Tag: The Green Room

Modern Masters Jazz Series: Jocelyn Gould

Crosstown Arts presents Modern Masters: Jocelyn Gould with the Ted Ludwig Trio in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $20 in advance | $25 at the door | $10 student tickets at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

2021 JUNO Award winner Jocelyn Gould has been called “a leader in the next generation of great mainstream jazz guitarists” by Howard Paul, CEO of Benedetto Guitars. Her joyful energy has captivated audiences around the world and her passion for music is as infectious as her unique ability to connect with audiences. Jocelyn has absorbed the influences of the jazz guitar greats and has woven them into an exciting personal sound, citing Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Joe Pass and Kenny Burrell as primary influences on the guitar.

Jocelyn has performed and recorded internationally as a leader and with GRAMMY-nominated vocalist Freddy Cole, JUNO-winning trumpeter and vocalist Bria Skonberg, DownBeat Rising Star trombonist Michael Dease, Etienne Charles, Jon Gordon, Rodney Whitaker, Randy Napoleon and Diego Rivera.

Jocelyn’s debut album, Elegant Traveler, won the 2021 JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year: Solo.

Golden Hour, Jocelyn’s sophomore album, showcases her virtuosic guitar playing and dynamic compositions, and introduces her voice. It has received international critical acclaim and radio play including extensive play on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Golden Hour reached #1 on Canadian and #9 on North American college radio jazz charts. Jocelyn’s Golden Hour Tour took place in June 2022 with performances at 11 Canadian Jazz Festivals.

Jocelyn toured extensively in 2022, including a 6-week American tour featuring the music of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. She will begin 2023 with a two-month North American tour from Florida to Alaska as one of four guitarists featured in a concert of solo guitar.

Jocelyn is a Professor and Head of Guitar Department at Humber College in Toronto. She is a Benedetto-endorsed artist.

Sound Fuzion

Crosstown Arts presents Sound Fuzion in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Saturday, February 18, 2023
Doors at open 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $10 GA (Free for U of M students, faculty, and staff)

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Sound Fuzion is a sixteen-piece commercial band that was formed and founded at the University of Memphis. Founded in 1988, the vision/ goal for the premiere commercial ensemble is to prepare students for the professional world of touring and performing. Over the years, Sound Fuzion has helped enhance and cultivate artists including Jordan Occasionally, Kyndle Wylde, The PRVLG, Jessica Ray, and The Band Camino. With high enrollment and determined students, Sound Fuzion equips and develops students to prepare them for the music industry and the world.

(SOLD OUT) Stax Music Academy SONGBIRDS: A Tribute to Women in Jazz

Crosstown Arts presents Stax Music Academy: SONGBIRDS: A Tribute to Women in Jazz in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Doors at 7 pm | Show at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $10 GA (Free for SMA students and faculty)

To celebrate Women’s History Month, the jazz department at the Stax Music Academy will present a tribute to the pioneers and powerhouses that have blazed trails for women worldwide in jazz. The concert will feature SMA’s jazz vocal ensemble, Kind Of Blue, named after the iconic 1959 Miles Davis album. The vocalists will be accompanied by a band of instrumentalists from the SMA Jazz Department. This tribute includes nods to the music of Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Nina Simone, and even contemporary artists like Esperanza Spalding and Jamila Woods. The music will speak to the strength, elegance, innovation, and devotion that women have embodied in the evolution across the diaspora of modern jazz music.

The Stax Music Academy jazz department, under the direction of SMA alumnus Kori Wallace, currently hosts three main ensembles. The premiere group, The Legacy Quintet, boldly carries the torch of Memphis’ rich musical history and features the program’s four top performing instrumentalists and top performing vocalist. Kind Of Blue, our jazz vocal ensemble, provides vocalists the opportunity to dive deeply into the nuances of the jazz language spoken by some of the greatest voices in American music. Lastly, we have the newly minted Phineas Newborn Jazz Orchestra. The PNJO shines a light on one of the titans of Memphis jazz, and creates the space for students to develop in large ensemble performance. The overall mission of the jazz department is to provide an environment for students to tap into the roots of Memphis music through its deep connection to jazz. Through that connection, students are also able to develop in their approaches to the many styles synonymous with this great city.

