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Sylvain Music Notes

Monday, April 5, 2021 *********************** For Immediate Release
“The Nayo Jones Experience” kicked off Jazz Appreciation Month 2021 at the Scottsdale Center for Performing Arts
After a year’s absence of live musical performances, Scottsdale music lovers and performing artists alike are ready to get back to live music experiences. Friday, April 2 “The Nayo Jones Experience” band from New Orleans kicked off Jazz Appreciation Month at the Scottsdale Center For The Performing Arts’ On The Lawn! Events for this year.
By Max E. Rumbaugh Jr.
Nayo Jones - Scottsdale_AZ_2021
The Nayo Jones Experience band from New Orleans performing in Scottsdale.
Photo by Bob Rink.
SCOTTSDALE, AZ - From the start of the show until the last notes were heard, the Scottsdale audience knew they were being entertained by one of the best of New Orleans. Prior to the pandemic shut down, Nayo and her band were regulars at some of the best jazz venues and festivals in New Orleans, the city known for great jazz. In Scottsdale, Nayo was scheduled to perform for one and a half hours but kept the audience in rapture for two and a quarter hours.

William “Doc” Jones, her father and Executive Director of International Jazz Day AZ Foundation, produced the program. When Doc Jones joined Nayo on stage for one number, all musical mayhem broke out on stage. The audience was cheering, applauding, and tapping their feet as Doc and Nayo took them on a musical journey into Latin America as well as salsa dancing.

Periodically during the evening’s music, Nayo would pause and express her and the band’s appreciation for their enthusiastic applause and cheers. She shared with everyone how a receptive live audience enhances an entertainer’s performance. Playing music online, in a sound studio, or virtually is not nearly as invigorating to the musicians as doing so in person.

New Orleans, like Scottsdale, had curtailed live performances for twelve months. This was the first live booking for the Nayo Experience band since the beginning of the pandemic.

This Scottsdale musical event not only re-initiated live performances at the Scottsdale Civic Center Park, but it also began the re-employment of musicians. Musicians have suffered a nearly complete loss of income as live entertainment shut down during the pandemic.

The evening was a sell-out by the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. It was co-sponsored by the City of Scottsdale. To ensure the safety of everyone, the lawn was divided into marked-off Pods. Each pod was ten feet apart from the nearest Pod. Seating in the Pods was limited to no more than four people who attended together.

This Scottsdale jazz event also kicked off Jazz Appreciation Month. International Jazz Day and month are international events, initiated by Smithsonian, UNESCO (The United Nations

Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) and world-renown jazz musician, Herbie Hancock.

The month of April is dedicated to preserving jazz, a uniquely American music form. Jazz festivals will be conducted all over the world this month to audiences who wish to discover jazz as well as for those who wish to become reacquainted with jazz.

Scottsdale area residents and visitors will be able to conclude the month-long celebration by attending the Scottsdale Jazz Festival and fundraiser. It will occur on Friday evening, April 30 between 6:00 – 10:00 pm at the Valley Ho Hotel. It will be an outdoor event that includes dinner and much more. 
Tickets are now on sale at eventbrite.com or jazzdayaz.com

This concert will spotlight one of the greatest guitarists of the last few decades Mark Whitfield, The Jesse McGuire Trio, Neamen Lyles, and Nayo Jones who will be in the city for a second appearance this month for those who missed her.

Jesse McGuire is an Internationally known Phoenix trumpeter, having played the National Anthem for three presidents, the Dayton 500, the 7th game of the World Series 2001, and other major sporting events. Mark Whitfield is an internationally acclaimed jazz and soul guitarist. Neamen Lyle is a young saxophonist who has already made his mark nationally through his albums, videos, and radio performances. From New Orleans will be Nayo Experience featuring Nayo Jones who has toured the world with the likes of Kermit Ruffins and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.

