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All That Jazz, an annual gala event of the Westside Community Center in Bartlesville, OK, will celebrate its 10th anniversary at 6 p.m. Saturday, February 18, at the Hillcrest Country Club (click here for map). This year’s musical lineup will feature the Mo Hemian Jazz Syndicate during dinner and, for the main entertainment, Tulsa jazz saxophonist Eldredge Jackson.
Jackson, a New Orleans-born saxophonist, who was raised in Tulsa, OK, has delighted audiences with his blend of traditional and smooth jazz peppered with a dash of gospel. Jackson has performed with a cross-section of urban jazz and R&B musicians such as Wayman Tisdale, Najee, Howard Hewett, Jeffrey Osborne, Angela Winbush, Stanley Jordan, Shirley Murdock, Con-Funk-Shun, Tom Braxton, and fellow Tulsans Charlie Wilson and The GAP Band.
Tax-deductible donations and proceeds from All That Jazz benefit the Westside Community Center’s youth programs. The Center has been a United Way agency since 1951. Today, the center focuses on uniting, nurturing and empowering local youth through programs such as the After School Zone, Peaceful Warriors, Summer Enrichment, and Work Ethics (WE) Pro$per.
Tickets are $100 and include a raffle ticket for the evening’s showcased prizes. For more information and to purchase tickets, call the Westside Community Center at (918) 336-6760 or email Executive Director Morris McCorvey at westsidecommunityctr@juno.com and include “All That Jazz” in the subject line.
According to a recent news release, Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame’s 2012 Winter Concert Series is in full swing. On Sunday, Jan. 29, vocalist Olivia Duhon will give another performance at the Jazz Depot, 111 E. First St. (Upper Level) in Tulsa, OK. Showtime begins at 5 p.m. Click here to order tickets online for Olivia’s show.
On Jan. 31, attendees are encouraged to stop in for some jazz and fellowship at Depot Jams. Every Tuesday night from 5:30 to 7:30, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame presents soulful jazz by talented local musicians.
On Wednesday, Feb. 1, check out live music by 7Blue and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame’s weekly Jazzwich Wednesday.
On Friday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m., Pam Van Crosby and her crew from Sweet and Hot productions will swing dance the night away.
General admission tickets are $15, and reserved table seating tickets are available for $20. Seniors, Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame members and college students can see the show for $10, and high school and junior high students attend for only $5 each. For more information and/or to buy tickets, call Bettie Downing at (918) 281-8609 or buy them here at the Jazz Depot.
Gospel singer Earnest Pugh continues to make big strides in his career. His recent No. 1 Billboard gospel radio smash “I Need Your Glory” has now crossed over to the urban adult contemporary radio charts. This week the song moves up to #23 on the Mediabase Urban AC chart and No. 30 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart.
“It’s an honor to be embraced by Urban AC radio,” Pugh says in a news release. “This milestone in my career solidifies my belief that in bad times people gravitate to The Good News and good ole hard work pays off!” A Memphis native who was mentored by Grammy Award winning choir leader O’Landa Draper back in the 1990s, Pugh released his first solo CD in 2006 and showed off his five-octave vocals on the radio hit “Wrapped Up, Tied Up, Tangled Up.” After years of making respectable forays into gospel, Pugh finally hit it big in 2009 with his No. 1 smash “Rain on Us.” He followed-up with other radio chart smashes such as “The Great I Am” and “Perfect Peace” before hitting No. 1 again with “I Need Your Glory.” For more information, go to www.earnestpugh.com.
Sounds of Space (Mack Avenue Records), the title of Cuban pianist and composer Alfredo Rodríguez‘ debut recording, evokes images of science fiction. In truth, it’s about a far more personal adventure. The project will be released on March 27.
“It’s about the space that surrounds us,” he says in a news release. “In this record I wanted to introduce myself: Here are the people, the places and the sounds that have surrounded me, and made me who I am.”
A key player in Rodríguez’ extraordinary story is producer Quincy Jones, who co-produced Sounds of Space with Rodríguez.
“He is very special, and I do not say that easily because I have been surrounded by the best musicians in the world my entire life,” said Jones in a news release. “And he is one of the best.”
In turn, for Rodríguez, 26, Jones has not only become a mentor and a teacher but “like a new father.” Still, such priceless endorsement can also create impossibly high expectations. But in Sounds of Space, Rodríguez proves up to the challenge.
The album comprises 11 tracks composed and arranged by Rodríguez. It includes nods to Cuban masters such as Ernesto Lecuona, but also pianistic models such as Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk; it draws on the tradition, but it has a personal imprint. And now and then, Sounds of Space is also shaped by nostalgia for a country left behind, so near yet so far.
Born in Havana, Cuba, the son of a popular singer, television presenter and entertainer of the same name, Rodríguez began his formal music education at seven. Percussion, not piano, was his first choice.
“But…to choose what I wanted I had to wait until I was 10,” he explains. “So I picked piano. By the time I could actually switch to percussion, I knew the piano was my path.”
