photo credit: Frank Stewart
To honor and celebrate those lost to COVID-19, interfaith leaders have enlisted musicians and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to create a weekly community remembrance, Memorial For Us All. In the midst of this unprecedented pandemic, while many rituals we hold dear are no longer possible, Memorial For Us All offers unity, comfort, and healing through music, an art form intertwined with so many of our most beloved rituals around the world.
These weekly memorials begin Sunday, May 3 at 6:00 pm ET on social media and will be available online any time at the Lincoln Center website. Wynton Marsalis will inaugurate the series, with additional artists to be announced in the coming days.
Memorial For Us All is a secular community remembrance, welcoming all to celebrate the lives of those who have left us too soon. Community members are invited to submit the names of a neighbor, friend, or loved one to honor.
“I’m proud to inaugurate the Memorial For Us All series. These performances are intended to reach across generations, nations, class, race, and religions to unite us with the healing power of music. It is needed now, more than ever,” said Wynton Marsalis, Managing and Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center. “On Sunday, we’ll perform the New Orleans Function, two traditional songs that exemplify the mood and progression of a funeral/parade as is our way down in the Big Easy. The slow mournful dirge “Flee as A Bird” is played, some well chosen words are spoken (in this case a roll call of the deceased), and the joyous, celebratory, irreverent “Didn’t He Ramble” allows us to transition from death to everlasting life. I am honored to play with great musicians in the New Orleans tradition: Herlin Riley, Jason Marsalis, Shannon Powell, Vince Giordano, Wycliffe Gordon, Don Vappie, Maurice Trosclair, Chris Crenshaw, Marcus Printup, Jon-Erik Kellso, Camille Thurman, Ted Nash, Victor Goines, Dr. Michael White and Gregory Agid. In the sweet by and by.
