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United States – Page 7 – Mitch's Muse

Category: United States

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music United States

Oakland-Based rapper Kafani to talk about gun violence on radio show

Rapper Kafani
Rapper Kafani

The Bay area’s Ice King – Kafani – is speaking out against gun violence in the wake of the recent Newton, Conn., school massacre that left 28 children and adults dead. The rapper known for hits such as “Knock `Em Down” and his current single “Swag Swerve” will be live and unplugged on the nationally syndicated “Street Soldiers Radio Program” from 8 to 10 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013.  He’s been invited on to discuss how gun violence is affecting the urban community and how it also affected him personally.

In November 2011, a Kafani music video was being shot in a West Oakland liquor store parking lot when over 50 gunshots were fired into a crowd of people on the set. Eight persons were hit, including the one-year-old son of Kafani’s cousin Hiram Lawrence.

It’s an area that covers less than 5 percent of the city in space but accounts for 90 percent  of the city’s shootings and homicides. The baby slipped into a coma and died eleven days later.

Some believe the shooting was retaliation over a beef between Kafani and rapper Lil B, but there’s been no evidence to confirm the assertion.

“I hate this whole thing happened to my cousin’s son,” says Kafani in a news release. “He didn’t deserve that. He was a happy, energetic kid. I don’t glorify violence in my music. It’s about living life – not taking it. We as a country need to do something to change the violent culture in the inner city. I was raised in the hood, and I came from the struggle. I was in the streets and made my way to college, although I didn’t finish. Unfortunately, I landed in prison for robbery; from Penn State to the pen.”

However, upon his release, Kafani turned his life around and has built a successful career and business off of his rapping skills. Street Soldiers has been on the air since 1991. The weekly radio call-in show is sponsored by the Omega Boys Club and focuses on the issues of violence, gangs, drugs, teen pregnancy and other topics related to inner-city youth. The host of Street Soldiers is Dr. Joseph Marshall, executive director of the Omega Boys Club. The program was syndicated in 1997 and is heard in 12 radio markets with a weekly listening audience of 300,000. Listeners can listen live each week online at www.iheartradio.com. For the 411 on The Ice King, go to www.kafani.com or follow him on Twitter.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAcAnaRjbpM

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arts performances United States

The Ensemble Theatre continues season with “Knock Me a Kiss” by Charles Smith

houstonensembleThe Ensemble Theatre,  3535 Main St. in Houston, Texas, will debut its first production from  Jan. 31 to Feb. 24, 2013, by award winning playwright Charles  Smith as its 2012-2013 season continues. The show will be directed by visiting artist Chuck Smith, resident director at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.

“Knock Me a Kiss” takes place during the 1920s in Harlem. The story follows Yolonda DuBois, a woman torn between two lovers. One is a fast-living musician, Jimmy Lunceford, the other a poet, Countee Cullen, sanctioned by her father, activist W.E.B. DuBois. This fictional account is inspired by the actual events surrounding the 1928 marriage of W.E.B. Du Bois’ daughter Yolande to one of Harlem’s great poets, Countee Cullen. The marriage marked the height of the Harlem Renaissance and was viewed as the perfect union of Negro talent and beauty. It united the daughter of America’s foremost black  intellectual, co-founder of the NAACP and publisher of Crisis Magazine, with a poet  whose work was considered to be one of the flagships for the New Negro movement. At what personal cost does a leader pay to make life better for so many others when he is blind to those living in his own home?

The Ensemble Theatre’s 2012-2013 Season is sponsored in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and Texas Commission on the Arts. United Airlines is the exclusive airline sponsor for The Ensemble Theatre. For more information, call  (713) 520-0055.

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jazz music releases United States

Saxophonist Darryl Yokley fills “The Void” with new release

Saxophonist Darryl Yokley
Saxophonist Darryl Yokley

From playing jazz gigs as a leader/sideman or in a big band to performing classical solo recitals and concerts with chamber groups, Darryl Yokley has enjoyed working with some of the greatest musicians in a variety of genres.

