The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is on stage tonight at Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville. The big band’s roster includes 15 permanent members, led by Wynton Marsalis. The orchestra’s home is in New York City, but their tours take them across the world. Alexa Tarantino, alto and soprano saxophones, flute and clarinet, says she and her colleagues love to tour.
Alexa Tarantino: Particularly this program, we’ve got a lot of new repertoire, new pieces in our wheelhouse that we’re playing, in some cases, maybe just for the second or third time. So it’s going to be a special evening for us and hopefully for the audience as well.
Kyle Kellams: When I look at the musicians that are part of the orchestra, the folks who’ve grown up in New Orleans, Tuscaloosa, England, Sioux City, Connecticut, the Bronx, Virginia, does that matter that you have such a wide range of backgrounds playing together?
Tarantino: Yeah, I think it does. It does matter. That’s what makes it so special. That’s what makes, you know, brings all the flavors of the meal together, I guess is the way to put it. We all come from such different backgrounds and have different ways of playing, you know, different personalities and characters in our playing. And that’s what makes this band so unique and so personal.
Kellams: And different generationally, too, right?
Tarantino: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I grew up seeing the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis when I was a high schooler. So, um, and then I came through Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education program specifically. They’re essentially Essentially Ellington competition and festival for high school students. And two of my colleagues in the saxophone section, Chris Lewis and Abdias Armenteros are also around my age and a little younger, and we all went to Juilliard either together or just slightly apart from each other, and had also come up seeing this orchestra, seeing people like Wynton Sherman, Irby, Ted Nash play in the in the band, Victor Goines. And so it’s a real honor and privilege to have stepped into those roles and joined the orchestra full time.
Kellams: And the way, of course, an orchestra collection or lineup changes over time is that there’s kind of a gentle passing of the torch, but you can make connections that, you know, very directly, I think this orchestra links back to the one that you saw when you were in high school.
Tarantino: Yes. Yeah, definitely. I mean, folks in the orchestra may stay in the band for 20 or 30 years. And the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was initially formed with founding members of Duke Ellington’s orchestra, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Orchestra. So there’s a very strong through line and tradition, from the beginning to where we are now to where we’re heading to.
Kellams: You mentioned that when you were in high school and young, you saw the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra perform. I remember I wonder specifically any women on saxophone that you saw ever performed that kind of inspired you when you were young?
Tarantino: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut, and at the time, the public school program was exceptional for jazz. And it still is. And that high school is called Hall High School. So when I was growing up, just as a grade schooler, uh, really, an elementary schooler, I saw a young woman named Erica von Kleist playing as part of the high school band. And she competed, uh, with Hall High School at Essentially Ellington and various other festivals. And so I really admired her playing and her improvising and, you know, sort of featured soloing. And she went on to have an amazing career in New York City and beyond.
Tarantino: And so it’s about that representation and seeing somebody up there doing it in a way that you can see yourself get up there and achieve that goal and, and stay inspired. So that was a big moment for me.
Kellams: You mentioned that the repertoire is a lot of it new to the orchestra, and will be one of the first times you play. Can you give us an idea of what we’ll hear?
Tarantino: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we are, um, we’re making our way to Arkansas after about a week here in, uh, Lawrence, Kansas, where we just premiered a new suite called The Wave, the Wheat Suite, which was a celebration for Kansas University. Here we each wrote a new piece of music for the band, dedicated to an alum of the university. So we’ve got 15 new pieces that we’re working on. We just premiered them last night. So the rest of the folks who are seeing us on this tour through Oklahoma and Arkansas and Texas will be hearing these pieces, like I said, for maybe the second or third time.
Kellams: Do you mind if I ask you just a couple of questions about The Roar and The Whisper, your recently released LP?
Tarantino: Of course. Sure. Thank you.
Kellams: First of all, I have to say I, maybe I’m wrong on this, but it seems as though there was sort of an old school approach to this because I listened to it over and over, and it plays as if it was an intentional selection of songs in order. I’m thinking specifically when we go from “Provoking Luck” to “All Along”.
Excerpts of “Provoking Luck” and “All Along” plays.
This reminds me of when albums were created as albums. Was that at all the approach?
Tarantino: Thank you so much for checking it out, Kyle. I appreciate it. And yeah, that was definitely the approach and I appreciate you pointing that out. I definitely tried to write the original pieces in a way that they were all connected, but that they could still stand strong on their own. And then in coming up with the order of things. Um, it was just. Yeah, it was about that flow of emotion, you know. What emotions does each melody bring out, and how do I want the listener to feel on that journey from beginning to end? You know, I’m still there. We all are still those listeners that listen to a record from beginning to end. And I think a lot of people nowadays are, um, often just kind of picking one track on Apple Music or whatever it might be.
So, for us still that journey is very important and very meaningful. And I really appreciate you joining me on that journey.
Kellams: Alexa Tarantino and the rest of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will be at the Walton Arts Center Monday night. The latest album released just this year from Alexa is “The Roar and The Whisper”. Alexa Tarantino, thank you so much for your time.
Tarantino: Thank you Kyle, such a pleasure to chat with you. Looking forward to seeing you all in Fayetteville with Wynton and the JLCO.
Kellams: Thank you so much.
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