Rose Theater 2020-2021

Voices of Freedom: Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, and Nina Simone

Featuring the JLCO with Wynton MarsalisFri, Jan 8 - 8:00 pmSat, Jan 9 - 8:00 pmSubscribe Add to Google Calendar  Add to Yahoo! Calendar  Download iCalShare  Facebook  Twitter  Email

What to expect

• Essential works by some of the most powerful female singers and songwriters of the 20th century, performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and special guests.
• A repertoire spanning decades of songs written and made famous by musical icons Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, and Nina Simone.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and a roster of special guest vocalists will perform songs by some of the most powerful singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Under the music direction of JLCO trombonist and vocalist Chris Crenshaw, this brand-new program looks back at four great singers whose unapologetically honest art has stood the test of time in its meaning and musicality.

A group of vocalists adept in jazz, blues, folk, and beyond, including Melanie Charles, Shenel Johns, and Ashley Pezzotti, will lend their unique voices to impassioned new big band charts arranged by Chris Crenshaw and members of the JLCO. The repertoire will span decades of songs written and made famous by Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, and Nina Simone.

Each of these icons fearlessly contributed to a canon of great American music that has reached across demographic boundaries and boldly, artfully cut to the core of issues both personal and societal. We often say that "all jazz is modern,” and so too is the power found in th