Yokley has performed with such artists as the Captain Black Big Band led by pianist Orrin Evans, J.D. Allen’s sextet, Valery Ponomarev’s Big Band “Our Father Who Art Blakey,” as well as the Frank Lacy Quintet and Big Band.In addition to performing, Yokley has also written big band arrangements that have been performed by The Captain Black Big Band and the Frank Lacy Big Band. He has since performed at a number of other venues in New York, including the Jazz Galley, Smalls, the Zinc Bar, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, and the Garage. He also performed for Quincy Jones at a musical tribute in New York.

As a leader, Yokley has formed a quintet with Duane Eubanks on trumpet, George Burton on Piano, Luques Curtis on Bass, and Wayne Smith Jr. on drums. The band (called Sound Reformation) made its debut back in November 2010 and has been performing regularly since then.

Yokley wrote all of the music on “The Void” album, drawing from a number of different influences, breaking the barriers of musical categories.

Currently, in his classical career, Yokley and Hemingway are in the midst of promoting their duo ensemble, Odd Men Out, which commissioned a piece from Pittsburgh composer Suzanne Polak. Yokley also teaches the saxophone to students of all ages at Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, NJ.

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jazz music performances releases United States world

Four Blue Note Records artists named as GRAMMY nominees

Congratulations to all Blue Note Records Grammy nominees!

ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT
BEST R&B ALBUM
Black Radio

BEST R&B PERFORMANCE “Gonna Be Alright (F.T.B.) feat. Ledisi
From the album Black Radio

RAVI COLTRANE
BEST IMPROVISED JAZZ SOLO
“Cross Roads”
From the album Spirit Fiction

CHANO DOMINGUEZ
BEST LATIN JAZZ ALBUM
Flamenco Sketches

ANITA BAKER
BEST TRADITIONAL R&B PERFORMANCE
“Lately”

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jazz music releases United States world

55th Annual GRAMMY Awards: DL Media clients receive five nominations in three categories

Congrats to the following nominees:

 

Best Improvised Jazz Solo
“J. Mac”
Kenny Garrett – Seeds From the Underground
[Mack Avenue Records]
Best Jazz Instrumental Album
Seeds From the Underground
Kenny Garrett
[Mack Avenue Records]
Blue Moon
Ahmad Jamal
[Jazz Village]
Unity Band
Pat Metheny Unity Band
[Nonesuch]
Best Album Notes
Piazzolla In Brooklyn (Pablo Aslan Quintet)
Fernando Gonzalez
[Soundbrush]
Others involved in nominated projects include:

Bill Cunliffe, Bob Mintzer (member of Yellowjackets),
Gary Burton, and Vince Mendoza
Categories
arts jazz music performances releases United States

Trombonist Ryan Keberle to release third album “Music Is Emotion” in February

Thirteen years after arriving in New York City, trombonist/composer Ryan Keberle has performed with a jaw-dropping roster of legendary musicians across a vast array of styles. At 32, his resume is more eclectic and impressive than that of many musicians twice his age.

Keberle has performed with jazz greats including Maria Schneider and Wynton Marsalis as well as being an original member of up-and-comer Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society; hip-hop and R&B superstars like Justin Timberlake, and Alicia Keys; Latin jazz leaders like Pedro Giraudo and Ivan Lins; contemporary disco band Escort; played in the house band at Saturday Night Live, on soundtracks of films by Woody Allen, and in the pit for the Tony-winning Broadway musical In the Heights; and most recently toured with indie rock ground-breaker Sufjan Stevens, ushering him into a new arena of fresh, emotionally charged music.

For a musician with such a stunning range of ability and experience, it can seem daunting to find a common thread running throughout the entire range of inspiration and influence. The shared influence that Keberle found as he studied all of the music he most responded to was the direct emotional connection with listeners stemming from a shared root in the blues. So he set out to forge just such a bond with his own music, assembling an incredible new group in the process.

