NEW ORLEANS (FEB 10, 2021) - In 2015, when The Metropolitan Opera said it would stop doing Otello in blackface, a wonderful firestorm was set off across the country regarding opera and race. Since participating in Opera Memphis’ Opera and Race Symposium in 2019, I am proud to have been able to be a part of many conversations about what opera must correct, update and innovate.

While those conversations are absolutely essential, another important dialogue has been at the forefront of my thoughts. As we focus and improve on inclusion offstage and on, why don’t we take a look, with fresh eyes, at what opera has done right? Let’s examine how to expand upon the good things, and heal historical wounds while laying out an ambitious and dynamic plan to bring ALL of us into the next century.

Opera companies have had a great hand in changing the world by changing how African

Americans are perceived. With company heads like the visionary Rudolf Bing casting us in heroic, dynamic, and romantic leading roles created by great composers like Verdi, Strauss, and Saint-Saëns, the world saw that our people could achieve and become the standard-bearers for excellence in opera…and thereby, any walk of life.

As the Civil Rights Movement took root and flourished, the world looked upon major American stages, world festivals like Bayreuth and Salzburg, and on our televisions and saw artists like Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Robert McFerrin, George Shirley, Reri Grist, and New Orleans’ own LaVergne Monette and Shirley Verret singing some of the toughest title roles in opera, like Aida, Aminta, Dalila, and Carmen. Civil Rights activists like Coretta Scott King, Bayard Rustin, and Myrlie Evers used their classical training as singers and pianists to advance the cause of the Movement.

Even as some opera stars reported threats on their lives, many eyes were opened and hearts were warmed in ways that helped others to see our full humanity and excellence.

My life was beautifully shaped by the support and nurturing I found in the opera world when I was a student at Loyola and as a young professional. As NOOA’s Arthur Cosenza and my voice teacher Charles Paddock did for me, I have been committed to helping people find their way to full human expression through this art form, and to helping people see each other in a new light.

For the past ten years, my company, OperaCréole, founded with my daughter Aria Mason, has endeavored to be the change we want to see.

The mission of OperaCréole has been to research and present lost or rarely produced classical and operatic works by composers of African descent, with a special emphasis on music by19th Century New Orleans free composers of color. We also honor our Louisiana Creole language and culture and seek to preserve and celebrate our unique way of life.

By bringing to life the historical excellence exhibited by composers and musicians of African descent, while creating productions that speak to the fullness of Black life, we are working to heal the past and bring us forward. We have been honored to have facility owners, production partners and staff, conductors, musicians, and singers of diverse backgrounds who embrace our mission, with the Marigny Opera House being among our biggest supporters.

We actively reach out to groups like Son of a Saint to see our productions to be sure that young black men see what we do…and hopefully see themselves in it. In being purposeful in our mission, we have welcomed new audiences to opera, and recaptured

audiences that had been lost, ignored, or ostracized.

Too many opera companies did not understand the effect of stereotypical characters/casting, whitewashing characters, and neglecting to tell stories written by African Americans. They overlooked avenues of marketing and outreach that are important to engage and program for communities of color, and allowed elitism and classism to make the audience experience less welcoming to Black audiences. And while African Americans were on the stage, when the production team and conductor took their bows, we were often not represented among them. While highlighting Black voices musically, often the look and feel of the production itself did not fully celebrate Black life or present people of color in their best light.

In terms of educational outreach, connections from musical past to present didn’t always reflect the times, or the lived experience of the students and faculty they wanted to cultivate. The Black opera base of the 1960-80s fell through the cracks, and ticket sales fell along with them. In a city like New Orleans which is 60% African American, that represents a considerable amount of lost revenue.

I believe the way forward is to celebrate the positive past, and to correct historical

misconceptions as to the contributions of Black composers to this art form. Since composers like Le Chevalier de Saint Georges in the 18th Century, New Orleans’ own Edmond Dédé in the 19th Century, and Harry Lawrence Freeman in the 19th/20th centuries, this music has belonged to all of us.

When the work of these historical and living composers of color are folded into the opera canon, as companies ensure diversity in production, casting, and staffing, opera will change the world once again, and in a more profound way.

So, the answer to the question in the title is YES! Opera has changed the world, and can again as it takes on the mantle of being a brighter beacon for great art fueled by diversity.

To learn more about Ms. Joseph and OperaCréole go to www.operacreole.org, or to their

FEB 18, 2021 - Mallet master and composer Joe Chambers found his footing in 1963, when he moved to New York and built a reputation as a first-call drummer for Blue Note’s stable of stars, among them Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter and Bobby Hutcherson.

“I didn’t really learn how to play until I came to New York,” Chambers, 78, said over Zoom during December from his home in Wilmington, North Carolina. “I learned what swing was all about, what drive was all about.”

It was ironic that, in March, just as he had returned to the Big Apple to record his first Blue Note album in 22 years, the pandemic hit the city and he had to head back to the seemingly safer confines of his Wilmington home.

“New York got ridiculous with the virus,” he explained. “I said, ‘Later for that.’”

But all was not lost. Determined to deliver his album, he replaced New York pianist Rick Germanson and bassist Ira Coleman—both of whom appeared on his previous album, 2016’s Landscapes (Savant)—with, respectively, North Carolina-based Brad Merritt and Steve Haines. In April, Haines said, he and Merritt received notes on the music from Chambers. In June, fully masked and socially distanced, they laid down tracks in a North Carolina studio. The album, Samba De Maracatu, is set to be released Feb. 26.

“Because of the virus everything was sort of thrown together,” Haines lamented, even as he praised Chambers’ ability to draw on his experience and fashion a satisfying outcome. “The thing about Joe is, he’s got a tremendous width and depth of knowledge of music.”

