The Bob Collymore Foundation (BCF) has announced the launch of the BC Jazz Lounge, part of the BC International Jazz Festival Series (BCIJF), with the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) with Wynton Marsalis set to headline two shows in Nairobi this October.
Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, who directs the JLCO, will lead the 15-member ensemble in two performances at Tamarind Gardens — a VIP show on October 1 and a general event on October 2.
The visit will also include an education day for emerging artists and students, featuring a masterclass for local jazz musicians and participants from Ghetto Classics and other Nairobi schools.
Nairobi is one of the stops on JLCO’s first-ever multi-country Africa tour, which brings together virtuoso instrumentalists, soloists, composers, and arrangers to showcase a wide variety of jazz styles.
Festival Director Wambui Collymore hailed the milestone.
“We are incredibly honoured to host the Orchestra as they embark on their first Africa tour. It shows how far our Festival has come in building Africa’s jazz ecosystem.”
Special guests on the tour include drummer Herlin Riley, percussionist Weedie Braimah, and vocalist Shenel Johns.
They will perform Marsalis’s new composition Afro!, which will premiere just before the Africa tour, adding to his acclaimed works such as Blood on the Fields (1996), Congo Square (2007), Ochas (2014), and The South African Songbook (2019).
Reflecting on the historic tour, Marsalis said the tour was significant.
“The JLCO’s first tour of Africa is deeply profound. In the globally influential music and dance concepts of Africa, we can perceive harmony with nature, the supernatural, and endless variations on fundamental themes in pursuit of a good time.”