Lenox — More than a dozen years after the Tanglewood Jazz Festival ended, the Boston Symphony Orchestra remains a major champion of jazz music in the Berkshires. In recent years, Wynton and Ellis Marsalis, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Harry Connick Jr., Joey Alexander, Chris Botti, Bela Fleck, and other prominent jazz musicians have given unforgettable performances in Tanglewood’s Shed and Ozawa Hall.
But since year-round programming came to Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning in the fall of 2024, the BSO has offered all manner of musical artistry, including both classical repertoire and jazz. For example, jazz pianist and composer Ted Rosenthal performed to a sold-out crowd at the Linde Center with his trio in September, and GRAMMY winner Nicole Zuraitis brought her band to the center in November. On the classical side, the Arcis Saxophone Quartet stunned a Linde Center audience on November 9 with fun and adventuresome repertoire performed with uncanny precision.
On February 14 and 15, trumpeter and vocalist Jumaane Smith comes to the Linde Center to present his program “Love Always: Celebrating the Romance of Nat King Cole,” and both nights are already sold out.
Boston University Professor of Music Jeremy Yudkin, author of “The Lenox School of Jazz,” had this to say about jazz music at Tanglewood and Jumaane Smith in particular:
It is such good news that the Jumaane Smith concert is sold out for two nights at the Tanglewood Linde Center. Programming there has been spectacular this year since the BSO has committed to year-round programming here in the Berkshires. I am especially delighted by the first-rate jazz musicians that are coming to the Linde Center. From the magisterial Ted Rosenthal to the brilliant young Arcis Saxophone Quartet to the multi-talented Smith, jazz has returned to Tanglewood in full swing since the demise of the Tanglewood Jazz Festival in 2012. Keep it up, BSO!
Ed Bride, founder and president of Berkshires Jazz Inc., added this:
It has become a truism that ‘jazz is America’s classical music.’ It is magnificent that Tanglewood, the shrine for classical music, is wholeheartedly embracing jazz. Music followers will take note (sorry).
I spoke via Zoom with Jumaane Smith a few weeks ago to find out more about what we have to look forward to on February 14 and 15. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
EDGE
On February 14 and 15 at Tanglewood’s Linde Center, you are performing a program of songs made famous by Nat King Cole.
SMITH
Yeah. It’s a program that I have put together as a love/romantic program, not specifically only for this Valentine’s Day, but I am very excited for this particular performance at Tanglewood. It’s going to be a blast.
EDGE
Is the program all Nat King Cole material?
SMITH
No, but there’s going to be a lot of nice romantic songs that Nat King Cole used to do. It’ll be a lot of the great American songbook songs. I have some original material as well that we’re going to perform. I am also planning to do some of my original arrangements of some of the American Songbook Classic songs in our own way. And it’s just going to be a really nice, fun, exciting, romantic evening for Valentine’s Day.
EDGE
From what I’ve heard of your music thus far, it sounds like you’re a genuine blues man. Is that fair to say?
SMITH
I am a good music man, but my roots are in jazz and blues for sure. Definitely. But I wouldn’t say exclusively one part of jazz or part of blues. Nat King Cole has always been a big influence on my singing, and so that’s why I’m excited to put this particular project together.
EDGE
What do you bring to the music of Nat King Cole that nobody else brings?
SMITH
Well, I bring my personality. I bring my abilities musically. I’m also a trumpeter, not just a vocalist, and so it’s going to have a different element to it just by the instruments that we’re going to utilize, even alone. There’s also just the energy of my band. We’ve been working together for several years and have a nice, tight, cohesive sound, and you’ll see the interplay between the musicians, and it is going to be an exciting evening. Plus, Nat King Cole—he’s not around anymore for us to have these live performances of material inspired by his art, and a lot of great artists—legendary artists—aren’t with us anymore. So one of the things that I aspire to do is to perform material that is from the past, not exclusively, but some material that is from the past, but informed by that history and expressing the continuation of that history.
EDGE
You recently said that you were taking center stage as band leader and composer.
SMITH
I’ve been a bandleader for many years. But on my last album, “Come On Home,” I set out to primarily do original material, and so that was a really exciting thing. I plan to share some of that material at the Linde Center, because some of it fits into the theme of love and romance. I guess a lot of people know me best as a sideman with Michael Bublé and Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones and artists like that—Harry Connick, Wynton Marsalis—and so the idea of me taking center stage is more about me showing that I am a bandleader in my own right. It’s something I do a lot more of now, and it has become my primary focus.
EDGE
You’ve worked with a long list of iconic musicians. Is there anyone you haven’t worked with yet that you wish you could?
SMITH
I would like to collaborate with Raye. She’s a young, new artist who is heavily influenced by jazz but also has a lot of R&B in her sound as well. I find her music really interesting. Another interesting collaboration would be with Jacob Collier. I got to perform with Herbie Hancock one time, or a couple times, but I would like to do a full concert with him. That would be cool.
EDGE
Let’s talk about Louis Armstrong.
SMITH
He’s one of my biggest influences.
EDGE
It’s been said that if Armstrong were still around today, he’d be making music like yours. What do you think about that?
SMITH
It’s an incredible honor, and I hope that what I do is continuing the legacy and tradition of Armstrong and lots of these great artists. I’m influenced by the history of the music, and I try to take those influences with me and put them into my performances as well as my own life experience—the ups and downs, the good and bad, and everything in between.
EDGE
You studied with Wynton Marsalis, whose influence on you as a musician must have been substantially different from that of Armstrong. How does your playing today reflect it?
SMITH
It’s interesting that you would say his influence is substantially different from Louis Armstrong’s because, honestly, Wynton is probably the person who really turned me on to Louis Armstrong’s music.
EDGE
You weren’t really a fan before then?
SMITH
Well, I was a young kid. And so he opened up my ears and eyes to more of the history and more of where these artists that I was digging on at the time had been coming from and where they got their stuff from.
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If you have tickets to see Jumaane Smith at the Linde Center on February 14 or 15, please note that show times are 7 p.m. on both nights, with doors opening 6 p.m. Seating is cabaret style, and you can pre-order food, with beverages available to order at your table. Place your food order here until February 9.