That knowledge is reflected throughout the nine-track collection as Chambers—his vibraphone and percussion, layered over previously recorded piano, bass and drums—recalls key collaborations. The disc revisits “Visions,” from Hutcherson’s album Spiral. On the new recording, Chambers, behind the vibes, reveals a rich tone and modernist sensibility that echo without imitating his former boss.

“Bobby always had his own sound on the instrument, more than Milt [Jackson] or Lionel Hampton, from the old school,” he said.

Chambers took up the vibraphone in 1970, when Max Roach asked him to join his new percussion ensemble M’Boom. Under Roach’s guidance, Chambers and the group’s other members gathered at Warren Smith’s studio on West 21st Street in Manhattan for a year of Saturdays to become proficient on a range of percussion instruments. Chambers, whose first instrument was piano, took to the vibes immediately. “It was just a matter of getting the sticking,” he said.

On Samba De Maracatu, that labor is still bearing fruit on a Chambers contribution to M’Boom’s book, “Circles.” The tune appeared on M’Boom’s 1984 album Collage, and Chambers’ new treatment parallels the format of the earlier version, employing a Bahian rhythm with mixed meters, modal harmony and a sonorous improvisation in which the overdubbed vibraphone and piano play “together.”

If the new album has an outlier it is “New York State Of Mind Rain.” The tune brings to the fore a fragment of Chambers’ “Mind Rain” that rapper Nas sampled for his 1994 hit, “N.Y. State Of Mind.” The tune first was heard as a mindbending keyboard duet with organist Larry Young on 1977’s Double Exposure. The new album’s spin-off, a belated response to Nas, incorporates a rap that was smartly penned by his son, Fenton Chambers, and slickly executed by MC Parrain.

A stylistic counterweight to that track is singer Stephanie Jordan’s (left) dreamy take on “Never Let Me Go.” Floating over Chambers’ subtle bolero, Jordan’s voice projects the kind of captivating appeal that could land her a spot in a future large-scale recording project of Chambers’—pending, he said, the easing of public-health concerns.

“If we get past this,” he said of the pandemic, “I do want to do an orchestral record, with percussion and singer and everything.” DB

NEW ORLEANS (Feb 10, 2021) - The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation today launched a new PSA, “Rise and Shine,” starring New Orleans native, Trombone Shorty, to raise money for their relief fund to support Louisiana musicians who have lost income amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic rolled across the globe, it silenced live music everywhere. As home to some of the world’s greatest musical traditions, Louisiana is also home to some of its most gifted musicians. Musicians who have been struggling for nearly a year now, with no real end in sight. Some of whom have left their instruments behind for good, finding new ways to make ends meet, and making it challenging for young musicians to receive music instruction from the city’s culture bearers.

To help offset the fallout, the Foundation launched a Music Relief Fund in March 2020. To date, the foundation has distributed more than $1MM to musicians across Louisiana. And this year on February 10, only days before Mardi Gras, the Foundation in partnership with independent creative agency, LIGHT+CO, will commence the next wave of relief efforts by asking people everywhere a simple question, Have you ever been saved by a song?

The Foundation’s new effort will kick off with a film entitled "Rise and Shine" -- featuring New Orleans' own Trombone Shorty -- reawakening the city and inviting music lovers everywhere to join together and help the city's sound carry on for generations to come.

“It’s been a rough time for our city’s musicians, many are hurting. Being a part of that community, I know that we have to be there for one another. We’ve always banded together to help each other - it’s more important now, than ever. Music lovers, join us to help keep NOLA music alive,” said Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews.

Don Marshall, Executive Director, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, added, “In my many years of working with the Foundation, I don’t think I’ve seen a more powerful and authentic representation of our city or musicians than the ‘Rise and Shine’ film.”

“By cancelling live music, the pandemic robbed the musical community of not just their sound, but their livelihood. Their ability to make ends meet, and do what they do best: share their sound with the world. We’ve all had that moment when music has saved our lives. Now it’s time to save music,” said David Cameron, founder and CEO, LIGHT+CO.

In addition to Troy Andrews, the film features professional musicians from New Orleans -- Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s Roger Lewis on Saxophone and the Soul Rebels’ Julian Gosin on trumpet -- along with a cast of local children, many of whom have been students of the Foundation’s free music program, the Don “Moose” Jamison Heritage School of Music. In fact, Troy Andrews himself was an early student of the Heritage School of Music.

The film, directed by Benjamin Sonntag, was shot amid the height of Covid in New Orleans in August 2020. The production adhered to all of the City’s Covid-19 rules and guidelines to protect the children, musicians and crew.

The song in the film is an original arrangement of Allen Toussaint’s “Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky (From Now On),” with a featured solo improvised by Troy Andrews.

This film was generously made possible by a 75-person nationwide team. All creative resources required for the making of the film were donated pro-bono by LIGHT+CO and its production partners: Found Objects Music Production, Eleven Sound, Shape + Light, Cabin Editing Company, and Venn Arts Music.

On February 26, the venerated multi-instrumentalist and composer Joe Chambers will release Samba de Maracatu, a notable Blue Note Records return for a significant figure in the label’s history. The album’s Brazilian flavored title track “Samba de Maracatu,” which is available today to stream or download, was composed by Chambers and features him performing drums, vibraphone, and percussion with Brad Merritt on keyboards and Steve Haines on bass. The album is a nine-song set of original compositions, standards, and pieces by Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, and Horace Silver.

In the mid-to-late 1960s, Chambers played drums for numerous Blue Note luminaries appearing on some of the decade’s most progressive albums including Shorter’s Adam’s Apple and Etcetera, Hutcherson’s Components and Happenings, Freddie Hubbard’s Breaking Point, Joe Henderson’s Mode for Joe, Sam Rivers’ Contours, Andrew Hill’s Andrew!!!, Donald Byrd’s Fancy Free, and many more.

