Jason Moran

Thursday, January 28, 2010 | 8:00 pm

Nelson Music Room

Moran’s a jazz trailblazer whose longstanding relationship with Duke ratcheted up last year, when he performed the Duke-commissioned IN MY MIND: Monk @ Town Hall, 1959 at New York’s Town Hall, after premiering it in Durham. Here, his muscular piano is accompanied by the hypnotizing soprano of his collaborator and wife, Alicia Moran, as well as classical guitar genius Thomas Flippin. (Jason also appears with LINES ballet, 1/29 & 1/30.)

“Basically, [Moran] answers the central questions about jazz today: does it still relate to the nearly hundred-year-old jazz tradition? And, conversely, does jazz relate to now? Do the attitudes that it embodies keep pace with film, with visual art, even with pop music? Can serious jazz still be fresh?”
–Ben Ratliff, New York Times