On his third CD, Music Is Emotion (to be released by Alternate Side Records on Feb. 19, 2013), Keberle combines that wealth of influence and experience into a bold group sound with the debut of his pianoless quartet, Catharsis. The band comprises some of the most compelling up-and-coming voices in jazz – trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, bassist Jorge Roeder, and drummer Eric Doob – for a vigorous set of melodic invention, heavy groove, and a subtle indie rock sensibility.

“When you boil down everything else that you love about music, it really comes down to the emotional connection that people make with it,” Keberle says in a news release. “Good popular music has this inherent emotional connection because of the history of the blues in our musical society. With all the social media and technology these days, it seems like it’s getting harder and harder to find that interaction on a personal level. So I’ve been trying to capture that more consciously in my own music.”

Born and raised by music educator parents in Spokane, Washington, Keberle started out playing classical violin and piano before adopting the trombone. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of renowned trombonist Steve Turre and became a member of Jazz at Juilliard’s first graduating class in 2003.

Keberle’s first two releases featured his Double Quartet, a malleable, brass-heavy octet that showcased his deft composing and arranging skills. Catharsis was formed in late 2010 after much experimenting with different line-ups. The four musicians gelled immediately and gave Keberle an opportunity to expand his compositional horizons.

“I’m very much piano-centric when it comes to arranging and composing,” he explains. “Catharsis pushed me out of that box and forced me to come at the music from more of a contrapuntal perspective. It’s really incredible how versatile these guys are; it was a meeting of the minds from the start.”

Categories
arts jazz music performances releases United States

Guitarist Kevin Eubanks showcases breadth of artistic influences on “The Messenger”

With his second Mack Avenue Records release, The Messenger (available on Feb. 19, 2013), acclaimed guitarist Kevin Eubanks continues to explore his own unique musical vision. This vision offers the listener an opportunity to share a musical journey that truly exemplifies where Eubanks is at this stage of his illustrious career; one that, for over three decades, has seen him incorporate into his creative process a willingness to embrace the broad spectrum of his musical experience, while continuing to seek out new vistas.

The Messenger is a project that reflects not only the guitarist’s virtuosity on his instrument, but also his impressive compositional skills-writing all but two tracks. Best described simply as a “Kevin Eubanks” recording-without specific categorization-as his intent with The Messenger is to communicate the breadth of his artistic influences.

“I wanted to branch out a little bit more on this recording,” Eubanks states in a news release. “I didn’t want to be as concerned with the ‘jazz sound’ as much; I wanted to let out a little bit more of what I’ve been musically exposed to.” Eubanks compares this philosophy to sports: “It’s like with professional athletes; most of those guys can play three or four sports. Society makes you choose one or the other. But that doesn’t change who you are inside,” or in Eubanks’ case, preventing him from showcasing his versatility on this album.

Eubanks is joined on most tracks by his sterling fellow quartet members: Billy Pierce on reeds, Rene Camacho on bass, Marvin “Smitty” Smith on drums and Joey De Leon, Jr. on percussion. This project also has a family flavor, featuring younger brother Duane on trumpet (“Sister Veil,” “JB,” “420”), and older brother Robin on trombone (“JB,” “Queen Of Hearts”). For Eubanks, in addition to his brothers making valuable contributions to this recording, their involvement is representative of something more.

“Their participation came about through some conversations that we’ve had, and I asked them if they’d like to be a part of the record. We’ve actually been talking about doing a family project for years, so their participation is really an entry to that,” he says.

The Messenger is Eubanks’ testament to being musically honest. It’s a realization of what he feels is particularly important at this point of career and his life.