Molina Fine Jewelers, Crescent Crown Distributing, Republic National Distributing Company/Young’s Market Company, and the International Jazz Day AZ Foundation in cooperation with Hotel Valley Ho are presenting the 10th Annual International Jazz Day Festival.

For more information and tickets go to JazzDayAZ.com or eventbrite.com
WYES Grape Performances Honoring Allen Toussaint
Tuesday, April 13 at 6:30pm
Virtual Event benefiting WYES, your local PBS member station 
Join WYES for a virtual wine tasting with classic performances from the legendary Allen Toussaint during WYES GRAPE PERFORMANCES HONORING ALLEN TOUSSAINT on Tuesday, April 13 at 6:30pm. Patrons will hear from Toussaint’s daughter, Alison Toussaint-LeBeaux, and enjoy three Spanish wines provided by winery owner, Javier Bayona of Bodegas Familia Chávarri, who will participate LIVE from Spain. Wines can be picked up at Vino Fine Wine & Spirits or choose in or out-of-state shipping options. *Out-of-state shipping deadline is April 6th. For all event details, go to wyes.org/events.

Enjoy interviews with Toussaint's friends and family including Alison Toussaint-LeBeaux, Allen’s daughter, who will provide insights into the life of her legendary father. 

To top off this unique musical evening, patrons will enjoy three Spanish wines provided by winery owner, Javier Bayona of Bodegas Familia Chavarri, who will participate live from Spain. Limited availability. M

The below wines can be picked up or delivered to your doorstep.

Lagar de Indra Albariño 2019

Rioja Rose 2019

Crianza Rioja 2017

WYES producer Peggy Scott Laborde will host. 


PRICING:

$110 > Pick up your three wines in person at VINO Fine Wines and Spirits on Monday, April 12 from 11am-8pm or Tuesday, April 13 from 11am -6pm ; deadline to purchase is Friday, April 9 at 4pm

VINO Fine Wines and Spirits, 1124 S. Carrollton Ave., New Orleans, 504-655-4723

$135 > Your three wines will be shipped to your Louisiana address; to ensure on-time delivery, deadline to purchase your ticket is Friday, April 2 by noon

$145 > Your three wines will be shipped to any address in the U.S. outside of Louisiana (except AL, KY, MS, & UT); to ensure on-time delivery, deadline to purchase your ticket is Friday, April 2 by noon

Questions: dhansel@wyes.org or 504-486-5511



#TheNewOrleansAgenda
Women's History Month at the New Orleans Jazz Museum
As the New Orleans Jazz Museum wraps up another month of free virtual programs, we would like to reflect on a joyful celebration of Women’s History Month. This March, the Jazz Museum hosted a series of fantastic performances to recognize the great cultural impact of women in jazz music.

“This month was an opportunity for the Jazz Museum to highlight the manifold talents of the incredible women who continue to enrich the musical legacy of New Orleans,” said Director Greg Lambousy. “We are grateful to our program partners who helped make these performances possible.”

Viewers enjoyed a month-long selection of Quarantunes and Piano Hour performances dedicated to and hosted by female musicians, featuring talent such as Gabrielle Cavassa, Christine Fawson, and Keiko Komaki, among others. The Jazz Museum additionally sponsored live performances by Helen Gillet and Sarah Quintana at 24th annual French Film Festival, which was held between March 23rd and 31st at The Broadside theater. The month ended on a cheerful note with a special Jazz Foundation of America show to celebrate the birthday of Charmaine Neville on Wednesday, March 31.

All past and upcoming virtual programs are free and open to the public on facebook.com/nolajazzmuseum. For more information about the Museum and for a full calendar of events, visit www.nolajazzmuseum.org, or follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @NOLAJazzMuseum.
Our free virtual performances are made possible by program partners and sponsors like Hilton. Plan your stay today.
ABOUT THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ MUSEUM

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.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Reopens Music Relief Fund Application for Music Industry Workers:

Application Deadline: Tuesday, April 6th
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation is now accepting applications from music industry workers for the Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund.
New Orleans, La. (March 25, 2021) — The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, the non-profit organization that owns the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell, announced today that it has reopened applications for the Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund – a statewide relief fund to support Louisiana's music community who have lost income amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications are now open for both musicians and music industry workers.

The Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund was first created in March 2020 by the Foundation to support Louisiana musicians whose livelihoods had been adversely impacted by COVID-19.  During the past year, relief fund grants have been awarded to 2,500 musicians, music industry workers and Black Masking Indians with distributions totaling just more than $1,000,000. An additional $800,000 has since been raised with thanks to community partners and advocates: SpotifyGreater New Orleans Foundation, Inc.; Miller/ Crescent CrownNew Orleans Business AllianceBentson FoundationGive Back 2020 Tulane FundMichael Murphy ProductionsGoldring Foundation; R.C. Baker Foundation and more than 1,500 donors from across the world.
Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund_sponsors
Recognizing the continued dire hardships the pandemic is causing for Louisiana’s music community, the Foundation’s board has extended its giving efforts to help offer further economic relief. The second round of funding will be open to music industry workers. Additional funding for music community members will be announced in the coming weeks. The board plans to continue to explore opportunities to aid Louisiana’s music culture during this crisis to expand upon its existing community support.

ELIGIBILITY

Those eligible for this round of the relief funds are musicians who currently live in Louisiana. Applications are open now at www.jazzandheritage.org/industry. Music Industry Workers without access to a computer or internet, can call 504-558-6108 for application assistance. Read more about eligibility requirements here.

Executive Director of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Don Marshall said, “The contributions musicians make to enrich our lives are immeasurable. It’s important that we recognize the centrality of music and culture in our daily lives. Now more than ever is a time to support and acknowledge the impact musicians have on our cultural continuity. The impact this fund has had on the music community has been one full of hope and perseverance. It was created during a time when so many people needed good news,” Marshall said.

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Board President, Jeffrey Goldring, added that, "The social and financial inequities that many musicians experienced before the pandemic have only been amplified by the current global pandemic. With a commitment to continuing the support for our local music community, the Foundation's board believes that the Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund is timely, but most of all, still necessary.”
The Foundation has invested proceeds from Jazz Fest directly into the community with grants to fund projects that support the Foundation's mission. Over the last 10 years, more than $9.1 million dollars have been awarded in Community Partnership Grants. Through the Jazz & Heritage Relief Fund, the Foundation continues its support of Louisiana’s music community.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Donations are still being accepted. Make your tax-deductible donation to the relief fund at www.jazzandheritage.org/relief; 100 percent of donations is applied directly to aid.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation invests proceeds from Jazz Fest and additional funds that we raise for year-round programming in education, economic development and cultural enrichment.  Education programs include the Don “Moose” Jamison Heritage School of Music, the Tom Dent Congo Square Lectures, the Class Got Brass competition for school brass bands, a youth audio workshop program, youth vocal workshops, and more! Economic Development initiatives include the Community Partnership Grants, the Catapult Fund accelerator program and Sync Up entertainment industry workshops. Cultural enrichment programs include the Jazz & Heritage Concert Series and annual Foundation Festivals: the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, the Congo Square Rhythms Festival, the Tremé Creole Gumbo Festival and the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival. Importantly, these are free programs that the Jazz and Heritage Foundation has developed over many years to ensure that we give back to Louisiana. The Jazz & Heritage Relief Fund is a natural extension of the work we have been doing for the community since 1979. The Jazz & Heritage Foundation also owns radio station WWOZ 90.7-FM and the Jazz & Heritage Archive. In late 2014, the Foundation opened the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center – an education and community facility named for Jazz Fest founder George Wein and his late wife Joyce.

***
For more about the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, please visit us online at www.jazzandheritage.org.

