Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at Virginia Tech

Grammy-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Made up of 15 of today’s finest jazz musicians, the group performs the music of great jazz composers as well as original works. The orchestra returns to the Moss with a program celebrating the centennial of percussionist Max Roach.

Considered one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time, Roach used his music to address racial, political, and social issues. A pioneering legend and innovative master musician and bandleader, Roach spanned a diverse range of styles that influenced generations to follow. Roach was an influential member of the Charlie Parker-Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, performed alongside Miles Davis’ seminal Birth of the Cool, and formed the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet. He went on to make albums with his wife, the trailblazing singer and songwriter Abbey Lincoln, going on to say in 1961 to Downbeat Magazine that he would “never again play anything” that did not “have social significance.”