Music adds great value to my life. I love what happens in
the unique cultural art spaces where musicians can vibe with each other and
enjoy the deep reckonings of jazz music; especially when you can add your own
harmonic ideas to it and make it flow. Jazz for me is a powerful driving force
and I love it a lot.
And so, as your weekend steamrolls along, I hope that perhaps
you will join me for a night of jazz music at the Jackson Room. This evening, April 29, 2023 from 7PM to 10PM at
the Jackson Room located at 192-07 Linden Blvd in St Albans, NY, I will be
featured with the Ed Jackson Quartet, singing a few songs that capture the joys
of vocalizing jazz music.
It is Jazz Appreciation Month and it’s Duke Ellington’s
birthday; a
perfect day to echo some of the best of Ellingtonian jazz pieces
and more, in a jazz club located in a place where so many of the jazz greats lived.
The night will be part instrumental, and part vocal jazz and it will be awesome.
The evening might dictate that you get engrossed in a song,
sing along, dance to the musical grooves, and simply feel the euphoric sense of
freedom that the improvisational jazz conversations embody.
I will agree that I find enjoyment in spinning the plethora
of jazz 45s in my music collection, but nothing beats the experience of live music because it allows
experiential moments that you are bound to remember vividly in your memory. And so with that in mind, I hope that you will
join us for this special night of music happening this evening, April 29th,
2023, from 7PM to 10PM at the Jackson Room located at 192-07 Linden Blvd in St Albans, NY.
You
will be amongst fellow enthusiasts in the charming, ambient corner.
My hearts unfolds like a
flower when I get the opportunity to experience the culture of jazz.
I was squealing
with delight at the idea of celebrating nature’s abundance of simple joys. What was being celebrated?
Black history.
Jazz history.
The history of jazz dance.
The event was hosted by the
Harlem Swing Dance Society and was held at the Pelham Fritz Recreational Center
in Harlem, NY and featured me and my band, Stephanie Jeannot’s Savoy Four Band.
Please check out the mini clip
of the event that was held here:
https://youtu.be/NmgnLuWKMBI
The ambiance was great there in
that Harlem venue located at Mount Morris Park. The art on the walls gave an
appeal that just melted my heart.
I walked in and saw dancers dancing with an
instructor teaching them a bit of jazz dance from its history at the Savoy
Ballroom where the lindy hop was first introduced. I always enjoy these events
because of the air of knowledge and jazz that I am able to breathe in while
history is being shared until the band is ready to play the music to set the
dancers up on a rhythmic fleet.
An eclectic array of standards
was hoisted into the air met by the swinging dancers on the floor who met our
sounds with energetic body movements. We played finger snapping rhythms,
evocative classics, and modernized versions of antiquated songs. The instrumentalists
did not shy away from improvising solos or showcasing their unique flavor which
made it easy for me to be drawn in by their sounds to sing before the host of
people rhythmically propelled to dance to the music. They danced to throbbing
beats played by Napoleon Revels-Bey who approached the counter rhythms with
brushes of purposeful soulfulness. They bopped to the thumping of the technical
virtuosity of Hill Greene. They hammered their heels to the floor to the
variety of tinkling sound played by pianist Danny Dalelio and I sang to the twists
and turns of their music as the music gave a cultural salute to the sounds they
played.
I was suddenly flooded with
memories of earlier times when purveyors of the music would gather dressed to
the nines to share their artistic expression. I thought of artists like Billie
Holiday, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie,
Thelonious Monk and Max Roach. Music was definitely their vehicle for
improvisation whether it was playing, singing or dancing to it because music is
all about self-expression and sharing. They
were always draped in the finest of threads and communicating to the audience
with their hearts full of music. It was a fertile harmonic ground for joy to be
sprung. It was the world’s most glamorous atmosphere and jazz history at its
best. How could one not absorb the cultural influences and be inspired by those
troubadours of yesteryear who made great triumphs with their music?
With each deep-throated growl,
the onlookers danced and danced and danced.
That day still remains imprisoned
in the walls of my heart. I have a growing admiration for the culture of jazz
which makes my heart skip a beat more and more each time I dabble into it. Music
infuses me enthusiasm and makes me feel alive. And so, I have grown this
insatiable hunger to listen and to learn and to sing and to dance and to just
take in music as much as I can; because it is my first love and because I have
a growing appetite for it.
The more I sing, the more it calms my rage. Thankful
for every musical opportunity and for the beautiful gift of song that God
planted in me when he fearfully and wonderfully created me.
