Celebrated jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis [ tickets ] will once again lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra [ tickets ] on a national tour, which centers this year on Duke Ellington's love songs.

Marsalis and the group, which usually operates out of the venerable New York performing arts theater, will tour with Ellington's repertoire for the first time, launching Jan. 16 in Ann Arbor, MI.

The 21-city outing includes stops at several college campuses on both the West Coast and Midwest, and a Jan. 18 visit to Chicago for the orchestra's continuing Jazz For Young People series. All dates are shown below.

The fifteen-member JLCO--formerly known as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra--has toured annually over the last 12 years, and is the official house orchestra for Jazz at Lincoln Center activities. The group performs compositions and arrangements made famous by composers such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, as well as commissioned works by Benny Carter, Joe Henderson, Jimmy Heath, Chico O'Farrill, members of the JLCO and others.

The current JLCO features music director Marsalis, along with Ryan Kisor, Sean Jones and Marcus Printup on trumpets; Chris Crenshaw, Vincent Gardner and Elliot Mason on trombones; Walter Blanding, Victor Goines, Sherman Irby, Ted Nash and Joe Temperley on reeds; Dan Nimmer on piano, Carlos Henriquez on bass; and Ali Jackson on drums.