To request assistance through the Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund, please apply here.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Donate to the Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund. You can make a difference with your dollars in our community by:
• Donating online here.
• Making your check payable to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation and mail to 1205 N. Rampart Street, New Orleans, La 70116.
• Setting up a fund or legacy plan by contacting the Development Department at development@jazzandheritage.org or calling 504-558-6100.

STAY CONNECTED
We’d love to stay in touch. Stay connected with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation by:
• Following us on Facebook or Instagram
• Visiting our Website
• Checking out our concerts and past events on Youtube
• Share the Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund with friends and neighbors.
• Following the work of these Music Relief Fund Supporters – Greater New Orleans Foundation, Inc.Miller/ Crescent Crown;  New Orleans Business Alliance;  Bentson Foundation;  Give Back 2020 Tulane Fund;  Michael Murphy Productions;  Goldring Foundation;  R.C. Baker Foundation
 
An Elite Jeweler and Jazz Musician’s Joined forces To Make Arizona the Setting For One of Southwest’s Largest Jazz Festival
SCOTTSDALE, AZ (3/20/21) - Jazz can bring people together from all walks of life, and the spread of Jazz throughout the United States has taught countless individuals lessons of peace, freedom, and solidarity through music. This is exactly what Doc Jones and Alfredo Molina have also aimed to achieve, with their collaborative efforts to unite the state of Arizona through the International Jazz Day festival.

Doc and Alfredo ( better known as Al) have crossed path a few times, as both are well known in Arizona, and would often run into each other at special events. However, their busy schedules made it near impossible to stay in touch, as both were busy with their endeavors. However, Doc never gave up, and after a short period of time, he happened to pass by the Molina Fine Jewelers in Phoenix when he noticed Al’s Vintage 1959 Empress Bentley parked outside.

Mr. Molina owns one of the most respected jewelers in the country, coming from a long line of jewelers that can be traced back to the 1600s. The Molina family settled in Cuba generations ago, but with the rise of Fidel Castro in the early 1900s they knew they would not be able to maintain their successful and prosperous business under the communist regime, so left for the United States when Alfredo was just a boy.

The family arrived in Chicago in 1967 with nothing but the clothes on their backs, but Alfredo was determined to continue his family’s legacy, ultimately opening Molina Fine Jewelers in 1987, just nine days before the 1987 stock market crash and with just $1500 in the bank. Despite this, Molina Fine Jewelers flourished, generating unprecedented success and becoming one of the nations most prestigious jewelers.

Over the years, the Molina family has continued to grow their business, and with their profits, they have supported nearly 300 different charitable organizations across the United States. However, the businesses success also meant that the Molina Fine Jewelers was one of the most exclusive jewelers in the country, and the building is only accessible by appointment.

However, this did not stop Doc Jones, and he decided to try his luck and request an audience with Mr. Molina anyway. To his surprise, the security guards let Doc right through, and that’s when Doc and Mr. Molina managed to finally share their stories and business ventures.

Like the Molina family, Doc Jones moved to Arizona in the late 1980s also from from Chicago to pursue his passion. Doc has been able to make a living from his devotion to Jazz music, and entrepreneurship since he first moved to Arizona, and nowadays he is working tirelessly to unite the state of Arizona around UNESCO and Herbie Hancock International Jazz Day, as the Director of International Jazz Day AZ Foundation.

Doc and Al bonded over their shared commitment to giving back to the community. Molina’s fine jewelers have donated more than $30 million in the past 24 years, and Doc Jones has dedicated his life to music and education. Doc have taught more than 10,000 youth at risk at no charge in the last two decades. After that fateful conversation, Doc and Mr. Molina decided to combine their resources and passion to give back to the community by bringing attention to the importance of arts in education and affordable housing for creative artists.

This dynamic duo is coming together to produce a signature Jazz Festival for Scottsdale, Arizona. The festival will catapult Arizona into the global limelight, and celebrate the genre of Jazz, and learn about its musical roots.

