Jazz at Lincoln Center Performs “Songs We Love” at Rialto Center for the Arts on March 18

 Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University will host the Atlanta premiere of Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents “Songs We Love” this Saturday, March 18 at 8 p.m.

The event marks the first downtown Atlanta performance by the Manhattan-based tour group and their first return to Atlanta since a holiday-themed performance in December 2018.

“Songs We Love” is arranged as a journey through the first 50 years of jazz song with the musical direction of trombonist Mariel Bildsten. Three guest vocalists will join an all-star band made up of New York’s rising stars discovered by Wynton Marsalis. Combining their distinct talents, the group will sing their way through four decades of music, beginning with the early blues and jazz of the 1920s and ending in the early 1950s.

Iconic singers to be explored include Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. “Songs We Love” was first presented as the 2016 Season Opener at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

For tickets, visit Rialto.GSU.edu or by phone at 404-413-9849 as well as walkup tickets at the Rialto Center Box Office. For GSU student discount, click here.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Rialto’s 2022-2023 Rialto Series Season of Power + Spirit, a curated journey through the arts that builds upon the theme of the 2021-2022 Season of Mastery. Other upcoming season events include the dynamic tap troupe of Dorrance Dance Company, led by artistic director and 2015 MacArthur Fellow Michelle Dorrance and Atlanta-born Aaron Marcellus, performing April 1. The Georgia State University School of Music presents the Ned Rorem and J.D. McClatchy adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s classic American play with “Our Town” The Opera on April 15 and 16.

The season concludes on April 21 with jazz drummer and 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship winner Jeff “Tain” Watts in concert with the GSU Jazz Band. More information is available via Rialto.GSU.edu.

(Photo credit: Frank Stewart)