The label’s owners – Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff – offered Chambers a chance to record his own album for the imprint during that fertile period, but he was riding so high on recording and touring with so many jazz greats that he declined the opportunity. Chambers eventually did release his own Blue Note debut Mirrors in 1998 featuring trumpeter Eddie Henderson, saxophonist Vincent Herring, pianist Mulgrew Miller, and bassist Ira Coleman.

On Samba de Maracatu, Chambers asserts himself more as a mallet player, particularly on the vibraphone. Throughout the album, he uses the vibraphone as the lead melodic and improvisational voice that often converses with Merritt’s piano accompaniments and solos. While Samba de Maracatuisn’t a Brazilian jazz album in this strictest sense, Chambers utilizes various rhythms and indigenous Brazilian percussion instruments on several pieces, including the title track, which references the syncretic Afro-Brazil rhythms that were originated in the north-east region of Brazil.

The track listing for Samba de Maracatu is as follows:

1. You and the Night and the Music (Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz)

2. Circles (Joe Chambers)

3. Samba de Maracatu (Joe Chambers)

4. Visions (Bobby Hutcherson)

5. Never Let Me Go featuring Stephanie Jordan (Jay Livingston/Ray Evans)

6. Sabah el Nur (Karl Ratzer)

7. Ecaroh (Horace Silver)

8. New York State of Mind Rain featuring MC Parrain (Joe Chambers/Fenton Chambers)

9. Rio (Wayne Shorter)

JIM EIGO, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES

272 State Route 94 South #1, Warwick, NY 10990-3363

Phone: 845-986-1677

jim@jazzpromoservices.com • www.jazzpromoservices.com

“Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”

CHICAGO —February 3, 2021—United States Artists (USA) is pleased to announce its 2021 USA Fellows. This year, New Orleans' Edward "Kidd" Jordan and a total of sixty artists across ten creative disciplines will receive unrestricted $50,000 cash awards. The award honors their creative accomplishments and supports their ongoing artistic and professional development. The 2021 USA Fellows class is the largest in the organization’s 15-year history. USA Fellowships are awarded to artists at all stages of their careers and from all areas of the country through a rigorous nomination and panel selection process. Fellowships are given in the following disciplines: Architecture & Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Art, and Writing.

Saxophonist and music educator Edward “Kidd” Jordan is internationally acclaimed as one of the true master improvisers still performing today. The title of Jordan’s first recording—No Compromise!— accurately expresses his personal conviction about his music. He holds the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres awarded by the French Ministry of Culture, an Honorary Doctor of Music from Loyola University New Orleans, a degree in music from Southern University, and a master’s from Millikin University. Indie Jazz aptly describes him as a “genteel man.”

He founded the Improvisational Arts Ensemble with Alvin Fielder, Clyde Kerr Jr., and London Branch; Alvin Thomas later joined the group. His World Saxophone Quartet, organized in 1976, included Hamiet Bluiett, David Murray, Julius Hemphill, and Oliver Lake. Jordan regularly toured with Alvin Fielder, William Parker, and Joel Futterman. Over his career, he has also performed with a wide array of celebrated artists, including Cannonball Adderley, Fred Anderson, Ornette Coleman, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin, to name just a few.

His teaching career began in 1955 at Bethune High School in Norco, LA, and continued at the William Houston School of Music in New Orleans. From 1972 to 2006, Jordan taught at Southern University New Orleans as head of the Jazz Studies program. He is the founder of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp and Heritage School of Music. His former students include Branford Marsalis, Donald Harrison, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Jon Batiste, and Courtney Bryan, and many others. Four of his children—Kent, Stephanie, Rachel, and Marlon—are professional musicians.

Jordan’s many recognitions include a feature on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Offbeat’s inaugural award for Lifetime Achievement in Music Education, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vision Festival, and a Jazz Hero award from the Jazz Journalists Association.

Past awardees include painter and visual artist Howardena Pindell (2020), documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (2010), writer Teju Cole (2015), potter Roberto Lugo (2016), multimedia artist Paul Chan (2007), dancer and choreographer Alice Sheppard (2019), fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte (2009), filmmaker Barry Jenkins (2012), master Mardi Gras suitmaker Darryl Montana (2014), poet Claudia Rankine (2016), and multidisciplinary artist Martha Rosler (2008).

"We are grateful for every artist whose artmaking, music, writing, and more is helping us to navigate and cope through this harrowing time in our country," said USA President & CEO Deana Haggag. “The 2021 USA Fellows are a testament to the power of art in shaping the world around us and navigating its complexities. Artists do so much for our communities, and we are grateful to be able to support these sixty incredible practitioners and welcome them into the United States Artists Fellowship.”

The USA Fellowship is the organization’s flagship program and is central to its mission of believing in artists and their essential role in society. In many ways, 2020 has shown the resilience and necessity of that mission, and the organization. As a founding partner of Artist Relief, United States Artists helped to distribute over $20 million in direct funding to nearly 4,000 artists in need. United States Artists also administered the Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Disability Futures initiative and is working on similar funds that are planned to be announced this year, as the organization works to deepen and diversify its cultural impact.

“Artists are at the core of their communities, and as the difficulties of the past year have demonstrated, it is more important than ever that we continue to support individual artists,” said Ed Henry, USA Board Chair. “And as we continue to meet the challenges 2021 will bring, it is also clear that USA must remain nimble and responsive to the needs of the field, which is why we are honored to be able to support the largest cohort in our history with sixty artists this year.”

