It’s great to have Mr. Marsalis & JALC Orchestra back – as well as the incomparable Ms. Catherine Russell.
  Time marches on. It was 1979 when Wynton Marsalis, then a teenager, a student at Julliard and new to New York City having arrived from The Crescent City, was invited – with nudging from James Williams and Bobby Watson, band members themselves at the time – to join Art Blakey and become a Jazz Messenger. His debut recording as a leader came just two years later, and six years hence, in the summer of 1987, the first performance at the behest of Lincoln Center took place. In 2004, Jazz at Lincoln Center – the expansion and establishment of a jazz “wing” of the famed institution -- opened and the orchestra had, perhaps, the best home known to jazz in the world with jazz’s most visible figure serving as its Artistic Director.
  This Marsalis – the trumpet-playing Marsalis – made his first Columbia appearance, likewise, in 1987, then leading a quartet. He’s graced Columbia and Jazz Series stages on various occasions since, leading either small- or mid-sized-ensembles or the famed Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Of late, though, there has been a gap between visits – five years to be more precise, his last visit taking place in 2011. And so we’re extremely pleased to welcome Mr. Marsalis back – this time with not only the big band of note, but also Catherine Russell, one of today’s very special vocalists will be joining him.
  She is affectionately referred to as “jazz royalty” – and with good reason. She’s the daughter of Luis Russell – Louis Armstrong’s musical director for a decade in the 1940s-1950s. Turns out Ms. Russell grew up frequently in the presence of Mr. Marsalis’ idol and de facto mentor. To say Russell – who performed as part of the Jazz Series three seasons ago – knows the music, all of the music from the torch singers of the 1920s to the present, would be an understatement. In addition to being an accomplished and powerful singer-dynamo and band leader herself – Ms. Russell’s  credits include serving as “backup singer” for an extended period of time for the likes of the late David Bowie and doing so on an ongoing basis for pop world heroes Michael McDonald, Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs, among others. Twenty feet from stardom? Don’t think so. She is stardom. To have Russell serve as vocal foil to the JALC Orchestra… now that is special.