Jazz at Lincoln Center Honors Duke in Grand Style

What with one of their most successful overarching themes for the year, namely “Mother Africa,” and the bombshell announcement that, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the organization, founder Wynton Marsalis is officially departing his post as Artistic Director, it’s been a rather busy season at Jazz at Lincoln Center. This is not based on any actual information from the staff at JALC, not even so much as an unnamed source speaking off the record, but if I were to make a Polymarket bet on who the replacement will be, my money’s on Jon Batiste. But you didn’t hear that from me…There were two excellent concerts in the last few months that I haven’t had the chance to write about — the annual Gala and a program in the Appel Room titled “Come Sunday: The Sacred Works of Duke Ellington.” I wanted to correct this oversight while the season — Mr. Marsalis’s penultimate one in his current position — is still upon us. As it happens, Ekep Nkwelle, who must surely be the best and most accomplished young singer who has yet to make an album of her own, played a prominent role in both events. The annual Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala Concert was, always a big deal. The host was the sleek, stylish, and ageless Angela Bassett, looking like she just teleported in from Wakanda. She showed so much enthusiasm and energy reading the narration, scripted by Tad Hendrickson, that I hope if Ken Burns ever does a follow-up episode to his acclaimed “Jazz” series — and I have petitioned him personally for this — he would do well to consider getting Ms. Bassett to do the voiceover.Ms. Nkwelle was the breakout star of both shows, and she came on early in both. At the gala, she delivered a searing big band arrangement by Sherman Irby of the ancient blues, “C. C. Rider,” a tune with associations from Ma Rainey to Elvis Presley, and absolutely laid us in the aisles. She also launched the Ellington set with “Tell Me It’s the Truth,” a highly-percussive waltz from Ellington’s original “[First] Concert of Sacred Music” in 1965. Following an elaborate and extended introduction featuring tambourines and trap, Ms. Nkwelle, conveyed that she could not only sing the blues and swing but she could also feel the spirit.This year’s Gala was titled “Rhythms That Move the World,” and not least because that connotated a healthy dose of Afro Cuban music, the point man for the evening was the band’s resident specialist in Latin Jazz, bassist and arranger Carlos Henriquez. Vocalist Aymée Nuviola delivered a great moment with Mr. Henriquez’s arrangement of the Puerto Rican standard “El Cumbanchero”; like many of the numbers at the Gala, there was an accompanying dance, this time by Silvana Salazar and Giuliana Totagiancaspro. Whenever JALC provides a choreographic component to go along with the music, it always goes over so well that you wonder why the organization doesn’t incorporate dance into all of the orchestra’s concerts. The musical highlight was probably the great Panama-born Salsero Rubén Blades, who, even at 78, is a singer of conviction, power, and sheer majesty. He performed the classic Mexican bolero “Cuentas del Alma (Lien on My Soul”) in a vintage arrangement by the late mambo king Tito Puente, and there was a lovely solo by Mr. Marsalis as well. Non Latin high moments included an evocative, New Orleans-inspired instrumental titled “Down by the Bayou,” by the Orchestra’s former clarinetist Victor Goines. There also was a slice of Ellingtonia in the form of one of the Duke’s most high-energy anthems, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” sung by Shenel Johns. The orchestra’s January concert “Duke in Africa,” reviewed in these pages, was a high point of the season, but the Appel Room performance of The Maestro’s religious works was possibly even more special.Wynton Marsalis and Angela Bassett at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Jazz at Lincoln CenterIn 2023, the young pianist Luther Allison had presented an earlier version of this program with a single singer at Dizzy’s; the new edition featured a much bigger band, including a well-utilized string section. There was also a full contingent of vocalists; a solo soprano, Ms. Nkwelle, a solo bari-tenor, C. Anthony Bryant, who shined on “Heaven,” a piece generally associated with female singers starting with the late Alice Babs, with the leader on organ, and a trio, The Sunhouse Singers, consisting of Kate Kortum, June Cavlan, and Joie Bianco. There’s no such thing as “typical” Ellington, but the music that the Maestro wrote for his three sacred concerts is some of his most personal and most powerful. Mr. Allison’s new arrangements, with vocal parts written by Ms. Cavlan, of these works are at once highly original and true to the spirit of what Duke intended. “Is God A Three-Letter Word For Love?” from the 1973 “Third Sacred Concert” opened with the string section backing Ms. Kortum, singing lead with the trio, while Mr. Allison accompanied with Dukish chromaticisms. The group’s harmonies were exquisite, and The Word was made even more forthright when Mr. Bryant, in a spoken interlude, preached a Ducal sermon in the center intoning, “Questions, answers, and strange replies…” over a string background. Mr. Allison’s program is a major success, and in Ms. Nkwelle and Mr. Bryant, he has two vocalists who are fully the equal of most of the singers who sang these works with the Duke himself. Mr. Allison should not only record it, he should consider expanding it to two acts, and include additional Ellington sacred works, like “The Shepherd,” heard on “Ellington Masterworks,” a new album by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, and “Ain’t But The One,” which Tony Bennett sang on a 1982 Ellingtonia concert. More than that, he should take it to every church, synagogue, and mosque in the country. I would love to see the president and the Pope sitting side by side and feeling the spirit.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Honors Duke in Grand Style

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