block between the railroad tracks and the Mississippi River, he was immersed in Americana, and traveling the country by car over the decades has given him a deeper understanding of its true breadth and depth. Showcasing his arrangements of fiddle reels, folk songs, blues, and ballads, this program also revisits Big Train, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 1998 commission of a 12-part suite evoking the sound and meaning of trains—from the Underground Railroad and westward expansion to the Great Migration and the Glory Train. All aboard!

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Join us before the performance at 6:30 p.m. for a pre-concert lecture and gain deeper insight into the music and artists featured in the concert.