The Black Opry Revue

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Friday, February 10, 2023
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $20

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Black Opry is a home for Black artists and Black fans of country, blues, folk, and Americana music. Country music has been made by and loved by Black people since its conception. For just as long, we have been overlooked and disregarded in the genre by fans and executives. Black Opry wants to change that. We invite you to discover, support and enjoy the Black artists that make magic in this space. One of the most valuable aspects of country music is its versatility and diversity in sound. Country, blues, folk, and Americana music often overlap or weave together — these artists explore all of those sounds and intersections. The Black Opry Revue showcases the diversity in sound and stories that Black artists offer to these genres.

Tae Lewis

The emerging country singer/songwriter Tae Lewis doesn’t sell short when it comes to his creation of country music. The North Carolina native started his roots by singing in his grandfather’s church at the age of 5. In 2016 he began to emerge in his own element of what he wanted to create for his audience as a country artist with one of his first singles “Good Luvin”.

“Good Luvin” brought success in being placed in the hit sitcom Shameless, which brought his artistry to a whole new level of people acknowledging who he really is. Now, a Nashville native, he’s been able to write with some amazing songwriters as well as being able to be an opener for some incredible artists this summer.

Twitter: @Taelewis_ Instagram: @TaeLewisMusic_

Tylar Bryant

Tylar Bryant is a soulful country recording artist whose path took him on a journey to take the stage in the country music arena. Championing the challenge, where no one saw him coming, Tylar is a new contender who’s in it to win it.

The former MMA fighter changed his career path to pursue a passion that caught him completely by surprise. He laid down his gloves to pick up a songwriter’s pen and a guitar. In a courageous leap of faith to chase his dream, Tylar moved to Nashville in 2019.

Known for his charismatic stage presence, electric live performances, and infamous beer showers among his audiences, onlookers would never expect Tylar Bryant to be anything but a country music entertainer.

Tylar grew up listening to an array of music from rap (Zro, Tupac, Biggie, Hawk, Pimp C) and the tunes that echoed in the background at his grand mom’s home (Al Green, Luther Vandross, The Temptations, Diana Ross).

The Texas native prides himself in his authenticity and ability to infuse a mix of styles and sounds. Influenced by some of country music’s greatest voices and performers (such as Jim Reeves, Randy Travis and Chris Young), Bryant marries modern and traditional country sounds with rock and R&B grooves for an added twist.

Playing more than 80 shows a year, Tylar’s canvassed the Lone Star State. In 2017, Tylar recorded his debut EP, titled Don’t Let Go, in Nashville co-producing the project that features all original tunes.

Twitter: @TylarBryant Instagram: @TylarBryantMusic

Layna

LAYNA is a singer, songwriter, producer from Northeast Ohio. Inspired by Tracy Chapman, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton, and more; and she believes ‘Communication,’ as well as the legendary voices mentioned before, are what helped her find her sound.

Instagram: @LaynaOfficial

Modern Masters Jazz Series: Khari Allen Lee

Crosstown Arts presents the Modern Masters Jazz Series: Khari Allen Lee with the Ted Ludwig Trio in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Doors: 6:00 pm | Show begins at: 6:30 pm
Tickets: $20 in advance | $25 at the door | $10 student tickets at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Khari Allen Lee has arisen as one of the most in-demand saxophonists, educators, composers, and multi-instrumentalists of his generation. He has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Alvin Batiste, Ellis Marsalis, Edward ‘Kidd’ Jordan, Aretha Franklin, Dr. John, Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, DeeDee Bridgewater, Stevie Wonder, Raphael Saadiq, the Treme Brass Band, Herlin Riley, Nicholas Payton, the Astral Project, Shannon Powell, Wes ‘Warmdaddy’ Anderson, Jason Marsalis, Bill Summers, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Ravi Coltrane, Kenny Barron & more. In addition to his own the group, the New Creative Collective, he is lead saxophonist & touring member of Delfeayo Marsalis’ Uptown Jazz Orchestra, Sextets & Quintets, former lead saxophonist of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra directed by Adonis Rose, and was a faculty member at the University of New Orleans & Loyola University, following his extended tenure at the prestigious New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA). He was recently chosen to become the Auburn University Daniel F. Breeden Eminent Scholar in Residence for the Arts & Humanities.

