Jazz at Lincoln Center launches its Mother Africa season with the world premiere of Afro!, a new commission by Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, on Sept. 18–20 at 7:30 p.m. in Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s home, Frederick P. Rose Hall, located at Broadway at 60th St. in NY, NY.

Performed by the world renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, djembefola (master of the djembe drum) Weedie Braimah, and vocalist Shenel Johns, Afro! opens Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2025-26 season of concerts, education programs, and other events celebrating Africa’s influence on jazz.

In 2006, Marsalis premiered Congo Square which evoked the spirit of the historic New Orleans site—then the only place in America where African slaves were allowed to dance and play drums. Composed for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Odadaa!, a nine-piece Ghanaian percussion and vocal ensemble, the piece celebrated the cultural roots and mythic birthplace of jazz. Nearly 20 years later, Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Ghanaian djembefola Braimah, and vocalist Johns premiere Afro! inspired by Marsalis’ ruminations on Africa.

Afro! may explore the deep and enduring ties between jazz, the African continent, and its diaspora, a leitmotif that the Orchestra previously addressed in such past Marsalis opuses as Blood on the Fields (1996), Congo Square (2007), Ochas (2014), and the fresh big band arrangements comprising JLCO’s The South African Songbook concert (2019).

Tickets for Wynton Marsalis’ Afro! with Weedie Braimah and Shenel Johns: The Ertegun Jazz Concert include access to a pre-concert lecture in the The Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Studio at 6:30 p.m. on Sept.18-20. Audiences are welcome to a free performance by the Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere Quartet in the Ertegun Atrium at 6:30 p.m. and during intermission on Sept.18 and 19.

Ticket prices begin at $30.00. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit jazz.org/afro

The September 20 performance will live stream exclusively on jazzlive.com

Following its Jazz at Lincoln Center premiere, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis alongside drummer Herlin Riley, Braimah, and Johns will take Afro! and other selections from its celebrated repertoire on the Orchestra’s first multi-city tour of Africa. From September 26 to October 11, 2025, the group will perform in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Lagos, Nigeria; and Accra, Ghana.

In addition to concerts in convention centers and open-air venues, the Orchestra will perform or collaborate with local musicians in each city, and host education initiatives —a pillar of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s mission— at local schools.

“The earliest and most fundamental human mythology is African,” Marsalis says. “From Venda to Igbo to a host of other belief systems across the continent, there are viable solutions to today’s challenges.”

“Our ancestors had cogent and powerful thoughts on who we are as individuals as we pass through the natural cycles of life, how we should relate to one another socially, and how to be one with the universal spirit that inhabits all,” he continues. “In their globally influential music and dance concepts, we can perceive how to find harmony and balance with nature, how to perceive and interact with the supernatural, and how to create endless variations on fundamental themes in pursuit of a good time.”

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 38th season, Mother Africa, delves into the creative spirit that unites African and American musical traditions, and runs from July 24, 2025 to June 20, 2026. The organization’s 2025-26 season includes 19 unique weekends of Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts in the 1233-seat Rose Theater, nine concerts in the 467-seat Appel Room, and more than 350 nights of music at Dizzy’s Club, in addition to webcast performances and in-person and virtual education programs. The 2025-26 season also features tour dates worldwide by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, an ensemble of 15 virtuoso instrumentalists, unique soloists, composers, arrangers, and educators whose mandate is to coalesce and animate an unprecedented variety of styles and genres, in collaboration with noted guest artists and appearances by major figures in jazz and its related genres.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Tour Dates

Thurs., Sept. 18 – Sat., Sept. 20, 2025
Rose Theater in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
New York, NY

Fri., Sept. 26, 2025
Standard Bank Joy of Jazz
Johannesburg, South Africa

Sun., Sept. 28, 2025
Standard Bank Joy of Jazz
Johannesburg, South Africa

Wed., Oct. 1, 2025
BC International Jazz Festival
Tamarind Tree Hotel: Misumi Garden
Nairobi, Kenya

Thurs., Oct. 2, 2025
BC International Jazz Festival
Tamarind Tree Hotel: Misumi Garden
Nairobi, Kenya

Sun., Oct. 5, 2025
Landmark Centre
Presented by Runway Jazz
Lagos, Nigeria

Fri., Oct. 10, 2025
+233 Jazz Bar and Grill / Ghana Jazz Foundation
Accra, Ghana

Sat., Oct. 11, 2025
+233 Jazz Bar and Grill / Ghana Jazz Foundation
Accra, Ghana