“I feel that I’m at the point where I just have to be me,” he says. “I want to do what has the most immediate honesty, and just lay it out.” Throughout the album there is a feeling of exploration and revelation that invites the listener in. The guitarist never ceases to surprise, creating a program reflecting that honesty-offering a full range of moods, textures and tempos.

With this album, Eubanks takes another step in his evolution not only as a guitarist and composer, but also as a musical communicator. It’s his way of making a statement about his personal view regarding the musical spectrum and its place in our lives, with sincere ideas of spreading the word to others. Arriving at the name of the title tune, Eubanks explains, “There is an urgency about it; it has the energy of a message that really should get across. The Messenger, I feel, is in everyone. We’re at the point [in our lives], that whatever it is that you feel strongly about, that can help a person or persons that you love, or a situation that affects your life…you should let that message out”.

Categories
jazz performances releases United States world

Alto Saxophonist/Composer Rudresh Mahanthappa assembles new quartet for “Gamak”

Rudresh Mahanthappa's new group - "Gamak." Photo Credit: Zak Shelby-Szyszko

The idea of hybridity has been central to the music of alto saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa throughout his career. Most prominent, of course, has been his highly original fusion of east and west, jazz mixed with the sounds of his Indian heritage. But that’s too easy and linear a depiction of this open-eared and inventive composer, who has absorbed an enormous variety of music into his thinking and amalgamated it into a singular vision.

On his new ACT release, Gamak (available Jan. 29), Mahanthappa continues that multi-directional evolution with a bold, striking set of music that melds leading-edge jazz with innovative reinterpretations of traditional Indian and Middle Eastern approaches, shot through with an electric jolt of prog-rock complexity. Mahanthappa’s distinctly personal sound hybridizes progressive jazz and South Indian classical music in a fluid and forward-looking form that reflects the composer’s own experience growing up a second-generation Indian-American. Just as his personal experience is never wholly lived on one side of the hyphenate or the other, his music speaks in a voice dedicated to forging a new path forward.

Gamak, Mahanthappa’s 13th album as leader or co-leader, marks the debut of a new band that is both a reprise and a reinvention. The album reunites the saxophonist with bassist François Moutin and drummer Dan Weiss, the rhythm section from his long-running quartet, which was last recorded for the 2006 album, Codebook. But the group takes on a radically different sound with the addition of David “Fuze” Fiuczynski, a master of microtonal guitar whose eclectic virtuosity offered Mahanthappa a vast new territory to explore.

“Dave has checked out so much music,”Mahanthappa says of Fiuczynski in a news release. “A lot of eastern music, whether it’s Chinese or Indian or Arabic, and a lot of 20th and 21st century classical music. Not to mention that he has this rock/punk aesthetic that’s evident in his band the Screaming Headless Torsos. And Dan and Francois come from a really wide perspective as well. Dan is just as much into Rush as he is Max Roach or Zakir Hussain. So I knew those guys were going to really bring this stuff to life.”

The name Gamak is derived from the word for ornamentation in Indian classical music, an element that is far more central to that culture than the English word implies. “In South Indian music particularly,” Mahanthappa explains, “melodic ornamentation isn’t random. It’s very specific and stylized and studied.” As for the word’s relevance to his current ensemble he says, “In recontextualizing these things, Gamak can refer to any sort of melodic ornamentation. It’s as applicable to Indian classical music as it is to R&B singers riffing or anything in between.”

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arts gospel jazz music releases United States

Saxophonist/Composer Tim Green to release “Songs from this Season” on Feb.12

Whether your source is the Bible or the Byrds, the notion is the same: “To everything there is a season.” On his debut as a leader, Songs From This Season, alto saxophonist and composer Tim Green recounts the many seasons of his own life on a stylistically diverse set featuring a host of established and rising jazz stars.

Released via Green’s own True Melody Music label, Songs From This Season surveys a broad swath of the jazz landscape, from deftly swinging hard bop to fluid modernity to soulful gospel. The impressive list of sidemen on the session includes pianist Orrin Evans, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, guitarist Gilad Hekselman, drummers Rodney Green and Obed Calvaire, and several of Green’s collaborators in the thriving Baltimore/Washington D.C. jazz scene.

