Start saving up your allowance now, because Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) just announced the line-up for their Fourth Annual Spring Gala and it’s not particularly easy on the pocket. Titled “That’s Entertainment,” the event will be held on June 6 at the Apollo Theater in New York City and features quite an eclectic collection of performers: the Wynton Marsalis Septet with Lyle Lovett (pictured), the Blind Boys of Alabama, Robert Downey Jr., Wynonna Judd and Tom Jones.
You can buy tickets for the event and post-concert gala dinner (which run at a minimum $1,000 per person) by calling JALC at (212) 258-9961. The evening’s proceeds will benefit JALC performances and educational programs.
The Wynton Marsalis Septet features Marsalis accompanied by five current musicians from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (Wess Anderson on alto sax, Victor Goines on tenor sax, Wycliff Gordon on trombone, Carlos Henriquez on bass and drummer Herlin Riley) and former member Mulgrew Miller on piano.
Lovett was a journalism student at Texas A&M University and a booking agent for the student coffeehouse before he signed to MCA Nashville in 1986. After recording three country albums for them, he decided to expand his musical horizons and began to explore broader influences, such as gospel and R&B.
The Blind Boys of Alabama, the patriarchs of the group, formed in 1937 and have since continued to release new albums, including their first Billboard Top 100 album for There Will Be Light in 2004. That same year, actor Robert Downey Jr. released his first album. Released on Sony Classics, the album is entitled The Futurist and contains eight Downey originals and two covers.
Wynonna Judd formally entered the music world in 1984 as part of the legendary country duo the Judds and has continued her two-decade musical career. She most recently released her solo album What the World Needs Now is Love in 2003. Tom Jones was first signed to a record label in 1964 at age 24 and has since released numerous albums, many of which charted on the Billboard
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