Wynton Marsalis Performs The Ballad of the American Arts in Philadelphia, 4/3

The Kimmel Center kicks off Jazz Appreciation Month with a special program, The Ballad of the American Arts, featuring Wynton Marsalis with members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in Verizon Hall on April 3, 2012 at 7:30pm. Jazz master Marsalis honors America’s premier indigenous art form with a moving lecture and live performance. The lecture will examine the role of the arts in creating an American cultural identity, and includes performances featuring members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Band members to perform include: Dan Nimmer (piano), Carlos Henriquez (bass), Ali Jackson (drums). Chris Crenshaw (trombone), and Victor Goines (saxophone).

'A bravura 50-minute survey…putting into words the full weight of the tragic, glorious history bound up in our arts.' — Newsweek

“The best of the American arts and the way they’ve been sung and swung provided human meaning to the questions posed by the Founding Fathers more than 150 years earlier. It told you to be yourself and love what made you, you. It told you to listen deeply to others and find the beauty of originality in them. And through swing, the most flexible rhythm ever played, it told you how to balance your individuality with the desires of the group. It told you we have a history, a depth, a tradition that requires skill and study but demands you apply those skills to search the frontiers of your soul. It told you that innovation and creativity hold hands with the tried and true.” —Wynton Marsalis on the Importance of the American Arts

Wynton Marsalis currently serves as Artistic Director for Jazz at Lincoln Center and Music Director for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He has been described as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation, as one of the world's top classical trumpeters, as a big band leader in the tradition of Duke Ellington, a brilliant composer, a devoted advocate for the arts, and a tireless and inspiring educator.

Tickets for Wynton Marsalis: The Ballad of the American Arts are available from $25 to $60, and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center Box Office located on Broad and Spruce streets, Philadelphia, Pa. (open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., later on performance evenings).