Edwidge Danticat, a 2020 Writing Fellow, said, “From the beginning of my career, I have always benefited from the generous support of others, be it the use of a family member’s house, or advice from older and more experienced writers, or grants and prizes that have gifted me the time to concentrate on my work. Now more than ever, artists need the kind of support offered by United States Artists, not just for continuity and growth, but also

for safety and survival.”

Since 2006, the USA Fellowship has provided direct support to artists across the country. With this unrestricted award, Fellows decide for themselves how to best use the money—whether it is creating new work, paying rent, reducing debt, getting healthcare, or supporting their families. To make its work possible, United States Artists actively fundraises each year and is supported by a broad range of philanthropic foundations, companies, and individuals committed to cultivating contemporary culture across the country.

The 2021 USA Fellowships were generously made possible by: Anonymous, Sarah Arison, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Laura Donnelley/Good Works Foundation, Shawn M. Donnelley and Christopher M. Kelly, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, David Horvitz and Francie Bishop Good, John

S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Steven H. and Nancy K. Oliver, Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, Reis Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Fred and Eve Simon Charitable Foundation, The Todd and Betiana Simon Foundation, Paul and Annette Smith, Walder Foundation, Katie Weitz, PhD, Windgate Foundation, USA Ambassadors, USA Board of Trustees, and USA Endowment Fund.

United States Artists is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago, IL. We raise money and redistribute it in the form of unrestricted awards to the country’s most compelling artists and cultural practitioners. Since our founding in 2006, we have awarded more than 700 individuals with over $33 million of direct support.

Hunter Braithwaite

Director, Cultural Counsel

Robert Grand

Account Coordinator, Cultural Counsel

Lynnette Miranda

Program Director, United States Artists

Kate Blair

Communications Coordinator, United States Artists

NEW ORLEANS - The New Orleans Jazz Museum has partnered with Google Arts & Culture to make its historic collections available online. Specially curated digital exhibits and hundreds of images that accompany the music New Orleans made famous are now just a click away at Google Arts and Culture on the web and on its app (iOS | Android).

The launch is one of several digital initiatives aimed at making the museum’s programs and collections more accessible in a COVID-19 world. In the museum’s first virtual exhibit, Drumsville!: Evolution of the New Orleans Beat, viewers can discover the history of the drum set, stories and influences of legendary local drummers, and the ongoing evolution of rich New Orleans drumming traditions. Similarly, students and enthusiasts alike are able peruse much of the museum’s extensive archival collections, which are currently in the process of being digitized, through the museum’s updated research page.

Joining these digital enterprises in the spring of 2021 will be a new program, New Orleans Cultural & Musical Connections, a series of interactive virtual field trips targeted at 4th–8th grade students across the nation. Made possible through a grant from the National Park Foundation, these virtual visits will be available as both self-guided lessons accompanied by videos and handouts and as Zoom-based guided “tours” with the option for a live-streamed performance from New Orleans musicians and culture-bearers.

Since the start of COVID-19, the museum has also hosted two weekly virtual concert series: Quarantunes (Fridays at 2:00 p.m. CST) and Jazz from the Balcony (Tuesdays at 5:00 p.m. CST). Both shows are live- streamed to the Jazz Museum’s Facebook page as well as uploaded to Youtube.

The New Orleans Jazz Museum closed briefly back in March 2020 amid a statewide shutdown of all non-essential businesses, but it has since re-opened at a limited capacity. For more information, visit www.nolajazzmuseum.org.

Google Arts & Culture puts the treasures, stories, and knowledge of over 2,000 cultural institutions from 80 countries at your fingertips. If Google’s mission is to make the world’s information more accessible, then Arts & Culture’s mission is to make the world’s culture accessible to anyone, anywhere. It’s your doorway to explore art, history, and wonders of the world.

The New Orleans Jazz Museum, located in the heart of New Orleans’s French Quarter, celebrates jazz in the city where it was born, through dynamic interactive exhibits, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities, and engaging musical performances. Through partnerships with local, national, and international educational institutions, the Jazz Museum promotes a global understanding of jazz as one of the most innovative, historically pivotal musical art forms in world history. The Jazz Museum is a Louisiana State Museum.

Three-Year Appointment extends through 2022-23 Season

NEW ORLEANS (Jan 27, 2021) - Hailed as a “composer and pianist of panoramic interest” by The New York Times, Courtney Bryan has been named the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s (LPO) first Creative Partner. The news was announced by Carlos Miguel Prieto, Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin Music Director and Principal Conductor. Bryan collaborated with the orchestra in the past including the premier of her work Rejoice in 2019. She brings creative vitality and collaborative energy to the orchestra’s artistic and community programs. The three-year appointment that started this season extends through June 2023. Bryan joins an artistic leadership team consisting of Prieto and Principal Guest Conductor Thomas Wilkins, making the LPO the only major American orchestra whose artistic leadership positions are held exclusively by Black and Latinx artists.

Equally important to her artistic role, Bryan will strengthen the impact of the LPO’s education and community programs. A new project includes work with the LPO’s Music for Life program to workshop the process of improvisation and composition with young members of our New Orleans community. The “Sounds Of,” program offers children at partner schools the opportunity to explore the music that surrounds their own lives and hone their creative voices, regardless of any prior musical experience.

Courtney Bryan will have a major concert presence during each year of her residency, including this season’s performances of her woodwind quintet Blooming, and her violin concerto Syzygy with soloist Jennifer Koh, conducted by Prieto. Both will be featured on the LPO digital series, “Orpheum Sessions.” Blooming was released in September; and Syzygy will be released on Friday, March 12 at 7:00 p.m. CT as part of a concert also featuring Carlos Simon’s This Land and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Clarinet Concerto.