He graduated to the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán, and then to the Instituto Superior de Arte. But while his formal musical education was strictly classical, he also learned music “on the street,” or more precisely, on stage.
“I didn’t play with many dance groups, but I played in my dad’s band since I was 14,” he says. “And my dad presented a daily TV show and many famous Cuban musicians came through it and we had every type of music. I was still a kid but had a chance to perform every day, and write arrangements for all kinds of music: boleros, rock ‘n roll, dance music-you name it. It is where I learned the discipline of being a professional musician. That was another great school for me. I was very lucky.”
The momentous discovery during that formative period, however, came packed on a CD.
“When I was 15, my uncle gave me Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert,” Rodríguez says. “That’s when I began to explore the idea of improvisation. Up to then it had been all Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, and I’m thankful to my teachers for it because without that I wouldn’t be the same pianist. But up to that point I didn’t know anything about improvisation. The Köln Concert changed my life. I realized that was what I wanted to do: just sit and play. And not only musical ideas; music doesn’t come only from music. It can reflect and speak to what surrounds us.”
Guitarist Stanley Jordan has been nominated for a 2012 NAACP Image Award in the category of “Outstanding Jazz Album” for his latest Mack Avenue Records release Friends. The NAACP Image Awards, celebrating its 43rd anniversary this year, are presented each year to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music and literature. In conjunction, the ceremony offers awards to individuals or groups who help promote social injustice through creative efforts. Members of the NAACP vote on the awards, and the process is similar to that of the Grammy Awards and Oscars. The complete awards ceremony will be presented live at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST on Friday, Feb. 17 on NBC. In Friends, Jordan shares the platform with the following musical guests: guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Mike Stern, Russell Malone and Charlie Hunter; violinist Regina Carter; saxophonists Kenny Garrett and Ronnie Laws; trumpeter Nicholas Payton; bassists Christian McBride and Charnett Moffett; and drummer Kenwood Dennard. Reflecting on the wealth of music inspired by collaborating with chosen peers on Friends, Stanley Jordan says in a news release, “I am so humbled and grateful to all of the wonderful musicians who graced this project. This collection truly speaks to my belief in the integrationist spirit of music. I’d like to move beyond ‘fusion’ and explore the concept of ‘integration.’ When you integrate styles, you combine them into something new while still remaining true to the original sources. The same principal holds for our friendships, which require mutual respect. Our friends are a mirror revealing the diversity within us, and at the same time they give us the courage to share our true selves with the world.”
In a career spanning five decades, pianist MontyAlexander has distinctively bridged the worlds of jazz, popular song, and the music of his native Jamaica. With over 70 albums to his name, Alexander celebrates his 50th year in music with an ambitious, two-week engagement at New York’s Blue Note, on Monday, February 20 through Sunday, March 4.
Alexander will present the engagement in two parts: Part 1 – The Full Monty: 50 Years in Music! (February 23 – 28) and Part 2 – Jamaica Meets Jazz – A One Love Celebration (February 29 – March 4). The featured body of work and lineup will vary throughout the engagement, with each evening focusing on a project from Alexander’s extensive career (six projects total will be presented throughout the engagement). Special guests throughout the two weeks include Russell Malone, Christian McBride, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Pat Martino, Freddie Cole, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ernest Ranglin, John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton, and Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar, among others.
“I derive great personal joy and satisfaction from being able to present music that can bring out people of all persuasions and life styles,” says Alexander in a news release, “from Kingston, Jamaica to New York and the rest of the world – that’s my Harlem-Kingston Express train. That is what this Blue Note booking is all about.”
Part 1 of the engagement will kick off on February 20 with a performance by one of Alexander’s working ensembles, Harlem-Kingston Express, featuring special guest, guitarist Ernest Ranglin. They will perform music from their Grammy Award nominated debut, Harlem-Kingston Express: Live! (Motéma Music – released in June 2011).
On February 21 and 22, Alexander will bring back his long-standing Triple Treat project. Originally consisting of guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown (a group that toured and recorded together throughout much of the 80s), Alexander will reinvigorate the trio in a program titled “Triple Treat Revisited,” featuring one of the “living descendants” of Brown, bassist Christian McBride, as well as guitarist Russell Malone, who appeared on Brown’s last recording, along with Alexander.
Alexander’s Uplift! trio project (stemming from the March 2011 Jazz Legacy Productions release of the same name) will perform on February 23 and 24, featuring organist Lonnie Smith and guitarist Pat Martino respectively. On February 25 will showcase Ivory & Steel, a project that reflects the music of Trinidad and the steel drum tradition (much like the Iron & Steel group Alexander led in the 70’s and 80’s).
With “A Night at Jilly’s” on February 26, Alexander will honor the first jazz club he performed in when he arrived to New York City from Jamaica in 1963 – Jilly’s. It was here that Alexander began to establish himself on the U.S. scene. During his three year’s at the club, he had the privilege of accompany the great Frank Sinatra. Special guests for the evening will include vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater and Freddie Cole.
