Wednesday, February 27, 2008

This Just In...


Greetings from the Redwood Jazz Alliance. RJA board member Eric Neel recently talked with Marcus Shelby about music, history, politics, and Harriet Tubman. You can read this revealing interview here:


http://www.redwoodjazzalliance.org/shelbyintvw.html


We've also just added to our web site streaming audio of Marcus Shelby's music, including several movements of "Bound For The Promised Land:


Harriet Tubman". Go here: http://www.redwoodjazzalliance.org/news.htm and then click on the "My Radio" button to listen.


Don't forget that if you purchase a pair of tickets for the Marcus shelby performance from our web site, you'll receive a free Redwood Jazz Alliance t-shirt. Buying tickets on our web site is easy and secure. Go here:


http://www.redwoodjazzalliance.org/tickets.htm and with just a couple of clicks you'll be done.


Of course, if you already have a RJA t-shirt, you can still purchase tickets online or at The Metro, Peoples Records and the Works in Arcata and Eureka.


Don't forget, too, about Wayne Horvitz and Sweeter Than The Day at Jambalaya on Sunday, March 2 at 8 pm. No advance tickets for this one.


It's $10 at the door.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Truly a Deal!

I just bought two tickets for the Marcus Shelby show at the RJA website.

(Yes, RJA members pay for their own seats at RJA shows. We're a non-profit and we figure it's only right.)

For ordering two tickets or more online for this show, you get a free RJA tee shirt. This is truly a deal!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

RJA Interviews Marcus Shelby

In the words of Brother Eldridge:


More scintillating colloquy from our probing president. Fantastico, Brother Neel.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Press Release

Tubman Oratorio Anchors Summit


Arcata – The Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra featuring Faye Carol will perform Shelby’s jazz oratorio, “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman,” to inaugurate Humboldt State University’s 2008 Social Justice Summit on Friday, March 7.


Shelby, the Bay Area bassist, composer and educator, will lead a 15-piece big band with four singers, led by Ms. Carol, San Francisco’s acclaimed jazz and blues singer. She began her career in the 1960s as a vocalist with Bay Area R&B and funk bands and was vocal teacher and director of the Music in the Community program at the Black Repertory Group in Berkeley from 2001 to 2003.


“Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman” eulogizes the life of the Maryland runaway slave (1819 – 1913) who was a conductor of the Underground Railroad, a spy for Union forces and a leading abolitionist admired as the “Moses of Her People.” Mr. Shelby’s oratorio continues his thematic exploration of black history and social justice through music.


Premiered last May at the Yerba Buena Festival, “Bound for the Promised Land” won immediate critical acclaim as an “epic” that combines “fine composition, tight arrangement, technical virtuosity and chemistry.”


Shelby is an instructor at the Berkeley Young Musician program at San Francisco State University and the Stanford Jazz Workshop. A 2006 Fellow with the Resident Dialogues Program of the Committee for Black Performing Arts at Stanford, he is the 1991 winner of the Charles Mingus Scholarship.


Performing jazz and teaching the genre’s history, Shelby strives to present the art “as a distinctly American historic narrative [and] create dialogue about American experiences.” Telling African American stories through performance, he says, “helps shape the future of all American performing arts.”


Shelby’s oratorio epitomizes the theme of this year’s Social Justice Summit, “Reclaiming SOUL!” The performance will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Van Duzer Theater. Registered conference participants will be admitted free. General admission will be $15.00, admission for seniors and students with HSU I.D. will be $10.00


Co-partners of the Shelby jazz performance include HSU’s MultiCultural Center, organizer of the summit; the non-profit Redwood Jazz Alliance, which invites national and international musicians to the Redwood Coast, in collaboration with Humboldt State’s Department of Music; and HSU’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and its Department of World Languages and Cultures. Major funding also is provided by the Office of the President and the Diversity Program Funding Committee.


Details of the March 7 performance are at

http://www.redwoodalliance.org/msjo.html.


Information about, and registration for, the Social Justice Summit is at www.humboldt.edu/~sjs2008. The summit coordinator is Mona Mazzotti at 707/826-3369 or mmazzotti@humboldt.edu.


HSU News & Information

707/826-5105/psm7001@humboldt.edu

Sunday, February 10, 2008

I'm in one of the bands playing here

Sat. 16 Feburary

8pm

Arcata Playhouse

(old Creamery Bldg. behind Co-Op)

$10 (only)

1st Annual

Mardi Gras/Carnaval

Blow-Out & dance extravaganza

benefit for Circus Remedy

5 hours (at least!) of whompin' & stompin' dance grooves from 2 of the worlds original pre-Lenten rave cultures

featuring

The DIXIELEPTICS

(Humboldt Dixie All-Stars)

with:

Don Moehnke - trumpet

Randy Carrico - clarinet & saxophones

George Epperson - trombone

Jim Piehl - banjo

Gregg Moore - tuba

BANDEMONIUM

(20+ horns and percussion)

plays New Orleans

SAMBA QUENTE

samba dance and drums

Short Dance Workshop and a set of HOT samba rhythm and writhin'

BANDEMONIUM + SAMBA QUENTE

plays Rio de Janeiro

a set of traditional samba parade music from Brasil

the BAYOU SWAMIS

Kickin' cajun grooves till the cows come home

in a benefit for Circus Remedy to facilitate work in hospitals and neighborhood clinics in New Orleans

RJA is now a registered "Venue" at AAJ

RJA Brother Dan has set us up as a venue at Allaboutjazz.

Check us out.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Upcoming, Incoming, Coming Soon!

Man oh Man, this is gonna be good!

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra featuring Faye Carol: "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman"


Friday, March 7, 7 p.m. (note early start time!) |


Van Duzer Theater, HSU


Read all about it.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Jazz Birthdays

New content alert: Today's Birthdays in Jazz. You'll find it at the bottom of the links column. Courtesy of AllAboutJazz.

Happy B-Day Scott!

RJA's Second Full Season

The boys and girl in the club are talking about the RJA's next full season. I know a little bit about who's saying what and who is talking to whom, but I can't say anything yet, of course. Negotiations are underway, as they say.

Do you live nearby? Do you have any particular jazz figure or band you'd like to see?

Let me know, in the comments.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Three Foods Throws a Party


The good and kind folks at Three Foods, Kellie and Naomi and Heather and their great staff, threw a terrific reception for the artists and fans of Trio M. It was a terrific night of booze, food and fun conversation.
Posted by Picasa