Jazz: Holiday concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center (2024)
Will Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts be the same if Wynton Marsalis doesn’t take the stage? If last night’s holiday concert was any indication, the JALC Orchestra is doing just fine.
Substituting for Wynton as musical director was ace trombonist Chris Crenshaw, whose birthday was yesterday as well. He celebrated by giving us the gift: young singer Ekep Mkwelle (pictured), a Cameroonian-American who slayed with her rendition of Mahalia Jackson’s “No Room at the Inn,” arranged by Marsalis mentee Marcus Printip.
Later in the program, Ekep duetted with another great addition to the band: charming twenty-something crooner Robbie Lee. “If anybody had ever told me—a short Mexican queer out of Arizona—I’d singing Christmas music on stage with this band, I’d have said they were nuts,” he joked. Robbie’s voice resembles Chris Isaak’s which he delivers in the laid-back style of Chet Baker.
Other JALC numbers included Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here” (arranged by JALC-clarinetist Walter Blanding arrangement); Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” (sax player Sherman Irby’s arrangement), and “I’m Getting Nuttin’ for Christmas” arranged by bassist Carlos Henriquez. In short, this is not your dad’s Andy Williams Christmas special. And thank goodness for that. Holiday Concert Through Sunday, December 22 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, aka The House of Swing, Time Warner Center.
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