Photo by Luigi Beverelli

(MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis returns to Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) on Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 7:00pm, with a program entitled Cool School & Hard Bop.

Featuring iconic works from Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Max Roach, and more, Cool School & Hard Bop — music-directed by JLCO saxophonist Sherman Irby and pianist Joe Block — explores the enduring appeal of mid-century jazz through striking arrangements, mellow tones, virtuosic vocabulary, and a commitment to the blues.

With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and guest artists spanning genres and generations, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of performances, education, and broadcast events each season in its home in New York City (Frederick P. Rose Hall, “The House of Swing”) and around the world, for people of all ages. Jazz at Lincoln Center is led by Chairman Clarence Otis, Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, and Executive Director Greg Scholl.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988 and spends over a third of the year on tour across the world. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S. and around the globe; in concert halls; dance venues; jazz clubs; public parks; and with symphony orchestras; ballet troupes; local students; and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. 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, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and current and former Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Ted Nash, Victor Goines, Sherman Irby, Chris Crenshaw, and Carlos Henriquez.

Tickets are $59-$99 (plus fees) and are available for purchase online or by calling the box office at (973) 539-8008.  Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) is located at 100 South Street in Morristown, New Jersey.

Wynton Marsalis (Music Director, Trumpet) is the Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961 to a musical family, Mr. Marsalis was gifted his first trumpet at age 6 by Al Hirt. By 8, 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. Mr. 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 9 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).

Joe Block (Special Guest, Piano) is a Grammy-nominated pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and musical director from Philadelphia, PA. He started playing classical piano at age two before he took an interest to jazz in middle school. He now resides in New York City, where he is in high demand and has toured with a diverse array of artists, including Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Leslie Odom, Jr. Block has been hailed by Jazz at Lincoln Center as one of "jazz's most promising young composers" and was named a 2024 recipient of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. He was also a semi-finalist in the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition. As a bandleader, Block leads the Open Heart Trio and the Joe Block Quintet, where he performs many of his original compositions. He serves as the musical director of the Future of Jazz Orchestra and is a graduate of the prestigious Columbia-Juilliard dual-degree program (BA '21, MM '22). Joe Block is a Steinway Artist.

Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, presents a wide range of programs that entertain, enrich, and educate the diverse population of the region and enhance the economic vitality of Northern New Jersey. The 2024-2025 season is made possible, in part, by a grant the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as support received from the F.M. Kirby Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and numerous corporations, foundations and individuals. Mayo Performing Arts Center was named 2016 Outstanding Historic Theatre by the League of Historic American Theatres, and is ranked in the top 50 mid-sized performing arts centers by Pollstar Magazine.