Big Band Holidays Iii 2025

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Blue Engine Records celebrates the most wonderful time of the year with the release of Big Band Holidays, a compilation of holiday classics performed live by the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Special guests on Big Band Holidays are some of today’s commanding new voices in jazz: René Marie, Gregory Porter and Cécile McLorin Salvant.

In celebration of the most wonderful time of the year, Blue Engine Records is proud to present the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis’ third collection of holiday music: Big Band Holidays III. The eight-song album features music recorded during Jazz at Lincoln Center’s beloved annual extravaganza over the past decade and spotlights guest vocalists including Catherine Russell, Kim Burrell, Denzal Sinclaire, and more.

Big Band Holidays is a 2015 CD by The Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra, featuring Wynton Marsalis. Some of the musicians joining him include Chris Crenshaw, Vincent Gardner, Elliot Mason, Kenny Rampton, Ted Nash, Victor Goines, Paul Nedzela, and many more.

"Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis" holiday album featuring special guests, Cécile Mclorin Salvant, René Marie and Gregory Porter.

Put some swing in your holiday season with Big Band Holidays from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. The first holiday album ever released by DownBeat Readers Poll s Best Big Band of 2013 & 2014, Big Band Holidays features original big band arrangements of timeless favorites including Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, We Three Kings, and White Christmas. Culled from three years of live concerts, the album also boasts a number of special guest vocalists.

In an orchestra, the trumpet, at least until the beginning of the 20th century, is mainly being used to play some kind of fanfare, announcing glory, war or victory. It is safe to say that only in jazz this instrument has shown its full sonic and emotional potential. The muted trumpet of Miles Davis has nothing to do with triumph. But of course, jazz trumpet players can just as well use the techniques and styles of classically trained musicians. In a decent jazz orchestra, first trumpet and drummer always take the lead.

The 8-Bit Big Band’s fifth studio release expands its “Great Video Game Songbook” with a widescreen, 70-minute voyage through large-ensemble jazz. Conductor/arranger Charlie Rosen marshals a New York-based 30-piece orchestra—plus special guests Matthew Whitaker, Martina DaSilva, Michael Rodriguez and others—to transform twelve iconic game themes (from Wii Sports, Metroid, Super Mario, Persona 5, Sonic 2, Undertale and more) into horn-driven extravaganzas. Earth, Wind & Fire-style funk fanfares, Afro-Cuban grooves, bossa-nova balladry, hard-swinging big-band charts, gospel praise breaks and even Rage-Against-the-Machine–tinged brass rock all collide in a jubilant affirmation that game music belongs on the same pedestal as the American jazz canon.

Continuing the research the his last release “Dantesca”, virtuoso saxophonist and brilliant composer Luigi Grasso presents “La Dimora Dell’Altrove”, a captivating musical journey that explores the profound themes of belonging and identity through the lens of duality—Heimweh (the nostalgia for one’s homeland) and Fernweh (the desire for exploration).
Commissioned by the NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) this opus features the unique characters of each soloists of the Bigband along a variety of aesthetic from jazz, rock, latin and contemporary music. The melding of these themes symbolizes the intertwining of cultural identities, emphasizing a rich tapestry of experiences that defines our sense of home.

Four-time Grammy® winners turn their attention to a very unique take on Holiday Favorites. Big Band Jazz, with some very special guests, will make your Holidays especially Merry! Carol of the Bells (feat. Eric Marienthal, soprano sax) Do You Hear What I Hear? (feat. Take 6) Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it Snow (feat. Jeff Driskill, tenor sax) Hark The Herald Angels Sing (feat. Trey Henry, bass, Gordon Goodwin, piano, Andy Martin, trombone) The Little Drummer Boy (feat. Jay Mason, baritone sax, Andrew Synoweic, guitar) A Christmas arol (feat. Wayne Bergeron, trumpet, Francisco Torres, trombone) I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day (feat. Dan Fornero, trumpet, Gordon Goodwin, tenor sax) Somewhere in my Memory (feat. Gordon Goodwin, soprano sax) Santa Baby (feat. Brian Scanlon, tenor sax, Willie Murillo, trumpet) Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.