Tag: jazz

Bluff City Fest

Bluff City Fest

Crosstown Arts presents Bluff City Fest in The Green Room

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $10 in advanced | $15 at the door | $5 student ticket

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Join us at Bluff City Fest, where Memphis’ musical heartbeat comes alive. This festival celebrates the city’s legendary music scene with a dynamic mix of genres—from rap and contemporary rock to pop, blues, jazz, and classic rock. Be there as the next wave of Memphis musicians takes the stage, showcasing the vibrant talent of the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. With eight killer bands lighting up the stage, fresh artists to discover, and a vibe that’s pure Bluff City soul, this is an experience you won’t want to miss!

Kortland Whalum

Crosstown Arts presents Kortland Whalum in The Green Room

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Friday, December 6, 2024
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $25 in advanced

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Kortland Whalum is a singer-songwriter and actor whose talents span from music to the stage. As an actor, Kortland has over a dozen theatre credits, including: Guys & Dolls, The Color Purple, CATS, and Carmen Jones.

With Sold Out shows at Crosstown Arts’ “The Green Room”, Kortland is continuing to seek and occupy a unique niche in the world of soft jazz and R&B/Soul music. His EP A Love Letter; a collection of songs including, “Can We Go [Love’s Paradise]”, “C’est La Vie”, and “The Limit” was released in 2021; all of which have garnered favorable local radio play. Kortland can also be seen singing with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra Big Band.

Sunny Side Jazz Band, with Victoria Doutón

Crosstown Arts presents Sunny Side Jazz Band, with Victoria Doutón in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts⁠
Wednesday, July 24, 2024⁠
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm⁠
$20 in advance | $25 at the door⁠

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Sunny Side Jazz Band is based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. They are heavily influenced by the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, and many other early jazz legends.⁠
⁠
Sunny Side provides a full New Orleans-style jazz band experience with three-part harmonies, a solid rhythm section, and an energetic vocalist and dancer.⁠
⁠
In 2024 Sunny Side is planning their fourth national tour stopping in cities and towns between New Orleans, New York, and Ohio playing a variety of shows including several swing dance events.⁠

Victoria Doutón is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Montevideo, Uruguay. She studied classical flute at the National Conservatory of Music in Montevideo as well as the Montevideo University School of Music.

Victoria has spent time in different countries across the globe — music has taken her to Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil.

After a few years in Rio de Janeiro, she moved to the USA, initially settling in Austin. She began collaborating with world-renowned international musicians, and eventually made her way to New Orleans. There she is fully immersed in the rich musical culture that is the foundation of American music.

She’s been in New Orleans for five years, where she is currently recording her first album.

Her travels have inspired her to write music that goes from Afro-South American rhythms to contemporary jazz. Her music combines the different cultures and places she’s been traveling to create a rich and multi-hued sonic tapestry.

Amina Figarova Sextet and the Matsiko World Orphan Choir

Crosstown Arts presents Amina Figarova Sextet and the Matsiko World Orphan Choir in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $20 in advance | $25 at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

“Among the most important composers to come into jazz in the new millennium” – JazzTime

Hailing from Azerbaijan, the New York-based Amina Figarova is an internationally influenced—and recognized—composer, pianist, and bandleader. Those three roles come to the forefront in Figarova’s sextets, bands with a remarkable chemistry that brings her detailed arrangements to life. Every member of the group stands out as a first-rate individual, but their dedication to Figarova’s eclectic and powerful compositions gives this group its depth of feeling and elite status. The Amina Figarova Sextet has been a hit at major festivals like the Newport Jazz Festival and New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

The Matsiko World Orphan Choir has brought together our world’s orphaned and vulnerable children to share their story of turning the pain of loss, hunger, and hopelessness into personal empowerment, an educational scholarship through their nation’s university or vocational levels to instill love, joy, hope, and optimism for the future.

Sungazer

Crosstown Arts presents Sungazer in the Theater

The Theater at Crosstown Arts
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $25 in advance | $30 at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Sungazer is an international Future Jazz duo featuring YouTuber / bassist Adam Neely and drummer Shawn Crowder.

Originally formed in Brooklyn, NY in July of 2014, Sungazer has brought their unique blend of hard-hitting Jazz Fusion, 8-bit, Progressive Rock and EDM to audiences in the U.S. and Europe. Sungazer explores the human element of improvisation within the context of modern electronic music. Exciting, hard-hitting, and never predictable, Sungazer creates music aimed squarely ahead into the 21st century. They released their sophomore EP entitled Sungazer, Vol. 2  in 2019.

On October 11, 2021 they released their debut full-length album, Perihelion. The long-awaited debut LP explores time and the liminal spaces between jazz improvisation and modern electronic music aesthetics. The album was co-produced and mixed by Simon Grove (Plini, Protest The Hero, Intervals) and features an eclectic cast of guest musicians including Joshua de la Victoria, Hannah Sumner, Jae Soto, Tom Monda (Thank You Scientist), Shubh Saran, Jared Yee, Christian Li, Zac Zinger, Brian Plautz (Aberdeen), Brian Krock (Big Heart Machine) and the Resonance Collective.

Modern Masters Jazz Series: Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson and The Ted Ludwig Trio

Crosstown Arts presents the Modern Masters Jazz Series: Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson and The Ted Ludwig Trio in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $20 in advance | $25 at the door | $10 student tickets

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Jazz alto and sopranino saxophonist Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson played jazz early on at the urging of his father, who was a drummer. He played in local clubs from his early teenage years, and studied at the Jazzmobile workshops with Frank Wess, Charles Davis, and Frank Foster. He also met Branford Marsalis, who convinced him to study with Alvin Batiste at Southern University in Louisiana.

 

Soon after this, Anderson began touring with the Wynton Marsalis Septet, and collaborated with Marsalis through the middle of the 1990s. He continued to play with Marsalis’s Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra beyond this. In 1994, he released his debut album on Atlantic Records; pianist Eric Reed and bassist Ben Wolfe were among those who played as sidemen. His 1998 album Live at the Village Vanguard featured trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, bassist Steve Kirby, pianist Xavier Davis, and drummer Jaz Sawyer.