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Charleston Jazz Festival 2020
by Martin McFie
Various Venues Charleston Jazz Festival Charleston, SC January 23-26, 2020 Jazz Festivals are like people, six years old is still in infancy, but everything has to start somewhere. Historically, the city which gave birth to the Charleston dance craze and was the inspiration for Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, deserves The Charleston ...
Nat King Cole: Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943)
by Mark Sullivan
Before pianist/vocalist Nat King Cole had a career as a pop crooner--his many hits included All for You," The Christmas Song," (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66," (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," Nature Boy" and Mona Lisa" (the No. 1 song in 1950)--he led a successful jazz trio which featured both his piano playing and ...
Monty Alexander at the Avalon Theater
by Geno Thackara
Monty Alexander and Friends The Avalon Theater Easton, MD August 31, 2019 Ten years," Monty Alexander wryly observed at the center-stage microphone with a disbelieving shake of the head. Ten years of this festival, and 75 years as me." It was a celebration of multiple anniversaries at the weekend-long Labor Day ...
Monty Alexander: Still Rolling
by Geno Thackara
If there's one defining quality to Monty Alexander's music, it's joy. An unmistakable undercurrent of happiness has been constant across several decades, dozens of recordings and countless performances all over the world. He could be honoring classic jazz balladeers, exploring the danceable riddims" of his native Jamaica or anything in between, and you can always hear ...
New Music in an Anxious Time: Teis Semey, Peggy Lee and Philipp Gropper
by Mark Werlin
Historians of jazz identify the African-American civil rights struggle circa 1945-1965 as the locus for the most active involvement of jazz music in expressions of social and political protest. One of the earliest recorded instances of explicit political protest in jazz, Strange Fruit," was refused by Decca, singer Billie Holiday's record label, for fear of reprisals ...
Michael Lauren: Give My Regards To Portugal
by Jim Worsley
From Broadway to jazz to Portugal. A circuitous route for sure. One that has, however, served international musician Michael Lauren well. The now seventy-year- old multi-styled drummer came out of the womb with a kick pedal and has been holding down a symphony of beats ever since. Over the years he has played or recorded with ...
Sam Tshabalala: Returning Home
by Seton Hawkins
The late 1970s saw a surge of extraordinary musical creativity in South Africa. Driven in part by a changing political climate reflecting the youth-led Soweto uprising of 1976, a younger generation of South African artists harnessed the arts to give voice to a new chapter in the anti-apartheid struggle. Indeed, rising ensembles like Movement ...
Lila Downs at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn
by Ernest Barteldes
Lila Downs BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn at Prospect Park Brooklyn, NY June 29, 2017 Backed initially by an eight-piece band directed by saxophonist (and husband) Paul Cohen, singer, songwriter and activist Lila Downs began her set with an up-tempo rendition of Mezcalito," a tune that talks about mezcal, Mexico's ...
Harry Belafonte: 1949
In late 1948, Harry Belafonte was having trouble finding work as an actor. At the time, he was performing with New York's American Negro Theater and studying at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School in Greenwich Village. In a production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, he had to sing a song. He had ...
Meet "Jazz Judy" Judy Balos
by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
Jazz Judy" Balos has earned her nickname. A live music fan since the age of 16 when she saw Nina Simone in concert, this New Yorker has been going out to hear live jazz four or five times a week (sometimes even two or three times a day) for over 50 years; she's even traveled to ...