NCCU’s 25th Annual Jazz Festival offers a week of exciting music beginning Monday, April 13, with a lineup of stellar musicians and vocalists, including a master class taught by Visiting Vocal Scholar Trineice Robinson-Martin, Ph.D.
The Student Jazz Combos will open this special week of music with a concert at 7 p.m. Monday in B.N. Duke Auditorium.
On Tuesday, April 14, a Vocal Jazz Summit takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., featuring workshops for middle and high school choral directors. Robinson-Martin will teach her master class at 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, in the Old Band Room of B.N. Duke Auditorium, followed by a 7 p.m. evening concert bringing together vocal-led combos, middle and high school groups and a performance by Robinson-Martin.
NCCU Jazz Faculty will take the spotlight Wednesday, April 15, at 7 p.m. for a special concert, while Friday’s festival highlights include a performance by the university’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Lenora Helm Hammonds, and a Trumpet Summit with Marcus Belgrave and Russell Gunn.
On Saturday, April 18, music will be provided by the Steve Wilson/Clarence Penn quartet, with the NCCU Jazz Ensemble directed by Dr. Ira Wiggins, opening the show.
All events are free with the exception of Friday and Saturday night concerts. Tickets can be purchase at the NCCU Box Office http://www.nccu.edu/ticket-office/index.cfm
Jazz Appreciation Month was created right here at the museum in 2002 to herald and celebrate the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz.Through local and national jazz fans everywhere, JAM is intended to stimulate the current jazz scene and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz – to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and support institutional jazz programs.
Carmen McRae always had a nice voice (if not on the impossible level of an Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan) but it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretations of lyrics that made her most memorable. She studied piano early on and had her first important job singing with Benny Carter’s big band (1944), but it would be another decade before her career had really gained much momentum. McRae married and divorced Kenny Clarke in the ’40s, worked with Count Basie (briefly) and Mercer Ellington (1946-1947), and became the intermission singer and pianist at several New York clubs. In 1954 she began to record as a leader’ and by then she had absorbed the influences of Billie Holiday and bebop into her own style. McRae would record pretty steadily up to 1989 and, although her voice was higher in the ’50s and her phrasing would be even more laid-back in later years, her general style and approach did not change much through the decades. Championed in the ’50s by Ralph Gleason, McRae was fairly popular throughout her career. Among her most interesting recording projects were participating in Dave Brubeck’s the Real Ambassadors with Louis Armstrong, cutting an album of live duets with Betty Carter, being accompanied by Dave Brubeck and George Shearing, and closing her career with brilliant tributes to Thelonious Monk and Sarah Vaughan. Carmen McRae, who refused to quit smoking, was forced to retire in 1991 due to emphysema. She recorded for many labels including Bethlehem, Decca (1954-1958), Kapp, Columbia, Mainstream, Focus, Atlantic (1967-1970), Black Lion, Groove Merchant, Catalyst, Blue Note, Buddah, Concord, and Novus.