Main Stage
Tickets $48 / $42
About Songs We Love
Spotlighting Next-Generation Jazz Stars and Iconic Songs from the 1920s to 1950s
Featuring Trumpeter and Musical Director RILEY MULHERKAR, and Vocalists VUYO SOTASHE, BRIANNA THOMAS, and SHENEL JOHNS;
With Mariel Bildsten (trombone), Lucas Pino (reeds), Mathis Picard (piano), Barry Stephenson (bass) and TJ Reddick (drums)
Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents SONGS WE LOVE is a celebration of the history of American jazz — and its future.
Jazz at Lincoln Center PRESENTS: Songs We Love from IMG Artists on Vimeo.
Songs We Love was first presented as the 2016 Season Opener at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. With this expanded 2023 touring initiative, Jazz at Lincoln Center provides a wide range of concert presenters an opportunity to offer excellent jazz programming while introducing to a broader audience the musicians who will reinterpret and reimagine the sound of jazz for years to come.
In Songs We Love, a superb ensemble of up-and-coming players, schooled and tested on the stages of Jazz at Lincoln Center and concert halls around the world, will revisit some of the great songs from the first decades of jazz. Under the musical direction of trumpeter Riley Mulherkar and featuring vocalists Vuyo Sotashe, Brianna Thomas, and Shenel Johns, the ensemble will bring to life songs and styles that define the sound of jazz singing from the 1920s to the early 1950s. It’s a journey of blues, swing, and surprise, from the sound of Ma Rainey and the extraordinary storytelling of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald to the easy swing of Frank Sinatra and the dramatic flair of Judy Garland.
The repertoire includes gems such as the traditional blues “See See Rider,” first recorded in 1924 by Ma Rainey, and Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr.’s “God Bless the Child,” a classic ballad first recorded in 1941. The song was sparked by the line “God bless the child that’s got his own,” which Holiday’s mother used in an argument with her daughter. It was celebrated in 2001 as one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The program also includes jewels by masters of songcraft such as George Gershwin (“I Loves You Porgy”), Cole Porter (“So in Love”), and Harold Arlen (“Over the Rainbow,” sung by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz in 1939).
These songs have remained an inspiration and a reference for generations of jazz and pop performers and songwriters.
About Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is dedicated to inspiring and growing audiences for jazz. With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio programs, television broadcasts, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, jazz appreciation curricula for students, music publishing, children’s concerts and classes, lectures, adult education courses, student and educator workshops, a record label, and interactive websites. Under the leadership of Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, Chairman Clarence Otis, and Executive Director Greg Scholl, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of events each season in its home in New York City, Frederick P. Rose Hall, and around the world. For more information, visit jazz.org.
About IMG Artists
IMG Artists is a global leader of performing arts, social media, and festival and events management. For more than thirty years, the company has set the standard for excellence across fields of artist and celebrity management, touring, dance and attractions, festival and event management and cultural consulting. Their specialists in offices across four continents offer unparalleled international reach and depth of experience to the company’s artists, clients and partners.
