Jazz at Lincoln Center will launch its “Mother Africa” season with the world premiere of “Afro!,” a new commission by managing and artistic director — and jazz legend — Wynton Marsalis, on Sept. 18–20 at 7:30 p.m. in Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s New York home, Frederick P. Rose Hall.
Performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Marsalis, Djembefola (master of the djembe drum) Weedie Braimah, and vocalist Shenel Johns, “Afro!” opens Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2025-26 season of concerts, education programs, and other events celebrating Africa’s influence on jazz.
Following its New York premiere, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis alongside drummer Herlin Riley, Braimah, and Johns will take Afro! and other selections from its celebrated repertoire on the Orchestra’s first multi-city tour of Africa.
Nearly 20 years ago, in 2006, Marsalis premiered “Congo Square,” which evoked the spirit of the historic New Orleans site — at one time, the only place in America where African slaves were allowed to dance and play drums. Composed for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Odadaa!, a nine-piece Ghanaian percussion and vocal ensemble, the piece celebrated the cultural roots and mythic birthplace of jazz.
“Afro!” explores the deep ties between jazz, the African continent, and its diaspora, a leitmotif that the Orchestra previously addressed in other past Marsalis opuses as “Blood on the Fields” (1996), “Ochas” (2014), and the fresh big band arrangements comprising its “The South African Songbook” concert (2019).
Tickets for Wynton Marsalis’ Afro! with Weedie Braimah and Shenel Johns: The Ertegun Jazz Concert include access to a pre-concert lecture in the The Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Studio at 6:30 p.m. on Sept.18-20. Audiences are welcome to a free performance by the Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere Quartet in the Ertegun Atrium at 6:30 p.m. and during intermission on Sept.18 and 19. Ticket prices begin at $30.
The Sept. 18 performance will live stream exclusively on jazzlive.com.
In addition to concerts in convention centers and open-air venues, the Orchestra will perform or collaborate with local musicians in each city, and host education initiatives at local schools.
“The earliest and most fundamental human mythology is African,” Marsalis says. “From Venda to Igbo to a host of other belief systems across the continent, there are viable solutions to today’s challenges.”
“Our ancestors had cogent and powerful thoughts on who we are as individuals as we pass through the natural cycles of life, how we should relate to one another socially, and how to be one with the universal spirit that inhabits all,” he continues. “In their globally influential music and dance concepts, we can perceive how to find harmony and balance with nature, how to perceive and interact with the supernatural, and how to create endless variations on fundamental themes in pursuit of a good time.”
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Tour Dates
Thursday, September 18-Saturday, September 20, 2025
Rose Theater in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
New York, NY
Friday, September 26, 2025
Standard Bank Joy of Jazz
Johannesburg, South Africa
Sunday, September 28, 2025
Standard Bank Joy of Jazz
Johannesburg, South Africa
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
BC International Jazz Festival
Tamarind Tree Hotel: Misumi Garden
Nairobi, Kenya
Thursday, October 2, 2025
BC International Jazz Festival
Tamarind Tree Hotel: Misumi Garden
Nairobi, Kenya
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Landmark Centre
Lagos, Nigeria
Friday, October 10, 2025
+233 Jazz Bar and Grill / Ghana Jazz Foundation
Accra, Ghana
Saturday, October 11, 2025
+233 Jazz Bar and Grill / Ghana Jazz Foundation
Accra, Ghana