International Jazz Day has been an annual event celebrated on April 30th, ever since it was declared by UNESCO in 2011. For the past decade, International Jazz Day has been dedicated to celebrating uniting people through music, and the event has successfully commemorated the sweeping impact Jazz has had upon the world. Jazz is an art form that bonds individuals, regardless of race, gender, or creed, and last year over 196 countries hosted some kind of Jazz Day event.

Doc and Al have been working tirelessly to bring this celebration to Scottsdale Arizona, and hope that the festival will become a major tourist attraction within 5 years time. The two have appealed to other major company owners within Arizona and New Orleans and grabbed the attention of a few owners who understand the value that a Jazz festival will bring to the city.

With their partnership, Doc Jones and Alfred Molina are hoping to make the International Jazz Day Festival one of the largest jazz festivals in the South West. With the help and support of other Jazz enthusiasts within the country, the festival is guaranteed to be a resounding success.

The past year has seen a lot of upset and unrest throughout America, and, although the Jazz Day AZ Festival was forced to be postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Doc and Al and a group of partners have decided to produce a series of smaller concerts this year, and move the major Scottsdale Jazz Festival to April 2022.
International Jazz Day AZ

The International Jazz Day AZ Foundation is an Arizona-based 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the virtues of jazz in education, economic development, and cultural enrichment.
Can Opera Change The World?
by Givonna Joseph for Opera Louisiane
Photo by Gus Bennett
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.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and be bold! The world will continue to change…because, through innovation and inclusion, opera will continue to live.

To learn more about Ms. Joseph and OperaCréole go to www.operacreole.org, or to their
Facebook page
Joe Chambers Heads Back To Blue Note
(Featuring tunes by New Orleans' Stephanie Jordan
and her son, MC Parrain)
By Phillip Lutz, DOWNBEAT

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
NOLA's Own Stephanie Jordan Featured On
Joe Chambers New Blue Note Release
‘‘Samba de Maracatu’’
Track 5.   Never Let Me Go 
Written by Jay Livingston, Ray Evans

Joe Chambers: Drums, Percussion, Vibraphone 
Stephanie Jordan: Vocalist 
Brad Merritt: Piano, Synthesizer 
Steve Haines: Bass 

DUE OUT
FEBRUARY 26, 2021

Gambit Weekly Music declares,
"Stephanie Jordan is a lady with a great set of pipes. 
TO SCHEDULE INTERVIEWS CONTACT
JIM EIGO, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES

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.

Joe Chambers Samba de Maracatu
(Blue Note B003315302)
Street Date: February 26, 2021

Joe Chambers-drums, vibraphone, percussion, Brad Merritt-keyboards, Steve Haines-bass
Track 8: featuring MC Parrain (Joe Chambers/Fenton Chambers)
UPC CODE: 0602435371160
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)
JOE CHAMBERS MEDIA CONTACT
JIM EIGO, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES
272 State Route 94 South #1, Warwick, NY 10990-3363
Phone: 845-986-1677

“Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”
Unites States Artists Announces Edward "Kidd" Jordan as a 2021 USA Fellow
In largest fellowship to date, sixty artists working across ten disciplines receive unrestricted $50,000 fellowships. 
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.

1st image above of Edward "Kidd" Jordan by Eric Waters; courtesy of United States Artists.
2nd image of Edward "Kidd" Jordan by J.R. Thomason

Related Article:
About United States Artists
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.

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New Orleanian Courtney Bryan appointed Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s first Creative Partner
Celebrated composer and pianist noted for influences that reflect New Orleans’ eclectic musical traditions brings enhanced creative vitality and community connections to LPO programs
Courtney Bryan
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_piano
About Courtney Bryan
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.
About 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 Artist CASMÈ Presents “The CASMÈ Gumbo Experience”
12 albums | 12 genres | 12 months | 12-part virtual concert series
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:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
MOTOWN Experience
NEO SOUL Experience
R&B Experience
POP Experience
ROCK Experience
HIP HOP Experience
BOUNCE/EDM Experience
REGGAE Experience
DUET Experience
JAZZ Experience
CHRISTIAN Experience
CHRISTMAS Experience
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.


