NEA Jazz Master, Carnegie Hall Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, and 14-time Grammy Award winner Paquito D'Rivera is one of the greatest musicians alive. A peerless virtuoso on the saxophone and clarinet, D'Rivera is a living, breathing institution in jazz, Latin, and contemporary classical music. He formed the groundbreaking group Irakere with Chucho Valdés, worked extensively in Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra, won Grammy Awards for his collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, and performs with top contemporary ensembles like the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and London Philharmonic.

One of D'Rivera's favorite albums is Charlie Parker's Bird with Strings, a definitive recording that combined Parker's emotional maturity and melodic mastery with romantic string arrangements. In this performance, D'Rivera exemplifies Jazz at Lincoln Center's commitment to presenting cherished masterpieces alongside new ideas; as he puts it, this is "To Bird with Strings" — a thoughtfully updated program that includes selections from the original Bird with Strings, unrecorded arrangements from the project, and new takes on Parker's work with Latin jazz legends like Machito and Chico O'Farrill. As demonstrated in D'Rivera's sold-out Bird with Strings concerts in 2013, this program puts D'Rivera's jaw-dropping solos on full display, thanks to expanded arrangements that highlight the improvisational prowess of D'Rivera and his fellow ensemble members, including pianist Alex Brown, drummer Eric Doob, bassist Zach Brown, percussionist Rolando Morales, violinist Andrei Matorin, oboist Tom Christensen, and harpist Riza Printup.

Free pre-concert discussion nightly at 7pm.

This concert is one of our 30th anniversary landmark performances because Paquito D’Rivera has been an essential part of Jazz at Lincoln Center for nearly our entire history. His encore performance of this tribute to one of jazz’s seminal albums is a perfect way to celebrate this milestone season. First performed to sold-out audiences during our 25th anniversary season, this concert will be a highlight of our 30th.

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Paquito D'Rivera