Closing out Part 1 of Alexander’s engagement will be “The Montreux Alexander ’76 Trio Reunion” on February 27 and 28, dedicated to one of the pianist’s most celebrated albums, Montreux Alexander: The Monty Alexander Trio Live! at the Montreux Festival. The show will feature the original trio, with bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton.
Alexander goes directly to his Jamaican roots with Part 2 of the engagement. OnFebruary 29-March 2, Alexander will present“Monty meets Sly & Robbie,”performances with drummerSly Dunbarand bassistRobbie Shakespeare. Sly & Robbie are two of reggae’s most recognized trailblazers and collaborated with Alexander on his album, Monty Meets Sly & Robbie. The pianist will conclude the engagement by bringing back hisHarlem-Kingston Expressgroup for two final nights onMarch 3 and 4. Special guests for these performance dates are TBA.
Alexander has been on the express track and now, in this 50th year of phenomenal musicianship, he shows no sign of slowing down. In 1961, the urban sophistication of jazz and the American songbook, and an invitation to accompany none other than Frank Sinatra, lured the teen prodigy Alexander away from Jamaica and the art form most associated with that nation. The move led to an extraordinary career in jazz, reggae and popular song including collaboration with greats such as Tony Bennett, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Bill Cosby and Bobby McFerrin.
According to a recent news release, the legendary Rance Allen Group has earned two Stellar Awards for their latest CD, The Live Experience II: Celebrating 40 Years of Music and Ministry (Tyscot Records). The group picked up awards in the categories of Quartet of the Year and Traditional Group/Duo of the Year. The ceremony will broadcast on The GMC Channel at 7 p.m. February 11. Check your local listings at www.watchgmctv.com.
The live CD celebrates the group’s 40-year career. It features two medleys of their past hits such as “Feel Like Going On,” “We Care a Lot” and “Smile.” It also features new songs such as the old school soul flavored “You That I Trust” and the worship ballad, “Holy One.” Making cameo appearances are renowned artists such as Shirley Caesar, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, and The Christianaires’ Paul Porter.
The Rance Allen Group has been recording professionally since 1971. They started with Stax Records where they recorded a string of gritty, R&B-flavored gospel and message songs through the 1970s. From there, the group recorded for a variety of labels and scored their first No. 1 gospel album in 1991 with the Phenomenon CD that featured the crossover R&B smash, “Miracle Worker.”
In 2002, the Rance Allen Group joined Tyscot Records, where they have enjoyed a new string of hits such as “Do Your Will,” “Closest Friend,” “For Your Feet,” and the Kirk Franklin duet, “Something About the Name Jesus.” The music industry has now begun to honor the Rance Allen Group for its groundbreaking work in bridging R&B and gospel. They received a Legend Award during the 2009 Stellar Awards and were feted in a BMI Trailblazers of Gospel ceremony in 2008.
According to a recent news release, Shekinah Glory Ministry has earned a Stellar Award (gospel music’s answer to the Grammy Awards) in the category of Contemporary Choir of the Year for their double CD, “Refreshed by Fire” (Kingdom Records). The ceremony took place at The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville and will make its television broadcast debut at 7 p.m. EST February 11 on The GMC Channel. Check your local listing at www.watchgmctv.com.
Released last fall, “Refreshed by Fire” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums sales chart. The CD also came in at No. 2 on Billboard’s Christian/Gospel chart, No. 12 on the Independent chart, No. 61 on the Top 200 pop chart and No. 59 on the Current Albums chart. The live DVD version of the CD was also a Top 10 debut and continues to sell briskly. The majestic ballad “Just for Me” became a Top 20 radio hit, and the video of the song has received almost 200,000 YouTube views. Shekinah Glory Ministry is profiled in the February 2012 issue of Sister 2 Sister magazine.
Shekinah Glory Ministries is not a choir. It’s an ensemble of psalmists, minstrels, and banner bearers who perform “under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. “ Their Hebrew name means “the glorified presence of God.” Their CDs Praise Is What I Do (No. 5 peak Top Gospel Albums) and Shekinah Glory Ministry Live (No. 3 peak Top Gospel Albums – 103 weeks on the chart) were both certified gold in 2005 and 2008 respectively. They also have three gold or platinum DVDs to their credit. Fore more information, go to www.kingdomrecordsinc.com.
According to a news release, Grammy Award winning jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum is the headliner of a “most romantic” dinner and concert at 7 p.m. February 14 at the Hilton Portland and Executive Tower in downtown Portland, Ore. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Hotel organizers have also included a one-night stay option with the purchase of dinner/concert tickets. Prices start at $35.
Whalum is the recipient of numerous awards and acknowledgements for his musical excellence including three Dove Award nominations, an NAACP Image Award nomination and has won two Stellar Awards-Gospel music’s highest honor. An eleven time Grammy nominee, Kirk won his first Grammy award for Best Gospel Song (“It’s What I Do,” featuring Lalah Hathaway) alongside life-long friend and gifted writer, Jerry Peters. His most current releases (on Mack Avenue Records) are The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter 3 (double CD & DVD) and Everything is Everything-the Music of Donny Hathaway.
