Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at the Hollywood Bowl

There are nights at the Hollywood Bowl that feel like the city holding its breath, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra's September 23 performance lands squarely in that category. Wynton Marsalis, in his final season as Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and Music Director of the JLCO, is returning to LA with the full big band and a program of singular gravity: a John Coltrane centennial celebration.

The Program: Coltrane at 100

John Coltrane was born September 23, 1926, making this concert a literal birthday observance, one hundred years on. Marsalis, who has spent decades reimagining the jazz canon for a concert hall scale, turns that work here toward Coltrane alongside other masters of the form: Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, and Wayne Shorter. These aren't note-for-note reproductions. The JLCO's big-band arrangements bring mass and depth to compositions that were originally forged in smaller-group contexts, expanding them into something that fills an outdoor amphitheater without losing the essential feeling that made them great.

Opening the evening is saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, who has been quietly doing some of the most compelling Coltrane-adjacent work of anyone in jazz right now. Her 2020 album of John and Alice Coltrane compositions was hailed for playing "with appropriate majesty", and her presence here as an opener is less a warm-up act and more a second act running in sequence. Plan to arrive before 8 p.m. to catch her set.

Why This Night Matters

Marsalis has led the JLCO since 1987. His final season as Music Director is, quietly, the end of an era in American jazz institution-building. Seeing the orchestra at the Bowl, the most storied outdoor venue in the city, is an opportunity that won't repeat in exactly this form.

The Hollywood Bowl's natural acoustics carry orchestral sound across its terraced seating in a way few venues can match. Bring a warm layer: September nights on Highland can drop into the low 60s once the sun goes down.

Getting There

By Metro: The Hollywood Bowl Shuttle (free on concert nights with a ticket, or ticketed separately) departs from Hollywood/Highland Station on the B Line. It's the single fastest way to arrive without dealing with the Bowl's notoriously tight parking structures.

By Car: Parking is available at multiple Hollywood Bowl lots. Book in advance, they sell out for large-band shows. Budget 30–45 minutes of ingress if driving from the 101 corridor.

Address: 2301 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood, CA

A rare night at the Bowl. Check the Discover Los Angeles listing for ticket links and seating options.

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