Meet The JLCO
The world’s premier big band, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis consists of 15 permanent members performing live in New York City and around the world.
Wynton Marsalis
Music Director, Trumpet
Wynton Marsalis serves as Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961 to a musical family, Marsalis was gifted his first trumpet at age 6 by Al Hirt. By 8, he began playing in the famed Fairview Baptist Church Band…
Obed Calvaire
DRUMS
Obed Calvaire, a Miami native of Haitian descent, is a graduate with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. He received his bachelor of music in 2003, and his master of music in 2005. Calvaire has performed and recorded with…
Christopher Crenshaw
Trombone
The Golkin Family Chair
Christopher Crenshaw was born in Thomson, Georgia in 1982. An early love for piano led to his first gig with Echoes of Joy, his father Casper’s gospel quartet group. He started playing the trombone…
Vincent Gardner
Trombone
Vincent Gardner was born in Chicago and raised in Hampton, Virginia. He attended Florida A&M University and the University of North Florida, soon connecting with Mercer Ellington, who hired Gardner for his first professional job. After moving to Brooklyn…
Victor Goines
TENOR & SOPRANO SaxophoneS, CLARINET, BASS CLARINET
New Orleans native Victor Goines has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993. He has released seven leader albums, composing more than 50 original works…
Carlos Henriquez
Bass
The Mandel Family Chair in honor of Kathleen B. Mandel
Carlos Henriquez was born in 1979 in the Bronx, New York. He took up the bass while enrolled in The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program. At LaGuardia High School…
Sherman Irby
ALTO & SOPRANO SaxophoneS, FLUTE, CLARINET
Sherman Irby was born and raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. As a high school student, he played and recorded with gospel immortal James Cleveland, later graduating from Clark Atlanta University with a bachelor of arts…
Ryan Kisor
Trumpet
Ryan Kisor was born on April 12, 1973 in Sioux City, Iowa, and began playing trumpet at age four. In 1990, he won first prize at the Thelonious Monk Institute’s first annual Louis Armstrong Trumpet Competition; in 1991, he enrolled in Manhattan School of Music…
Elliot Mason
Trombone
Elliot Mason was born in England in 1977. At 11, he was performing professionally on trombone; at 16, Mason received a full tuition scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston and, after graduating, moved to New York City. Mason serves as…
Ted Nash
ALTO & SOPRANO SaxophoneS, FLUTE, CLARINET
Ted Nash was born into a musical family in Los Angeles, California. The Grammy Award-winning artist, Nash has enjoyed an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator. He is co-founder of…
Paul Nedzela
baritone & soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet
Paul Nedzela has performed Wess Anderson, George Benson, The Birdland Big Band, Bill Charlap, Chick Corea, Paquito D’Rivera, Michael Feinstein, Benny Golson, Wycliffe Gordon, Roy Haynes, Christian McBride…
Dan Nimmer
Piano
The Zou Family Chair
Dan Nimmer was born in 1982 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Initially studying classical piano, he eventually became interested in jazz. After leaving Milwaukee to study music at Northern Illinois University…
Marcus Printup
Trumpet
Marcus Printup was born and raised in Conyers, Georgia. His first musical experiences were hearing the fiery gospel music his parents sang in church. While attending the University of North Florida on a music scholarship, he won the International…
Kenny Rampton
Trumpet
Kenny Rampton joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2010. . In addition to performing in the JLCO, Rampton leads his own projects. He released his debut leader record Moon Over Babylon in 2013. Rampton also serves as the trumpet voice for the popular…
2023–24 SUBSTITUTE ROSTER
Nicole Glover
Alexa Tarantino
Abdias Armenteros
Chris Lewis
Julian Lee
Sam Chess
Summer Camargo
Domo Branch
Philip Norris
meet the jlco
history of the jlco
In 1988 the Orchestra was formed as an outgrowth of its concert series, Classical Jazz, with David Berger conducting. When Wynton Marsalis became artistic director in 1991, he emphasized the history of jazz, particularly Duke Ellington. The first album was Portraits by Ellington (1992), and seven years later the Ellington centennial was honored with the album Live in Swing City: Swingin’ with the Duke (1999).
Under the leadership of Marsalis, the band performs at its home The House of Swing , tours throughout the U.S. and abroad, visits schools, appears on television, and performs with symphony orchestras. The Orchestra backed Wynton Marsalis on his album Blood on the Fields , which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997.
Since 2015, the Orchestra’s albums have been issued on its own label, Blue Engine Records. The first release from Blue Engine Records, Live in Cuba, was recorded on a historic 2010 trip to Havana by the JLCO and released in October 2015. The label issued Big Band Holidays in December 2015, The Abyssinian Mass in March 2016, The Music of John Lewis in March 2017, and the JLCO’s Handful of Keys in September 2017.
Blue Engine’s United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas features the Wynton Marsalis Septet and an array of special guests, with all proceeds going toward Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education initiatives. Blue Engine’s most recent album releases (2023) include Wynton Marsalis Plays Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens and The Jungle, a recording of Marsalis’ fourth symphony featuring the JLCO and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Fall Tour
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis
The JLCO’s fall tour is on now. Learn more about the band and find out where you can see them live this season.