Bryan appeared as a pianist in collaboration with LPO musicians in the digital chamber music series “Suite Sundays” on November 8, 2020. The program features Bryan’s compositions Spirits, dedicated to victims of police brutality, and Elegy. In subsequent seasons, the LPO will perform additional music by Courtney Bryan and commission a large-scale multi-genre work to be premiered in the 2022-23 season and presented across Louisiana.

“From the first time we performed Courtney Bryan’s music at the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, I knew she has a special voice that could touch audiences worldwide, but especially here in New Orleans, the city of her birth and musical training,” exclaimed Prieto. “Her music speaks to us with urgency and honesty, and her fluency across musical genres matches the eclecticism of the cultural traditions of this community. Her voice, her ideas, and her art will infuse the LPO with vitality and possibility.”

“I am thrilled to serve as the first Creative Partner of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra,” shared Bryan. “Growing up in New Orleans, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra has inspired me from an early age, and I am enthusiastic about our upcoming musical, educational, and other creative ventures in the New Orleans community and beyond.”

“As a composer and performing musician, Courtney Bryan is the perfect artist to serve as the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s first Creative Partner,” says Hannah Yim, orchestra president and associate concertmaster. “She inspires us to embrace music of all kinds and from all voices.”

For more information on Courtney Bryan and the LPO,

as well as concert and performance information visit LPOmusic.com.

Courtney Bryan is “a pianist and composer of panoramic interests” (New York Times). Her music is in conversation with various musical genres, including jazz and other types of experimental music, as well as traditional gospel, spirituals, and hymns. Bryan has academic degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (BM), Rutgers University (MM), and Columbia University (DMA) with advisor George Lewis, and completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Bryan is currently the Albert and Linda Mintz Professor of Music at Newcomb College, Tulane University. She served as the Mary Carr Patton Composer-in-Residence with the Jacksonville Symphony, 2018-20. Her work has been presented in a wide range of venues, and she has two recordings, Quest for Freedom and This Little Light of Mine. Bryan was the 2018 music recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, a 2019 Bard College Freehand Fellow, and was recently a 2019-20 recipient of the Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition and a 2020 United States Artists Fellow. She has recently begun a new role as Creative Partner with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

The mission of the LPO is to transform people and communities through music. Our goals are to perform ambitious, inspiring concerts; educate people of all ages about and through music; engage with diverse audiences; connect to communities through a vast range of mediums and venues; and contribute to the cultural richness of the Gulf South. The LPO is the longest-standing musician-governed orchestra in the United States and the only full-time professional orchestra in Louisiana. Now in our 30th season, the LPO serves the community at large through a broad range of cultural, educational, and community programming that increases quality of life in southeastern Louisiana while supporting and developing our strong orchestral music tradition. The LPO’s education and engagement work encompasses partnerships with K-12 educational institutions, Louisiana universities, and communities in the twelve-parish area.

Additional information about viewing and purchasing digital access is available at lpomusic.com. Patron Services representatives are available by calling 504-523-6530 or by emailing patron.services@lpomusic.com.

All artists and programs are subject to change.

The Orpheum Sessions are made possible by the Orpheum Theater and ERG Enterprises and with support from Paulette and Frank Stewart and Louisiana Entertainment, a division of Louisiana Economic Development

Music for Life is made possible by PlayUSA and the Gia Maione Prima Foundation. Soul Strings is made possible by the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust.

NEW ORLEANS (Jan 26, 2021) - NBC’s “The Voice” contestant, and New Orleans Gumbo Artist, CASMÈ, is kicking-off 2021 with a never seen before virtual experience!

“The CASMÈ Gumbo Experience” is a 12-part virtual concert series where celebrity artist CASMÈ will release each of her newly packaged and released albums on the last day of each month in 2021. In this gumbo experience, each visual album will showcase a different music genre, where CASMÈ will feature 8-14 music singles. She will also perform the songs live, at the end of the night, with her band.

This unparalleled project showcases CASMÈ’s gumbo artistry, just as fans were able to experience when they watched her perform on national TV. With each album highlighting a different music genre, this experience allows CASMÈ to display her gifts and talents as a multidimensional, multitalented, and uniquely gifted artist who can’t be limited to one type of music genre. CASMÈ is simply a “Gumbo Queen.”

“I am so excited to present this gumbo experience for my fans! My team and I worked extremely hard last year to make sure this venture would bring joy to many in 2021. I pray that, through this project, my God-given talents are able to make you dance, tap your feet, reminisce, dream again, nod your head, or sing along as you join me for an experience of all that music has to offer!”

“The CASMÈ Gumbo Experience” will be filled with fashion, art, New Orleans culture, stunning visuals, dance, and of course original music by CASMÈ. Here is the 2021 Gumbo Experience schedule:

The MOTOWN experience will stream on January 31st at 7:00p.m. CST at www.iamcasme.com/concert. Tickets for January’s MOTOWN experience are $20 each, but they are on sale for 50% off until January 10, 2021. Fans can purchase tickets for each visual album, for the entire 12-part collection, or become a Casmanian Partner (sponsor) at www.iamcasme.com/concert.

by Anders Hare, Rated R&B

JAN 21, 2021 - Dawn Richard is stepping into a new era after signing a new deal with Merge Records.

In addition to the news, the singer-songwriter/actress also plans to release her forthcoming album on April 30, according to Billboard.

“I set out a long time ago to create a lane where genre was optional. Where a Black woman could thrive in electropop and Afrofuturism unapologetically,” Richard stated about her recent record deal.

She added, “This record has been such a cathartic experience. To create an immersive story highlighting New Orleans culture through a futuristic lens has just been… a wild-ass ride. I’m stoked to take the wild ride with Merge, and hopefully, the world wants to jump on, too.”

