Midsummer Night Swing: Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

Opening night for the annual Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center at Damrosch Bandshell was a beautiful evening yesterday with clear skies and warm temperatures. Although access to a professional dance floor was available for a $17 admission, this was basically a free concert for the Lincoln Square neighborhood where anyone could dance on the plaza pavement or else sit on ledges along the plaza walls and listen to the live music.

The concert began at 7:30 after an hour of ballroom dance lessons.  The music was big band swing from the 1940's and 1950's era.  It featured such music as Benny Carter's arrangement of All of Me and his original composition Again and Again written when he was age 88 according to an announcement from the stage.  Surviving members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra were on hand to play that composer's classics as well as pieces made famous by Count Basie.  The performance of music by the late bandleader Tito Puente added a Latin flavor to the proceedings.

This was a casual fun evening when everyone got to relax and have a good time while listening to great jazz musicians, including the legendary Wynton Marsalis on trumpet, as they performed popular masterpieces from a bygone era.