Tonight and tomorrow night Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is offering a preview of its 2025-26 season, which will celebrate “Mother Africa.”
On July 24 and 25, at 7:30 p.m in Rose Hall, Reflections on Africa, music-directed by Vincent Gardner, will present compositions that reflect the impact of African consciousness on music composed by American jazz masters. Selections may include pieces from Randy Weston’s Uhuru Afrika and Highlife albums, Cannonball Adderley’s Accent on Africa and John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass, among others.
Gardner has played trombone in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since 2000 and is currently its principal trombonist; he also serves as artistic director of Jazz Houston.
Opening for the JLCO at these performances will be high school–aged musicians from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Summer Jazz Academy, a two-week residential program for advanced jazz study. Besides playing in Rose Hall Thursday and Friday nights, the academy’s orchestra will perform at the summer jazz festival of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, in Katonah, N. Y., on Saturday afternoon, July 26.
Tickets for Reflections on Africa are pay-what-you-choose starting at $20.00; purchases are limited to two seats per order online, over the phone, and in person at the box office. The concerts also will be streamed on Jazz.org.
In an interview this week with Forbes.com, Gardner described this week’s concerts as “a reflection of what’s coming next season, a small, 75-minute taste of what its theme is going to be, a tribute to Mother Africa.”
“There are clear lines of musical continuity that come directly from African music into Jazz music,” he added.
Gardner, who has arranged two of the pieces that will be performed, also has been the trombone instructor for the students at the Summer Jazz Academy; besides playing instruments, some students will also sing in the show.
Tod Stoll, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s vice president of education, said the Summer Jazz Academy students have been studying both at Bard College and the Juilliard School, which, like JALC, is part of Lincoln Center. He said they’ve been “very busy—we want them to leave here tired and inspired.”
Before the 2025-25 season begins in September, the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra will perform in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.
Jazz at Lincoln Center said its 38th season, “Mother Africa,” will delve “into the creative spirit that unites African and American musical traditions, and runs from September 18, 2025 to June 20, 2026. Dominating the season are concerts that explore the deep and enduring ties between jazz, the African continent, and its diaspora. The 2024-25 season includes 19 unique weekends of Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts in the 1233-seat Rose Theater, nine concerts in the 467-seat Appel Room, and more than 350 nights of music at Dizzy’s Club, in addition to webcast performances and in-person and virtual education programs.
“The season also highlights new works, commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center, from renowned jazz artists in the organization’s new The Commission Series. The new season also includes celebratory concerts to honor the centennials of three towering figures in jazz – Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, and Celia Cruz – further illuminating the far-reaching legacy of Afro-American and the African diaspora musical expression,” it concluded.