After propitious beginnings with the groups Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money, respectively, Richard pursued a solo career with the release of Goldenheart in 2013.

The New Orleans native’s last project, New Breed, was released in 2019. In 2020, she released a song called “Hold My Hand,” as well as announced her partnership with Adult Swim. In her partnership, Richard serves as a creative consultant for the channel’s upcoming projects.

This interview is conducted by Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning OperaCréole, New Orleans Opera artist and Advisory Board Member, Givonna Joseph, and is directed by Dylan Trần. Please enjoy!

To read more about LaVergne Monette and Givonna Joseph, click here.

Ms. LaVergne Monette was the 1960 winner of the National Metropolitan Opera Auditions. She also made history by becoming the first person of color to sing a role with New Orleans Opera. This groundbreaking 1968 production of Carmen included Ms. Monette as Mercedes next to Ruth Falcon as Frasquita. It was staged by Arthur Cosenza and conducted by Knud Anderson. LaVergne Monette would later sing Mercedes, Micaëla, and many other roles, including Mimi in La Boheme at New York City Opera and beyond.

The New York Times said that Ms. Monette possessed “a beautiful voice with tremendous power and warmth”, and the Herald Tribune said this of her performance in the Metropolitan Opera’s concert at Lewisohn Stadium: “LaVergne Monette, a promising newcomer discovered after winning the Met auditions, breezed through the score with her exceptionally fine voice. Only a reprise tumultuously urged and willingly granted brought the evening and highly invigorating season to an end.”

Her parents, Adolph and Flora Mel Monette, made sure she had music in her life from an early age, and brought her to study voice with Nelson Francis privately, which led to her working with him while a student at Xavier University Preparatory High School.

Ms. Monette graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana’s groundbreaking opera program created by Sr. Elise Sisson, SBS, with whom she studied voice, and sang the title role of Aida (to Nelson Francis’ Radames) and other roles in their historic productions. The great basso of New Orleans heritage, Norman Treigle, came to Xavier to stage their production of Le Nozze di Figaro with Ms. Monette as Countess Almaviva. She and Norman Treigle would go on to perform together often.

After attending a summer program at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, PA, Robert Lawrence recommended her to the great diva, renowned soprano Rosa Ponselle, who took her under her wing as a protégée (Ms. Ponselle was herself a protégée of the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso).

During her time in New York, she would also study with Bert Knapp and perform at New York City Opera with Norman Treigle, Beverly Sills, and Plácido Domingo. Ms. Monette, sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera and Columbia Artists International, distinguished herself by representing the United States as a featured solo artist in a orchestral and recital tour of Finland and on audition tours of Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

In addition to roles with the Met and New York City Opera, she sang with Baltimore Opera, Virginia Opera, and Saratoga Opera in Florida. She even sang a role in the 1966 New York City Opera production of The Consul staged by Gian Carlo Menotti himself.

In 1987, she had the honor of being chosen as a soloist for the Papal Mass celebrated at the University of New Orleans during St. Pope John Paul II’s visit. She also appeared in recitals in the UNICEF Pavillion of the Louisiana World’s Fair in 1984. Ms. Monette was also a featured soloist in recitals at New York’s Town Hall and Carnegie Hall.

Throughout her career, LaVergne Monette has divided her talents between performances and nurturing young artists by teaching voice, performance, acting and world languages all over the U.S. She taught privately in New York, at Illinois State University, Indiana University at Bloomington, and at Xavier University and Delgado Community College in New Orleans, Louisiana. She also gave back to the community through her work with elementary school children at St. Rita’s Catholic School in New Orleans.

Ms. Monette has also been a champion of New Orleans Creole culture. In 2000, she was featured on Sybil Kein’s CDs Creole Classique Music for a New Orleans Soirée. This CD brought the music of 19th Century New Orleans free composers of color to life, and she was a soloist in Dr. Kein’s CD Songs of Romance.

In retirement, Ms Monette continues to use her beautiful voice singing in Carol Dolliole’s choir at St Augustine Church in Faubourg Tremé, at St. Anthony of Padua with Larry Lydon, organist and member of the New Orleans Opera Chorus, and at other churches throughout New Orleans. In 2017 she received the “Lift Every Voice” Legacy Award from the National Opera Association. She currently resides in New Orleans and is thankful to God for all her blessings.

NEW ORLEANS (Jan 18, 2021) - JazzAscona announced that it has named Adonis Rose as its New Orleans Music and Culture Curator. Rose will work closely with the Festival's management team to increase creative offerings from the city of New Orleans and create cultural exchange opportunities for Swiss musicians in New Orleans at the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra's 500 seat venue, the New Orleans Jazz Market.

JazzAscona was founded in 1975 by Swiss trumpeter Hanes Anrig and held in Lugano, Switzerland, before relocating to Ascona in 1985. The Festival is New Orleans-themed and attracts over 45,000 visitors, features more than 200 concerts with over 300 musicians, and hosts numerous jam sessions, exhibits, and conferences annually. The 10-day Festival takes place from late June to early July on the Swiss shores of Lake Maggiore and is devoted to historical styles of jazz, particularly from New Orleans.

Rose, through his new company, the FunkyTown Agency, will now assume the role of curating the entire New Orleans experience for the Festival, bringing not only New Orleans music but other New Orleans cultural treasures to Switzerland.

"For more than three decades, JazzAscona has had strong ties to the city of New Orleans. I am sure that the collaboration with Adonis will further strengthen this bond and provide many unforgettable musical experiences," said Guido Casparis, President of JazzAscona.

