Syracuse JazzFest Founder Frank Malfitano presents Lionel Batiste with a Jazz Legends Award at OCC on Friday.
“Uncle” Lionel Batiste, Benny Jones, Sr. and the Treme Brass Band brought the sweet sounds of New Orleans and the energy of a street parade to Friday’s performance at Onondaga Community College.
Antoinette Montague, mind jazz vocalist, at the Sheraton Hotel Ballroom
Singer and Newark (aka Brick City)-native Antoinette Montague returned to Syracuse for this year’s Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation Black History Month Cabaret. Montague’s range includes jazz, blues and gospel. She sang several standards and also interpreted “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” but really moved the crowd with “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister).”
The show hit a cresendo when Montague was joined on stage by wealth management professional Vicki Brackens for a duet. Brackens was this year’s Cabaret sponsor.
Antoinette Montague sings with Vicki Brackens (left).
Montague was accompanied by Joe Carello (sax), Rick Montalbano (keys), Larry Luttinger (drums) and Darryl Pugh (bass). She closed the show with “When The Saints Go Marchin In.”
Antoinette Montague
Here is a link for the work of Jazz PhotographerJohn Herr, who is like a family photographer and historian for jazz music here in Syracuse.
Donald Harrison
I heard a story today on NPR about the distinct voice of rapper Biggie Smalls (they described his sound as wheezy and humid). I also learned that jazz musician Donald Harrison, who played a concert here last summer, provided some early musical mentorship for BIG.
Harrison also talked about their connection in an interview on Afropop.
Chris Vadala with Nancy Kelly
The Northeast Jazz and Wine Festival kicked off last night with NYC guitarist Yoham Ortiz and Chris Vadala with Nancy Kelly and the CNY Jazz Orchestra.
Yoham Ortiz
Vocalist Nicole Henry at the Northeast Jazz & Wine Festival
Donald Harrison, cookin
The King of Nouveau Swing Donald Harrison, Jr. brought his bold sax (plus dance moves) to Syracuse last week and spiced up the Northeast Jazz and Wine Festival like a plate of red beans and rice. His band members, average age about 19, were the perfect compliment and despite the rain, they belted out enough flavor to make Clinton Square sound more like Congo Square…at least for an hour or so.
Young Cats
Props to the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet (pictured are members Nick Frenay and Chad Leftkowitz Brown) the young cats who served as the defacto house band for the Northeast Jazz & Wine Fest late night jam sessions at Jazz Central over the weekend.
Maceo Parker
Music from the saxophone can be described as hard, harsh, munificent, ethereal, soft, muted, brash or clean. But Maceo Parker asks, “whatchu know about funk?”
Parker played a three-hour set Monday night at the Westcott Theater that was a musical mind trip. The show featured tributes to New Orleans jazz, the folk soul of Ray Charles, rapid-fire GoGo of Chuck Brown and even a funky introduction to Shakespeare’s Hamlet (“To Be or Not to Be”)
Parker’s superior musicianship and ebullient stage presence are obviously the keys to his longevity. In his hands, the future of funk is secure.
I’d heard of soul, I’d heard of bluegrass, but I’d known very little about “soulgrass” until I experienced a Bill Evans show featuring Christian Howes (fiddle) and Ryan Cavanaugh (banjo) at this year’s Syracuse Jazz Fest.