By Marilyn Lester The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JALCO) with Wynton Marsalis is always a treat to hear, especially around holiday time. No matter the weather or the cultural climate, their performance is a joyous lift into a happy place. With soulful jazz vocalists...
Cole Porter: Easy To Love
by Marilyn Lester Who couldn’t love a Cole Porter song? Certainly there must be very few, as Jazz in July Artistic Director and host Bill Charlap explained, citing Porter as the “Beethoven” of songwriters. Porter, a writer of both music and lyrics, had the...
Celebrating Ella: The First Lady...
by Marilyn Lester Is there a better way to celebrate the 100th birthday of the immortal Ella Fitzgerald than by opening with “Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald” by jazz giants Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn? In its rousing first movement, “Royal Ancestry,” the Jazz at...
Jazz In July: Week Two
by Marilyn Lester America’s own music, jazz, receives a swinging tribute every July at the 92nd St. Y, thanks to the keen artistic direction of pianist Bill Charlap. Charlap is an educator and brilliant musician as well as an affable host. In the second week of the six-day...
Bill Charlap: Broadway to Harlem
by Marilyn Lester Appropriately, music director and pianist Bill Charlap, with his long-time side men Peter Washington on upright bass and Kenny Washington on drums, opened Broadway to Harlem, at Jazz at Lincoln Center, with Bye-Bye Birdie’s “Put On a Happy Face.” This...