"Adonis is a real professional, we are extremely pleased to welcome him to the JazzAscona team and can't wait to see him work his magic," commented Paolo Nappa, COO JazzAscona.

Rose stated, "it is an honor to join Jazz Ascona and the amazing team that works for the Festival. JazzAscona's thirty-five-year commitment to New Orleans music and culture speaks for itself. The Festival has great leadership, and its programming is stellar. This

partnership with strengthen the relationship between our cities, diversify the Festival musically, and create working opportunities for our artists."

Adonis Rose is a Grammy-award winning artist, composer, educator, and producer from the city of New Orleans. He has played and recorded with the biggest names in Jazz, including Terence Blanchard, Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Harry Connick, Jr., and Wynton Marsalis, and has performed on the most renowned stages in the world such as Carnegie Hall, Olympia in Paris, North Sea Jazz Festival, Umbria, Birdland, Apollo Theater, Newport Jazz Festival, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, to name a few. Rose has over fifty recordings to his credit (five as a leader), including six with longtime friend, trumpeter Nicholas Payton. In 2010, he won a Grammy Award with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra for Best Large Ensemble.

In January 2017, Rose was named the Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) and led the eighteen-piece orchestra to its first concert season in October of that year that featured world-renowned artists Sheila E, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ledisi, Slick Rick, and Eric Benet. He has been instrumental in the organization's success by developing educational and community programs, leading performances, and developing partnerships associated with The Jazz Market, a 350-seat performance venue in the New Orleans' Central City neighborhood, which is home to the orchestra. Prior to his role at NOJO, Rose served as the Artist in Residence at the University of Texas Arlington and Cadillac's Jazz by the Boulevard Festival, produced the Keller Jazz in June series, and founded the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra, a 501c(3) non-profit organization.

One of the main international events dedicated to jazz and New Orleans Beat, JazzAscona attracts an enthusiastic audience who appreciates the richness of the program, the relaxed atmosphere of the festival, and the Lake Maggiore as a wonderful background to great open-air concerts.

RESPECT (December 7, 2020) - Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah has earned his fourth and fifth GRAMMY nominations for AXIOM — Adjuah’s new live album released August 28, 2020 via Ropeadope. The full length was nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (Adjuah’s third year in a row nominated in the category), and his performance on “Guinnevere” was nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo.

Stream AXIOM here: https://ropeadope.lnk.to/Axiom

Though it feels like a lifetime, March 10th, 2020 was only nine months ago. At that moment Chief Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah was in a familiar place during an unfamiliar circumstance — about to play New York City’s famed Blue Note Jazz Club as COVID-19 uncertainty gripped the world. Determined to stay the course, Adjuah made the decision to press on with the show. Little did he or his band know, this would be their last show for some time. This performance was captured as AXIOM — the album was praised by New York Times, Stereogum, Bandcamp Daily, WBGO, Consequence of Sound, and more.

Heralded by NPR as ushering in “a new era in jazz,” Chief Adjuah continues to expand on the trailblazing pace he has set since 2006 with his Grammy Nominated debut Rewind That. JazzTimes Magazine proclaims him as “The architect of a new commercially viable fusion” and “Jazz’s young style God.” AXIOM follows Adjuah’s critically acclaimed 2019 album Ancestral Recall, which “highlighted the sounds of his ancestral history and recent coronation as Chieftain and Idi of the Xodokan Nation of New Orleans Afro Native Nations (regionally referred to as Black Indians).” Ancestral Recall was said to be “A Listening Revolution” by Exclaim Magazine.

In 2017, Adjuah released three albums: Ruler Rebel, Diaspora, and The Emancipation Procrastination (collectively titled The Centennial Trilogy). Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first jazz recordings, The Centennial Trilogy is a sonic exploration rooted in a sobering reevaluation of the world’s social and political realities, and their correlatives a century earlier. The trilogy as a whole was named by Stereogum as the Best Jazz Album of the 2010s. The Emancipation Procrastination and Ancestral Recall were both nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the 61st and 62nd GRAMMY Awards, marking Adjuah’s third nomination. The recordings also garnered the chief a Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star Composer, Rising Star Trumpet, Trumpeter, and Electric/Jazz-Rock/Contemporary Group/Artist wins from the publication.

AXIOM is a blistering set showcasing his Stretch Music concept — a vision of genre blindness in sound. The riveting live recording is rooted in the intellection of listening as the primary conduit for understanding and narrative in sound, pointedly contrasting the energy and sound design of his studio albums. “There’s a difference between hearing and listening,” says Adjuah. “The intention to understand is present in listening. When you listen to our band, what you are hearing is the sound of listening.” The document features flautist Elena Pinderhughes, GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist Alex Han, djembefola Weedie Braimah, pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Kris Funn, and drummer Corey Fonville.

So far in 2020, Chief Adjuah has been announced as the Jazz Journalist Association’s Trumpeter of the Year, and recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. The chief also recently starred in Billboard and 1800 Tequila’s Refined Players Series, and he’s the subject of PBS American Masters’ Masters in the Making. In recognition of his musical contributions Adjuah is featured in the recently released Bill & Ted Face the Music playing a Noble of the Future Council, leaders of a world saved by music. He also contributes his trumpet sound to Louis Armstrong’s character throughout the film.

AXIOM is Adjuah’s third live album, the previous two being Live at Newport released in 2008 and Ninety Miles Live at Cubadisco (with Stefon Harris and David Sanchez) in 2011. AXIOM will see a deluxe special edition issued via Bandcamp with bonus tracks available in high quality download and compact disc.

