Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra & Wynton Marsalis

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra & Wynton Marsalis at Helzberg Hall - Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Fifteen musicians, one big-band conversation: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis brings its swing to Helzberg Hall in Kansas City, Missouri. Wynton Marsalis leads from the trumpet chair, and the ensemble behind him isn't background—it's a working conversation between soloists, composers and arrangers who turn arrangements into living music.

The pleasure of a fifteen-piece band is how its substantial ensemble sound can give way to an improviser's individual voice. With soloists, composers and arrangers among its players, the orchestra has plenty of personalities to bring to that exchange. Swing provides the momentum; the musicians' ideas give it variety.

Kansas City knows this tradition, and the orchestra approaches it as music with room for individual ideas. Marsalis leads as trumpeter, but the ensemble's soloists and improvisers give the group more than one point of view. That contrast between collective swing and individual expression is a particular reason to hear this band.

March arrives with music worth dressing up for. If you want the weight of fifteen players thinking together, and the pleasure of an improviser taking an idea somewhere unexpected, this concert has plenty to offer. Find tickets for their March 9 performance at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.