Big bands big laughs

`For Dancers Only': Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center JazzOrchestra 8 tonight

Navy Pier Ballroom, 600 E. Grand

Tickets, $38.50

(312) 902-1500

It may come as a surprise to some of the younger trend watchersout there, but jazz orchestras used to perform for dancers withoutany of the tacky, tongue-in-cheek trappings that infect the recentneo-swing craze. There was a bunch of that, too, but back when thepopular audience embraced jazz as an entertainment worthy of theirSaturday nights, big bands spent endless days on the road fillingballrooms with richer and far more original sounds.

Wynton Marsalis, who has devoted much of his energy to emulatingDuke Ellington, will revive the jazz-dance tradition at 8 tonightwhen he leads the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at the Navy PierBallroom. "For Dancers Only," as the show is called (after a 1937song by the great Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra), will feature classicsby Ellington, Count Basie and Benny Goodman as well as new dancepieces for new dance styles.

Onetime Ellington vocalist Milt Grayson will lubricate theballroom for slow dancing with blues-dipped ballads including "JellyJelly." And as a bonus, lay hoofers will be joined on the floor byswing dance stars Janice Wilson and Paolo Lanna, winners of numerouscompetitions. They will either inspire the nonprofessionals aroundthem to new heights or chase them up the aisles with their movesbetween their legs. (If you're thinking of trying out those lambadamoves, this may not be the time or place.)

An amiable and unassuming emcee, Marsalis will add to the highspirits of the occasion with his streak of levity. His seasoned 15-piece orchestra, appearing here as part of a 24-city tour, willinclude trumpeters Seneca Black, Ryan Kisor and Marcus Printup;trombonists Wycliffe Gordon, Andre Hayward and Ron Westray;saxophonists Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson, Victor Goines, WalterBlanding Jr., Ted Nash and Joe Temperley; pianist Farid Barron;bassist Rodney Whitaker, and drummer Herlin Riley.

"There is nothing more stylish than the sensuous movements ofbodies on a dance floor," he says in a press release, "and no soundmore soulful than the joyous motion of swing with the bittersweet cryof the blues." Some good old-fashioned stomping never hurts thecause, either.