Digital Track Listing:

1. X. Adjuah [I Own the Night]

2. The Last Chieftain [for Big Chiefs Donald Harrison Sr. & Jr.]

3. Guinnevere

4. Songs She Never Heard

5. Sunrise in Beijing

6. Huntress [for Cara]

7. Incarnation [Chief Adjuah – Idi of the Xodokan]

8. West of the West

9. Diaspora

10. Introductions

11. Guinnevere [alt take]

12. The Last Chieftain [for Big Chiefs Donald Harrison Sr. & Jr.] [alt take]

NPR (December 25, 2020) - Pixar's new animated film Soul is the story of Joe Gardner, a middle school school music teacher with big dreams about performing jazz onstage. "Music is all I think about, from the moment I wake up in the morning to the moment I fall asleep at night," he says. "I was born to play."

Soul's main character, Joe Gardner, was voiced by actor Jamie Foxx. But it's Batiste's fingers playing the piano that were animated for the film. "Oh my goodness, my way of playing, my hands: they're an exact replica in the kind of 3D animation. You'll see if you watch the film and then see me playing, it's kind of crazy," says Batiste. "I was almost in tears, because you see your essence and you think: Wow, this is the first Black Pixar lead and we're putting jazz culture out there in this massive way."

Playwright Kemp Powers, who co-directed and co-wrote Soul, says it also helps that Batiste has, "long, lanky fingers that really lend themselves to a dynamic look" when animated.

Powers says Batiste acted as a jazz ambassador for the film.

"One of the first things he said to us was that he sees jazz as the newest form of music that there is because you're literally making it up in the moment," says Powers. He says Batiste pulled together the session musicians for a scene in the jazz club, matching up a real-life saxophonist who was a Black woman, a bass player who was an Asian woman, a drummer who was a younger Black man, with Batiste on the piano.

Powers says the film included a lot of Batiste's ideas about jazz. "When Joe is speaking to his class and he tells a story about the first time that he ever heard a jazz musician play, that's almost verbatim a story that that Jon told us."

In the film, Joe Gardner reminisces about seeing a jazz musician improvising. "The next thing I know he floats off the stage. That guy was lost in the music and he took the rest of us with him."

Batiste calls that "getting in the zone."

"It's just transcendent," he says. "It's almost as if everything that's happening is aligned with the greater force controlling the universe. And God is just pulling the puppet strings, and the audience is in the same space, on the same frequency. That's why we play. And I think that there's something about that that is the closest to utopia that we'll get to."

Batiste has been in the zone since before he was born. He comes from a long line of New Orleans musicians, including his father, Michael, a bassist who performed with Jackie Wilson and Isaac Hayes on the "Chitlin' Circuit" in the '60s and '70s. His dad also co-founded the Batiste Brothers Band: seven brothers who played R&B, soul, funk and New Orleans music. He says his father was his first mentor, as was Alvin Batiste, the late clarinetist, "who taught everyone from New Orleans music over the last 40 years." Add to that lineage "Uncle" Lionel Batiste from the Treme Brass Band, Milton Batiste from the Olympia Brass Band and his cousin Russell Batiste, Jr., who played with the Funky Meters.

"Wow, I mean, there are at least 30 of the Batiste relatives that are cousins of mine or my uncles," he says. "It's a rich family tradition, I'll say."

Batiste actually grew up just outside New Orleans, in Kenner, La. As a youngster, he played drums with the family band. At 11, he began playing the piano and by 13, he was playing professionally, with his friend Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews. He remembers them playing with the Rebirth Brass Band and sneaking into clubs to perform. After high school, Batiste studied music at Julliard. Shortly after he earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in piano at Julliard, he performed on The Colbert Report. Then Stephen Colbert asked him to be the house band for The Late Show.

Besides leading his band Stay Human on the show, Batiste is also featured in comical video segments. The chemistry and admiration between Colbert and Batiste is frequently on display. "I'm proud to work with you," Colbert told him on the show in June, just after Batiste led a peaceful and musical Black Lives Matter march through the streets of New York City. Thousands of people followed him like a pied piper, protesting police brutality with music and dancing.

"People reached out to me saying that really just gave me hope," Batiste says.

Batiste continued themes of Black empowerment in his new album "We Are," which comes out in March 2021. His new single from that album features his voice and those of his young nephews, and all 100 musicians of the Marching 100 from his alma mater, St. Augustine High School. Also the New Orleans Gospel Soul Children choir, and his grandfather, an elder at Union Bethel AME Church.

"My grandfather, David Gauthier is preaching on the record," says Batiste." He was the president of the Louisiana Postal Workers Union and led protest and organized around the sanitation strike with Martin Luther King, Jr. There's just so much in the track that I felt like even if people don't know the back story, they're going to feel the vibrations in it."

Batiste has many more projects up his sleeve. He's up for two Grammy awards, and right now he's proud to present Soul, a film he says has many lessons about finding life's spark. He says one's purpose isn't to be famous or have money. "It's found in the things that make us all unique and [there's] never going to be another person like you in the world, ever," he says. "You're the only one. You're one of a kind. And that's beautiful."

Nina Gregory edited this story.

Marlon Jordan is pleased to offer private lessons and Master classes to aspiring musicians.

For aspiring Jazz students, Marlon will also provide exercises and methods used to study Jazz Music.

EMAIL / mjtrumpet21@gmail.com

"Lady Jazz!" 

with such supreme depth and understated soul." 

EXCELLENCE     INNOVATION     RESPONSIVENESS 

Metro Service Group, located in New Orleans, Louisiana is a multi-faceted corporation with specific expertise and certifications in the areas of Environmental Services, Construction/Demolition and Disaster Response and Recovery. Metro Service Group is a licensed Contractor, certified in Building Construction; Heavy Construction; Highway, Street and Bridge Construction; Municipal and Public Works Construction and Solid Waste Management.

Pick It Up New Orleans!