Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra

by Steve Huey
Dedicated to preserving Americas jazz heritage, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra is a key component of New York Citys Jazz at Lincoln Center program, serving as the highly versatile house band for a wide variety of concert events. The 15-piece orchestra maintains a heavy touring schedule, devoting around six months annually to appearances around the U.S. and at prominent international venues. Additionally, the LJCO participates in many Jazz at Lincoln Center educational events (for both advanced and younger students), and records occasionally, both as their own entity and as a backing group for artistic director Wynton Marsalis.
The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra was founded in 1988 and in its early years was often conducted by David Berger. Marsalis was hired as the groups artistic director in 1991 and under his influence the groups historical bent blossomed, paying particular attention to the Duke Ellington oeuvre. Indeed, their annual Ellington concerts have become cultural staples for many New Yorkers, and the groups first recording — made under Bergers direction — was 1992s Portraits of Ellington. Still, the LJCO doesnt treat jazz as a museum exhibit; Jazz at Lincoln Center has commissioned a number of new, in-the-tradition works specifically for the group. Over the course of the 90s, the LJCO augmented their regular concert, touring, and educational activities with international television appearances and special collaborative performances with various symphony orchestras. In the late 90s, the group began to appear more frequently on record as Marsalis began using them for ambitiously expansive projects such as 1997s Jump Start and Jazz and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood on the Fields, and 1999s Sweet Release and Ghost Story and Big Train. Also in 1999, the LJCO released another Ellington-oriented album, Live in Swing City: Swingin With the Duke.