The Great American Songbook New York Performances

At Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra traces a working map of the Great American Songbook, the loose canon of 20th‑century standards drawn from jazz, popular songwriting, and the stage. Under the artistic leadership of Wynton Marsalis, the program moves through big‑band repertory and selections shaped by the orchestra’s collaborative projects, including work associated with artists such as Chris Crenshaw. New York City has long been a proving ground for these songs, from Broadway houses to Harlem bandstands, where they were revised night after night. The performance treats the Songbook less as a monument than as a living archive.