Artist News

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 More than any other single human-being, tubist Chester Schmitz etched Jabba the Hut in our collective consciousness. His tuba embodied the villan for John Williams, but the real man seems more infused by Dietrich Fischer Dieskau than Jabba musically; and embodies Christ more than the force spiritually. Perhaps this Star Wars solo was among the things that inspired the great composer John Williams to write a tuba concerto for [...]

“The Fantastic Mr. Jelly Lord,” the all-Jelly Roll Morton concert that opened the 2017 season of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, revealed the continued relevance of the great New Orleans maestro and was as good a case as any for Wynton Marsalis' credo that “all jazz is modern.” The piano chair for the evening featured a rotating cast including three great young pianists (Aaron Diehl, Sullivan Fortner and the JLCO's own Dan Nimmer) and a pair of even younger, highly promising Juilliard student pianists (Micha Thomas from Ohio and Joel Wenhardt from California). Playing a mix of original Morton charts [...]