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After opening the SummerStage season in 2021, the renowned jazz ensemble returns with its critically-acclaimed director to this year’s season. Director Wynton Marsalis’s name looms large in the world of jazz, and for good reason— the Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer, and bandleader has helped shepherd the cultural institution of jazz into a new millennium. Under his direction, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire: from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and many others. Since the orchestra’s founding in 1988, the group’s performances have been leaving its global audiences inspired and uplifted with the full vigor, vision, and depth of America’s music. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis’s vast, innovative body of original work over the past decade demonstrates the orchestra composers’ and arrangers’ thematic ambitions, distinctive musical personalities, and unprecedented range.

Brooklyn born Stevan Smith graduated from the exceptional Boys and Girls High School and attended the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD), where he decided to switch to a path that would allow him to follow his passion for music. Introduced to Jazz music via Hip-Hop, Stevan started a radio programming internship at the MSU owned WEAA 88.9 FM, where he rose to Assistant Program Director. He then spent 12 years at WBGO as Traffic and Continuity Manager, where he contributed to the station's digital efforts, produced features for broadcast, and filled in as a guest announcer. For three years, Smith then served as Assistant Program Director at WNYC, during which time he continued to produce podcasts for himself and others. He returned to WBGO in 2021 as Chief Content Officer.

On this episode of The Art of the Story, WBGO's Leo Sidran talks with trumpeter and educator Sean Jones