BAMM Communications is a public relations agency for celebrity artist CASMÈ.
Dawn Richard Signs to Merge Records, Readies New Album
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.

New Orleans Opera is very proud to present a new interview with soprano LaVergne Monette
New Orleans Opera

"People don’t often think of opera as a beacon of civil rights, but every time someone breaks the color line and stands and performs in their excellence, they make the way possible for the rest of us.” - Givonna Joseph on Lavergne Monette
NEW ORLEANS ( 1/21/21) - Soprano LaVergne Monette, is most recently the 2020 winner of the Lifetime Achievement in Classical Arts Award from the Gambit-affiliated Big Easy Awards. She is a native of New Orleans who has broken racial barriers in opera and has given honor to our city through her international success as an operatic and classical artist and educator.

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.

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LaVergne Monette
LaVergne Monette, soprano

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.


Photo credit LaVergne Monette and OperaCréole
Grammy-Winning Drummer, Composer and Artistic Director Adonis Rose of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Named New Orleans Music and Culture Curator for JazzAscona in Switzerland
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."
About Adonis Rose:

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.
About JazzAscona

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.
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah Earns Two GRAMMY Nominations for AXIOM
by Ayana Rashed, RESPECT
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]

Christian Scott a Tunde Adjuah
In 'Soul,' Jon Batiste's Music Helps Bring Pixar's First Black Lead To Life
by Mandalit Del Barco, NPR Morning Edition
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."

"Born to Play" is the name of one of the movie's many songs composed, arranged and performed by real-life musician, Jon Batiste. He was one of several of the animated film's musical consultants, who also included Herbie Hancock, Daveed Diggs and Questlove.

"I love Joe because he has this vision for his life and this thing that makes him feel alive," Batiste says from his home outside New York City.

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.
NPR: Jon Batiste leads peaceful protest music march
"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.

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Through dynamic interactive exhibits, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities and engaging musical performances, the music New Orleans made famous is explored in all its forms.

Housed in the historic Old U.S. Mint, strategically located at the intersection of the French Quarter and the Frenchmen Street live music corridor, the New Orleans Jazz Museum is in the heart of the city's vibrant music scene.

Through partnerships with local, national and international educational institutions, the New Orleans Jazz Museum promotes the global understanding of jazz as one of the most innovative, historically pivotal musical art forms in world history.


Jazz Collection

The New Orleans Jazz Museum's collection is the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the world.

The Jazz Collection chronicles the music and careers of the men and women who created, enhanced and continue in the tradition of New Orleans jazz at the local, national and international levels. It consists of instruments, pictorial sheet music, photographs, records, tapes, manuscripts and other items ranging from Louis Armstrong's first coronet to a 1917 disc of the first jazz recording ever made. It includes the world's largest collection of instruments owned and played by important figures in jazz- trumpets, cornets, trombones, clarinets and saxophones played by jazz greats such as Bix Beiderbecke, Edward "Kid" Ory, George Lewis, Sidney Bechet and Dizzy Gillespie.

Other artifacts in the Jazz Collection include some 12,000 photographs from the early days of jazz; recordings in a wide variety of formats, including over 4,000 78 rpm records that date from 1905 to the mid-1950s, several thousand 12-inch LPs and 45 rpm records, approximately 1,400 reel-to-reel tapes; posters, paintings and prints; hundreds of examples of sheet music from late 19th-century ragtime to popular songs of the 1940s and 1950s - many of them first editions that became jazz standards; several hundred rolls of film featuring concert and nightclub footage, funerals, parades, and festivals; hundred of pieces of relevant ephemera; and architectural fragments from important jazz venues...
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