The disc marks not only the emergence of a strong new voice on the saxophone, already established by Green’s second-place showing in the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, but of a confident and versatile composer. Each piece on the album, Green says, reflects a certain period in his life and the emotion attached to it.

“I can never force a piece of music,” he explains via a news release. “It has to be inspired by a mood or emotion I’m feeling at that moment.”

While his compositions display the influence of many different genres, the common thread among them is a direct emotionality, a vivid communication with the listener. This quality was inspired by some of Green’s mentors, most prominently Dick Oatts, with whom he studied at the Manhattan School of Music, and Terence Blanchard, one of the guiding lights of the Monk Institute.

“Dick Oatts really introduced me to writing,” Green says, “and Terence Blanchard encouraged me to not just write music but to write an actual song. So many jazz records are just about the solos, but I wanted mine to be more about the songs and the melodies.”

While Green was raised in the church, gospel was not a significant aspect of his musical upbringing. He grew up in Baltimore surrounded by music; his father and uncle are singers and his older brother was a trumpet player who Green emulated. “My brother was one of my first influences because I just wanted to be around him and do whatever he was doing.”

Still, a song like “Shift” shows a distinct gospel influence, albeit one that entered Green’s vocabulary later in his career. Upon moving to New York to study at the Manhattan School, he was enlisted by fellow Baltimorean Marvin Thompson for his Mo’Horns brass section, which backed gospel stars like Fred Hammond and Richard Smallwood.

“I never planned on playing gospel music,” Green admits. “But all of a sudden, I was playing with all of these gospel artists and it started having an influence on my music.”

“Shift” takes the most traditional approach to that influence, with New York gospel organist Loren Dawson, Baltimore electric bassist Adam Jonson and vocalists Micah Smith and Iyana Wakefield joining in.

On “Dedication,” Green pays homage to two more of his influences, pianists Mulgrew Miller (one of Green’s mentors) and Kenny Kirkland. Miller has called Green “a talented, committed, and accomplished young artist. And most importantly to me, he has a song in his heart.” The endorsement of such elders spotlights Green’s role as a torchbearer for the modern jazz tradition.

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gospel music performances United States

Chrystal Rucker to perform at “Sharing the Harvest” benefit concert on Nov. 23

Chrystal Rucker

Chrystal Rucker has been giving back to Kansas City for years with her annual “Sharing the Harvest” benefit concert. This year will be no different as she’s giving Kansas City some great gospel music while raising funds for The Brookside Charter School, Ronald McDonald House and Sarita Lynne Ministries (which manages two homeless shelters). Appearing on the program will be gospel megastar Vashawn Mitchell of “Nobody Greater” fame, Top 20 newcomer Anita Wilson, Sheri Jones Moffett, smooth jazz bass player Julian Vaughn, sister act Tobbi and Tommi and Kansas City worship leader, Na’Ron Hamilton.

Although, she’s been singing professionally for two decades, Rucker just released her first CD this year. The new project, “You Deserve” (EPM Music Group), debuted at No. 10 on Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart this summer and the dynamic radio single, “You Deserve” is a Top 30 smash.

“To say that Chrystal Rucker is a power vocalist is an understatement,” GospelFlava.com reviewer Gregory Gay writes in a recent commentary. “To her credit, she can preach in the middle of the song and close with a run that will leave the listener in awe, asking, `Now, how did she do that?’”

The event takes place at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23 at Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ, 11922 Food Lane, Grandview, Mo., with host pastors Ben Stephens III and First Lady LaTanya Stephens. Tickets are $10 and available by calling (816) 665-0506. For more information on Rucker and other EPM Music Group artists, go to www.epmmusicgroup.com or www.chrystalrucker.net.