Wynton Marsalis official web site

On December 17-21, 2008, Wynton and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) will join with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for a live music celebration of America’s two great art forms - modern dance and jazz music. This special week is a highlight of Ailey’s 50th anniversary season at New York City Center, December 3 through January 4. It will feature two different programs:

• Program A (December 17, December 19, December 21 mat):
  Night Creature; Reflections in D; excerpts from Caravan, The Mooche, The Road of the Phoebe Snow, Pas de Duke, Three Black Kings; Revelations.
• Program B (December 18, December 20 eve, December 21 eve):
  The River; excerpts from Caravan, The Mooche, The Road of the Phoebe Snow, Pas de Duke, Three Black Kings; Revelations.

Both programs will also feature live music for Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations, performed by the Riverside Church Inspirational Choir and conducted by Eric Reed. More info about tickets on Alvin Ailey web site

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Wynton and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater already collaborated in the past. On 2001 Wynton was commissioned to write the music for a ballet entitled Here..Now. That music is available for free exclusively from Wynton’s site.

Wynton about Alvin Ailey:
“I met Alvin in the 1980s, and we had many conversations, although I really wasn’t sophisticated enough at the time to understand everything. He spoke about the importance of maintaining tradition and culture while not believing in segregation. He knew that African-American culture was fundamentally located in the heart of American culture and that to love one did not mean that you didn’t love the other.
That had a tremendous influence on me as a young man. This season we are playing Ellington for the company. He is the foundation of American orchestral music, encyclopedic in his use of the vernacular. That’s one of the many things that Alvin understood.”