A Centennial Birthday Celebration! Jazz 100 at McCarter Theatre Center

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What do the following jazz greats have in common: Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Monto Santamaria? They were all born in the glorious year of 1917 and pianist Danilo Perez (whose jazz DNA includes both Monk and Santamaria) has assembled an unparalleled combination of players to mark the legacy, headed by vocalist Lizz Wright, whose latest CD Freedom and Surrender debuted at No.1 on the Billboard Contemporary and Current Jazz charts. She will be supported by an all-star ensemble including Chris Potter (tenor sax), Avishai Cohen (trumpet), and Wycliffe Gordon (trombone), plus a rhythm section to round out the lineup to intertwine with those early strands of jazz history.