Jason Moran and the Bandwagon to Play Kimmel Center, 3/29

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts continues this season's Jazz at the Kimmel offerings with Artistic Director of Jazz at the Kennedy Center Jason Moran leading as front man to The Bandwagon at the Perelman Theater onSunday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. A brilliant, risk taking pianist, Moran's compositions have earned him a reputation as "the future of jazz," most recently recognized for his work on the musical score of Oscar-nominated film, Selma. The Philadelphia program features songs from Ten, the most assured and focused album of his acclaimed career, featuring fellow Bandwagon bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits.

The trailblazing trio joined forces with Blue Note Record's 60th anniversary tour over a decade ago. Since then, Jason Moran and the Bandwagon have become a formidable, creative innovator of jazz, challenging the status quo in improvisation, composition, group concept, repertoire, technique and experimentation.

"Ten is our first record that doesn't rely on a concept to drive it. The only concept is us as a band today," says Moran. "As we have evolved over ten years, there's a certain ease that we now function within, an ease to let the music be. On some of my earlier recordings, I was making sure I exposed my ideas as a thinker. Now we refrain from jumping through every musical window of opportunity, but only jump through the good windows."

Ten features "Blue Blocks" from the Philadelphia Museum of Art commission, which worked with Moran to create works inspired by Gee's Bend: the Architecture of the Quilt exhibit. The album also includes"RFK in the Land of Apartheid," from their original score to a documentary film of the same name and "Feedback Pt. 2," a homage to Jimi Hendrix's performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.

In 1999, the same year that Jason Moran released his debut recording Soundtrack to Human Motion,the prodigy pianist and composer also joined New Directions, a band made up of young stars from the Blue Note roster that went on tour in celebration of the label's 60th anniversary. At the core of New Directions was the genesis of a rhythm section with Moran, bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, which Moran has since dubbed The Bandwagon, which has gone on to become one of the most enduringly creative piano trios in jazz.

The Bandwagon made their first recording as a trio with Facing Left in 2000, and has been the foundation of the majority of Moran's artistic statements since. Following the release of The Bandwagon, culled from the trio's six-day stint at New York's Village Vanguard, The New York Timescalled them "the best new rhythm section in jazz." The trio has been augmented by saxophonist Sam Rivers for 2001's Black Stars, (which was named to NPR's list of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings") and guitarist Marvin Sewell on 2005's blues exploration Same Mother as well as 2006'sArtist In Residence, a compendium of Moran's arts institution commissions that also featured collaborations with soprano Alicia Hall Moran and conceptual artist Adrian Piper.

New York Times critic Nate Chinen has praised Moran's "fierce longstanding group," saying that they "didn't follow his lead so much as flank him on both sides. Though it's a trio its sound described something bigger and more indivisible."

Tickets are available from $34-$44. Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at kimmelcenter.org, at the Kimmel Center box office at Broad & Spruce Streets (open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.).