May 18, 2004
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

UCSB Arts & Lectures brings the fantastic
Wynton Marsalis Quintet to UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Wynton Marsalis Quintet
• The group is led by Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis
• The band features some of the hottest players in jazz
• Marsalis’ most recent CD is The Magic Hour on Blue Note
• Thursday, June 17
• 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public: $55 / UCSB students: $25
• Tickets & Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

UCSB Arts & Lectures has added a special show, a concert by the incredible Wynton Marsalis Quintet, on Thursday, June 17 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis is not only the artistic director of the prestigious Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO), but is also acclaimed for his stunning work with small ensembles. He will come to Santa Barbara supporting The Magic Hour, his latest CD and first release for the legendary jazz label Blue Note. His group features Walter Blanding, Jr. on tenor saxophone, Eric Lewis on piano, Ali Jackson on drums and Carlos Henriquez on bass. This concert is a golden opportunity to catch Marsalis—hailed by the Boston Globe as “no less than the dominant voice in jazz”—in all his talented, improvisational glory within the quintet format.

Wynton Marsalis’ career as a trumpeter is unprecedented: he won the first Pulitzer Prize awarded to a jazz artist (for his 1997 work Blood on the Fields), while also twice winning dual Grammy Awards for best classical and jazz recordings (in 1983 and 1984). His prolific recording and release schedule includes a seven-CD box set Live at the Village Vanguard (1999) and numerous works commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center (J@LC). Marsalis is also a tireless educator, bringing jazz into schools. During its last two Santa Barbara residencies, LCJO performed at the Arlington Theatre for 2000 children and conducted jazz clinics at local schools. Marsalis functioned as the chief narrator for Jazz—A Film by Ken Burns, the landmark 19-hour PBS documentary of America’s classical music. In 2003 he signed with EMI’s Blue Note Records, joining the impressive roster of the 64-year-old label that has documented the modern and contemporary eras of jazz. He is helping to lead the effort to construct J@LC’s new home—Frederick P. Rose Hall—the first education, performance and broadcast facility devoted to jazz, slated to open in fall 2004.

By age 16, Walter Blanding, Jr. was performing regularly with his parents at the Village Gate. He lived in Israel for four years, where he had a major impact on the music scene, inviting great artists such as Louis Hayes, Eric Reed and others to perform. He also taught in several Israeli schools and toured the country with his ensemble. During this period, Newsweek described him as “Jazz’s Ambassador to Israel.” His first recording Tough Young Tenors was acclaimed as one of the best jazz albums of 1991. Since then, he has performed or recorded with many artists, including Cab Calloway, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Marcus Roberts, Illinois Jacquet, Eric Reed and Roy Hargrove. His latest release is The Olive Tree.

Eric Lewis has played the piano since he was three years old. Upon graduation from college, bassist Lonnie Plaxico recommended him for Cassandra Wilson’s band, a gig that lasted several years. As a sixteen-year old, Lewis was a semi-finalist in the 1989 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition and won it ten years later. He has toured with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine.

Ali Jackson attended the Mannes College of Music, where he received instruction from master drummers such as Joe Chambers and Max Roach. He has performed and recorded extensively with musicians including Wynton Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Aretha Franklin, Marcus Roberts, KRS-ONE, Marcus Printup, Nicholas Payton, Milt Hinton, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the New York City Ballet. For the past three years, he has been part of Young Audiences, a program that strives to educate New York City youth about jazz.

In high school bassist Carlos Henriquez performed in the LaGuardia Concert Jazz Ensemble, which earned first place in the J@LC First Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival in 1996, and second place the following year. Henriquez has performed with artists as diverse as Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Steve Turre, Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente, Carlos Santana, George Benson, Wynton Marsalis, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Danilo Perez and Celia Cruz.

After a concert in November 2003, Los Angeles Times critic Don Heckman wrote, “Performing with his quintet—a setting that provides a particularly felicitous arena for his instrumental and compositional skills—he was imaginative, hard swinging and unassumingly charismatic....The playing was extraordinary, with Marsalis sounding particularly free and easy, soaring through high notes, growling, mewling, his instrument at the full service of his spontaneous ideas. Bassist Carlos Hernandez and drummer Ali Jackson laid down superbly transparent rhythm accompaniment, and pianist Eric Lewis’ stunning playing ranged from tender lyricism to barrelhouse intensity.”

Arts & Lectures has presented Wynton Marsalis twice with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, on March 11, 2004 and September 25, 2001.

The concert by the Wynton Marsalis Quintet is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Santa Barbara Independent, KGMQ Magic 97.5 FM, Borders and Wilson Printing. Tickets are $55 for the general public and $25 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.