Jazz, justice and Juneteenth: Wynton Marsalis and Bryan Stevenson join forces to honor Black protest

By RYAN DOAN-NGUYEN and AARON MORRISON
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Civil rights lawyer and jazz pianist Bryan Stevenson and Pulitzer-winning jazz artist Wynton Marsalis are debuting a new live performance album of historic jazz records created in time for Juneteenth to protest racial injustice. “Freedom, Justice and Hope” includes a new arrangement of John Coltrane’s “Alabama.” The song pays homage to the four Black girls killed when the Ku Klux Klan bombed Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. It features the orchestra of Jazz at Lincoln Center, where Marsalis is the artistic and managing director. Stevenson calls integrating great jazz works with the narrative about social justice “a dream come true.”