Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Ushers in Series of Jazz Concerts at Symphony Hall

Wynton Marsalis recently punctuated his Atlanta farewell as head of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with an uptempo “Cottontail,” a Duke Ellington classic that typifies the approach to jazz he envisioned for the band when he started leading it 35 years ago.

Marsalis recently announced he will be leaving the band, which he has helmed since 1991, at the end of the 2026-2027 season. The trumpeter has been bringing his band to Symphony Hall nearly three decades. This year, a sold out crowd (including conductor Teddy Abrams and clarinetist Martin Frost, both in town for engagements with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) came out to say goodbye. For possibly his final Symphony Hall performance with the group, Marsalis focused on Ellington, playing the composer’s entire “Togo Brava Suite” alongside other Ellington and Strayhorn pieces like “Soul Flute,” “The Eighth Veil,” “Dance #5” from the “Liberian Suite” and “Absinthe.”

Atlanta shows have always felt like a homecoming. That makes complete sense, as 20 percent of the current band has ties to the Peach State. That night, three members – alto saxophonist Sherman Irby, trumpeter Marcus Printup and trombonist Chris Crenshaw – made their area bona fides known. Those three have been associated with the band for decades, seeing other Georgia natives pass through the group. I remember a particularly meaningful 2010 show at Symphony Hall when saxophonist Walter Blanding, Jr., who recently left the group, shared the stage with his mother, the late singer Audrey Shakir.

During this most recent show, Marsalis heightened the band’s connection to the area, returning to the stage for an encore with Atlanta’s own Terence Harper included in a small scrum of trumpeters. The jazz continues at Symphony Hall March 23 with Pat Metheny; he’ll be bringing a rhythm section of younger musicians featured on his Side-Eye III+ album. Days later, Samara Joy joins the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and conductor Enrico Lopez-Yanez on March 25 and 26. Jazz picks up again in May when pianist Herbie Hancock returns to Symphony Hall on May 5. The ASO will also host the Atlanta Jazz Festival Kickoff on May 22, bringing M.E.B., formerly Miles Electric Band, to Symphony Hall in a tribute for the 100th anniversary of Miles Davis’ birth.

(Another jazz show put on by the ASO, featuring pianist Jon Batiste with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra is slated for April 25 at Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park.) That run of shows makes the ASO one of this spring’s most active presenters of jazz in Atlanta.

During the latest Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra show, you could already see signs of torch passing. Alexa Tarantino, on alto saxophone, and tenor saxophonist Chris Lewis, took over Marsalis’s typical emceeing duties. The band sounded as disciplined, and boundlessly creative improvisationally, as ever before. While each musician brings a unique sound and approach to the band, blending in effortlessly as a group, pianist Dan Nimmer’s chordal solos and Tarantino’s turns on flute stood out as highlights. And it wasn’t all Ellington for Marsalis’s possible final Symphony Hall performance with the orchestra. The band brought out two originals from their 15-part “Wave the Wheat Suite” – Nimmer’s “Bump, Set, Spike” and Tarantino’s “The Neutralizer,” written in tribute to vaccine warrior Dr. Barney Graham, who was sitting in the crowd. The band also featured tunes by Bheki Mseleku and Nduduzo Makhathini in a well-rounded program that provided a thorough example of the orchestra’s musical outlook.

The band’s relationship with Symphony Hall will no doubt outlast Marsalis’s tenure at the top. When the band gets to town in the post-Marsalis era, they might look a little different – or maybe even sound a little different – but no doubt they will be swinging just as hard as ever.