Segerstrom Jazz hosts the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, January 21

The Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents the Center’s longtime favorites Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, a group of 15 of the best soloists, ensembleists and arrangers in jazz music today Friday, January 21 at 8:00 p.m. at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert hall.

Founded in 1988, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis travels the world performing a vast repertoire of music, from historical and rare compositions to commissioned works. The band’s compositions and arrangements include works by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Marie-Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Bonman, and Charles Mingus, plus new music from the band’s unparalleled collection of world-renowned composers and arrangers.

Wynton Marsalis is the General and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and a world-renowned trumpeter and composer. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, Marsalis began his classical trumpet training at age 12, entered the Juilliard School at age 17, then joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He made his debut as a bandleader in 1982 and has since recorded over 60 jazz and classical recordings, which have won him nine GRAMMY awards. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win classical and jazz GRAMMYs in the same year and repeated the feat in 1984.

Marsalis is also an internationally renowned teacher and advocate for music education, and has received honorary doctorates from dozens of American universities and colleges. He wrote six books; his most recent are Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whore ! Whomp!, illustrated by Paul Roger and published by Candlewick Press in 2012, and Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life with Geoffrey C. Ward, published by Random House in 2008. In 1997, Marsalis became the first jazz artist to be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize of music. for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center.

In 2001, he was named a Messenger of Peace by Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and he was also appointed Cultural Ambassador to the United States of America by the United States Department of State as part of his CultureConnect program. Marsalis was instrumental in the Higher Ground Hurricane Relief concert, produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center. The event raised over $3 million for the Higher Ground Relief Fund to benefit musicians, music industry-related businesses, and other individuals and entities in areas of Greater New Orleans who were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Marsalis helped lead efforts to build the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center – Frederick P. Rose Hall – the first center for jazz education, performance and outreach, which opened in October 2004.

Single tickets for Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts start at $39 and are now available online at SCFTA.org, at the box office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more people, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236.