As leader, Khari Allen Lee & the New Creative Collective has released three albums, Conscious Evolution (2012), Our Great Awakening (2014) & A New Earth (2016), all to enthusiastic praise. In 2015, he was chosen as newest artist endorser of the family of Jody Jazz Mouthpieces, & in 2017 was chosen as newest artist ambassador for the family of Rovner Ligatures.

He is featured on recordings with Grammy & Tony-winner DeeDee Bridgewater & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (DeeDee’s Feathers, 2015), New Orleans legend Dr. John (Ske-Dat-De-Dat, The Spirit of Satch, 2014), The Treme Brass Band (New Orleans Music, 2008), & recently released albums by octogenarian blues man, Bobby Rush (Porcupine Meat [2017 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album]), multi Grammy-winning trumpeter & composer Terence Blanchard (The Comedian [Original Motion Picture Sountrack], 2017), & NEA Jazz Master Delfeayo Marsalis & the Uptown Jazz Orchestra (Jazz Party, 2019). He was also featured in the Oscar-winning film Green Book (2018).

As an educator, Lee has served as Director of Music at the International School Moshi, Tanzania, East Afrika at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and as a clinician nationally and internationally. In addition to his current faculty appointment at Auburn University as Daniel F. Breeden Eminent Scholar in Residence for the Arts & Humanities, he has served as faculty at Loyola University, the University of New Orleans & Tulane University, as well as a decade’s long appointment at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA).

He earned his Bachelors of Science in Music Education from Auburn University, attended the Berklee College of Music as a scholarship recipient, graduating with an Artist Diploma in Professional Music, & earned his Masters of Music from the University of New Orleans as a member of the Louis Armstrong Quintet.

SpiralPhonics Special Quartet

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 in advance | $20 at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

SpiralPhonics is an instrumental music trio founded in 2021 by saxophonist Art Edmaiston, guitarist Logan Hanna and percussionist Terence F. Clark. The musical direction of the group focuses on original compositions and improvisations woven together using the energy of the moment. October 2022 marked the release of their debut live album “The Argot Session” and the band is currently working on new music for an upcoming studio recording.

Melodic twists and churning rhythms challenge the listener to open the lens of expectation and allow themselves to be transported through the air on surging spikes of energy freely flowing into funky cascades of textural grooves and harmonic surprises.

Inspiration – Vibrations – Reflections – Intention

For this concert in the Green Room at Crosstown Arts, SpiralPhonics will give a rare performance as an expanded quartet.

Joining Edmaiston and Hanna for this show is the phenomenal PeeWee Jackson on drums with fiery up-and-coming bassist Liam O’dell rounding out the quartet. SpiralPhonics is a musical group drawing from a deep well of influences and experiences. The members are always open to the unlimited possibilities of the moment and that is what makes each performance special and not to be missed!

 

Blurbs:

“Extra, extra! Read all about it! Irresistible force of Downtown Free Improv collides with immovable object of Memphis pocket!” – Charlie Hunter / Artist; Producer

“This shiet snuggly fye mane!” – MonoNeon / Bassist; Artist

“Bro, this album ain’t an album. It is a soundbath. It’s a journey around the world. I meditate to it.” – Propaganda / HipHop Artist; Author; Writer

“From fiery jazz to deep ambient beauty to the funkiest soul music, this music captures the sound and essence of Memphis in a fashion only made possible by a group of some of its most respected and skilled artists from the past two decades. Deeply emotional, raw, and sometimes even danceable; inspiring sounds from the South.” – Chad Fowler / Mahakala Music