By Dave Read, July 14, 2026 performance – Trombone Shorty and Ziggy Marley took possession of the Koussevitsky Music Shed at Tanglewood tonight, the venue so recently under the dominion of Mozart, Mahler, Brahms, et al. And so we’re reminded of the alchemy that makes music serve both Mammon and the Muse, as either popular or classical art.
Whereas seduction is an essential element of most music, with listeners invited into realms of contrasting themes and rhythms, pop music often dispenses with the formalities and commands your attention from the downbeat. Trombone Shorty hits the ground running, a hip hop or funky rhythm throbbing aggressively. Dozens of trombone, trumpet, sax solos, and a few guitar runs comprise the show. It purely performative, a demonstration of amplification without ever feeling like an exchange between artist and audience – despite the twenty or so times Mr. Shorty dropped Tanglewood into his stream of verbiage or lyric.
It was fun but could have been so much more. These are highly skilled musicians but the performance overwhelmed their artistry with maximum volume devoted to a minimum of subtlety or variety.
Ziggy Marley dialed it back to a noticeable degree but didn’t take to the stage until thirty minutes after Trombone Shorty’s ninety minute set. That makes for too long a night – it’s sub-optimal to prepare for an evening of rhythmically fluid reggae music with an hour and a half of hip hop and neo-funk. Each headliner is a gifted musician and generous entertainer but something is lost, not added, when they are presented is succession.
Wouldn’t it be more fun to have Trombone Shorty headline a bill that opens with one or two jazz-centric emerging artists and on another date, present Ziggy Marley atop a bill that includes emerging artists of his ilk?