Alcorn State University announced today that six celebrities will participate in its annual Jazz Festival slated for Saturday, April 20, at the Vicksburg Convention Center.
Renowned musicians - Terri Lyne Carrington (drums), Patrice Rushen (piano), Carmen Lundy (vocals), Antonio Hart (saxophone), James Genus (bass) and Nir Felder (guitar) - will hold an educational All-Star workshop at 4:00 p.m. and an evening concert. The concert will begin at 7:00 p.m. with performances by the Mississippi Jazz Educators. University and high school jazz ensembles from around the Southeast will perform from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Now in its 33rd year, the Jazz Festival is a masterpiece rich in tradition and talent. Jazz masters like Clark Terry, Max Roach, Slide Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Freddie Hubbard, Louie Bellson, Donald Byrd, Ramsey Lewis, Stanley Turrentine and McCoy Tyner have graced the stage of this prominent event throughout its history establishing the festival as a true gem and premier jazz event in the region.
“For over three decades, the Department of Fine Arts at Alcorn, with funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts, has sponsored what has become Mississippi's longest-running and most prestigious jazz festival,” stated Dr. David Miller, Jazz Festival director and professor of music at Alcorn. “We invite everyone to pay a visit to the Festival and experience all of this sensational music absolutely free.”
For details, contact Dr. Miller at 601.877.6602 or visit
www.alcorn.edu/jazzfest .
The All-Star line-up:
Terri Lyne Carrington is a Grammy Award winning jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. She has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter. Carrington is professor at Berklee College of Music and artistic director of the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival. Her “The Mosaic Project” won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Patrice Rushen is a composer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, music director, classically trained pianist and vocalist. She is best known for the 1982 hit, "Forget Me Nots", for which she received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
Carmen Lundy is a jazz singer, composer, songwriter, actress, and painter. She has been performing for three decades and composed and published forty songs. Her compositions have been recorded by such artists as Kenny Barron "Quiet Times", Ernie Watts "At The End Of My Rope", and Straight Ahead "Never Gonna Let You Go". Lundy played the lead role in the European tour of Duke Ellington's Broadway musical “Sophisticated Ladies”.
Antonio Hart is a jazz alto saxophonist. He gained recognition for work with Roy Hargrove. Hart is a professor of jazz studies in Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College City University of New York.
James Genus is a jazz bassist. He plays both electric bass guitar and upright bass and currently plays in the Saturday Night Live Band. Genus has performed as a session musician and seideman throughout his career, with an impressive list of artists.
Nir Felder is a 2005 graduate of Berklee College of Music who won the Jimi Hendrix Award from Berklee's guitar department, as well as the prestigious Billboard Endowed Scholarship for musicianship and academic performance. He's been drawing attention in New York as a member of several groups, notably in saxophonist Greg Osby's band.
-ALCORN-
Alcorn State University is a premier comprehensive land-grant university that develops diverse students into globally-competitive leaders, and applies scientific research through collaborative partnerships that benefit the surrounding communities, state, nation, and world.
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Thursday, April 4th 2013 at 5:39PM
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