Review: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
By Alexander Apple – It was an extraordinary night of jazz at the Hollywood Bowl with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. This was the final season that Wynton Marsalis would serve as Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and Music Director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The evening celebrated jazz greats while Marsalis allowed others to shine.
Wynton Marsalis at the Hollywood Bowl
Jazz has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My father owned a jazz club, so I was always around this music and the musicians. I still remember hearing my first jazz album, Thelonious Monk’s Monk’s Dream. It changed my life. There was something profound about Monk’s playing. The space, dissonance, humor, rhythm, and complete originality of his musical language expanded my musical consciousness. I ultimately became a lover of three and four chord rock and roll, but my love for jazz never diminished. Perhaps that is why this evening at the Bowl meant so much to me.
Lakecia Benjamin honors John Coltrane
The concert opened with alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and her terrific band (featuring pianist-keyboardists Oscar Pérez and Miki Hayama, bassThe ist Elias Bailey, and drummer Jonathan Barber.) Benjamin is a magnetic performer—powerful, expressive, and completely engaging. The band matched her energy, as she delivered her impressive interpretations of several Coltrane classics.
I would love to see this group again in a smaller venue like the Blue Note. As beautiful as the Hollywood Bowl is, its enormous scale can at times soften the impact of this kind of music. If the sound is not perfectly mixed, becoming fully immersed in the auditory journey becomes a challenge. That was particularly noticeable during some brilliant string passages that were, unfortunately, barely audible. The mix was off at first, and I found myself wishing I could hear these musicians in a room where every nuance and interaction could be fully appreciated. Lakecia was on fire. The strings just needed a boost.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Then came Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. What followed was essentially a masterclass in jazz. Marsalis’s love of the tradition, and his meticulous approach to orchestration and preservation of America’s great indigenous art form, is unmistakable. He clearly feels a responsibility to carry that torch forward. Some have criticized his traditionalist approach to jazz over the years, but I have always felt that criticism misses something essential about what he has accomplished. Few musicians have done more to honor, preserve, teach, and present this music at the highest possible level. The proof is the extraordinary orchestra he has assembled.
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
One of the finest musical ensembles in the world, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra never disappoints. I would put this group alongside the great classical orchestras without hesitation. Their precision, discipline, musicianship, improvisational ability, and collective understanding of jazz made their set awe-inspiring. Every section is filled with world-class players, yet the ensemble never loses sight of the larger musical statement. Where Benjamin’s group made me long for the intimacy of a jazz club, Marsalis and the orchestra seemed completely at home on the enormous Bowl stage. Their sound, arrangements, and sheer musical scale filled the space beautifully.
The program’s celebration of John Coltrane’s centennial made the evening profoundly meaningful while also demonstrating the enormous breadth of the jazz tradition Marsalis has spent his career championing. From the foundations laid by Jelly Roll Morton to the revolutionary work of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Chick Corea, and Wayne Shorter, the evening reminded us just how vast, inventive, and sophisticated this music truly is. Marsalis does not treat jazz as something frozen in history. He treats it as a living language—one deserving the same seriousness, study, preservation, and respect afforded the world’s great classical traditions.
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl itself remains a national treasure. On a beautiful night, sitting under the open sky with music filling that remarkable space, there are few places quite like it. For someone who first discovered the power of jazz through Monk’s Dream, there was something deeply moving about hearing this music honored by these particular musicians. Each solo gave us a chance to discover another brilliant personality. Wynton himself laid low for most of the performance, allowing us all to enjoy a series of classic jazz compositions expressed by a group filled with masterful players.
It was a remarkable celebration of John Coltrane, an extraordinary evening of musicianship, and another reminder of why Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra remain such important stewards of one of the world’s great musical treasures.
