WYNTON MARSALIS
Wynton Marsalis will perform with the New Jersey City University Alumni Jazz Big Band on Sept. 10, in a free concert at Jersey City’s J. Owen Grundy Pier saluting the late trumpeter, flugelhorn player and composer Clark Terry.
(SEPT. 9 UPDATE: Due to the weather forecast this concert is moving indoors to Jersey’s City’s Hyatt Regency.)
Terry, who died in February at the age of 94, taught for many years at William Paterson University in Wayne, and his archives are housed there.
Marsalis visited Terry in a Pine Bluff, Ark., hospital last year, and later wrote on Facebook that he and the other musicians who visited Terry “were full of emotion because his presence reminded us of how much of himself he had given to the world, this country, our music, our instrument and each of us individually. And it hit us. All the gigs, recordings, lessons, bands, students, all state jazz orchestras, master classes, TV shows, world beating concerts with Basie and Ellington, his own groups, jam sessions — and all of it at the absolute highest level of engagement — was laying in the bed before us. And we wanted him to be proud and feel the love we felt for him. It was palpable.”
WINARD HARPER
The show is part of Jersey City’s free Sounds of Summer Concerts series, which also includes a concert by drummer Winard Harper and his band, Jeli Posse, plus the Musical Theatre Workshop Touring Ensemble (an NJCU vocal group under the direction of Marc Dalio), this Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Lincoln Park.
Lawn chairs and blankets are recommended; the rain date is Aug. 25.
Here is a trailer for the 2014 documentary, “Keep on Keepin’ On,” which focused on Terry’s relationship with one of his young students, pianist Justin Kauflin:
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