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Dr. Joan Cartwright Editor-in-Chief
Since 2007, 73 men have supported the mission of Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. to promote women musicians, globally. Many of those men stay in touch and follow what we do on a daily basis. Some of them pay their dues, regularly, and make donations from time to time.
One of our champions, Eldred Ellis, donated enough for us to print more copies of our magazines in 2022 and 2023. Eldred took some of them to Europe to the jazz festivals in 2022. This year, he brought us Michele Hendricks, the daughter of the legendary vocalist and scat artist, Jon Hendricks!
We honor the men who uphold the notion that women play music! So many of our women musicians work with men who revere their talent. For instance, Ragan Whiteside works with pianist Bob Baldwin and Denise Johnson, her husband, who operates a recording studio. Also, Gail Jhonson is the musical director for guitarist Norman Brown. Dorothy Lawson’s ensemble ETHEL has male string players working with Dorothy on cello. These collaborations break down the barriers between women and men in the music industry.
In this issue, Radha Botofasina wrote about bassist Cecil McBee, Jr. with whom she worked for decades. Also, Radha brought us the stories of Dick Griffin, Keyon Harrod, and Logan Harrison. Likewise, Grace Joy Reid interviewed classical vocalist Andrew Egbuchiem.
This year, we’re working on several grant proposals for various federal grants. One grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities, will involve Dr. Nelson Harrison, a trombonist, formerly with the Duke Ellington Band, and the inventor of the trombetto. Nelson and Dr. Karlton Hester are among the scholars included in our grant proposal to discuss and write about the marginalization of women musicians and the impact of that circumstance.
We welcome our readers to join us in the effort to improve the status of women musicians in the nation and the world. It’s getting better, mainly because men are realizing that women can play instruments and bring something special to the music and to the stage!
Love and Music, Dr. Joan Cartwright, publisher
Dr. Joan Cartwright Editor-in-Chief
Countertenor Opera and Nigerian Art Songs Singer
ANDREW EGBUCHIEM
by Grace Joy Reid
Andrew Egbuchiem’s singing started in high school at an allboys seminary. He sang in the boys’ choir at school. At this time, singing had become a very serious dream. “My mother was totally against my studying music. Most Nigerian parents don’t believe that musicians have a job or that studying music is lucrative,” Andrew lamented. The singing gift trickled down from his dad, so, he wasn’t the only singer in the house. He listened to his father’s stories of singing in the choir. His parents forbade him to sing in the choir and that’s where the journey ended for him.
Andrew insisted that, “There was this natural force propelling me to pursue music. I was hell-bent on studying music. I had to stand up for myself.” After high school, he joined the children or youth choir. He was the first boy to sing soprano in the church choir. After his debut as a soloist in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, at 18, with the Holy Child Choir, in Lagos Nigeria, he knew that music was his calling. It was something that he had to pursue.
Eventually, he joined a professional choir. He went to college to study music, graduated, and continued
to sing. Andrew sang tenor, briefly, while singing as a countertenor. Then, he met a renowned musician in Nigeria, who said with strong conviction, “You are good enough for the opera stage in Italy!” But Andrew didn’t take him seriously because he was torn between a career as a tenor or a countertenor.
Three years later, his mentor passed away and that made Andrew chose to be a countertenor.
“I launched my career, officially, with my Promoting Classical Music in Nigeria Concert Tour, accompanied by Norwegian pianist, Geir Henning Braaten. Most of the audience was the diplomatic community in Nigeria,” Andrew recounted. In 2012, he went to Bulgaria, the place that created the current version of Andrew. I got a lot of encouragement and a surprise radio interview. From 2013 to 2014, he toured the U.S., Kenya, and Europe in Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, and Latvia. In 2015, he took a residency in upstate New York. Upon completion, Andrew decided that New York City was his destination as a musician.
Andrew is an opera singer, specializing in Baroque music and Nigerian Art songs. His
“There was this natural force propelling me to pursue music. I was hell-bent on studying music. I had to stand up for myself.”
W. Biederman photography, Chicago summer Opera 2021
new, collaboration, The African Serenades, to be released in July, was motivated by recordings he made with other singers, during the Singer of United Land Tour from 2013 to 2014. This album is a compilation of African Art Music with special emphasis on Nigerian Music for reference and education.
In 2019, Andrew performed with the Vertical Players Repertory as a soloist in The Constitution, a secular oratorio by Benjamin Yarmonlinsky, and as an Alto Soloist in Pergolesi’s Magnificat and Charpentier’s Missa de minuet pour noel with the Brooklyn Philharmonia Chorus.
“I am aware of the challenges woman face in music. Women are more scrutinized than men, based on their looks and how they dress,” Andrew offered, “My advice for a young person entering music is to have patience and continue to work hard.”
Visit Andrew’s website www.andrewegbuchiem.com
Grace Joy Reid
KEITH A. DAMES
Vocalist, Dancer, Choreographer
KEITH A. DAMES
by Joan Cartwright
JC: How did you first come to music as a child?
The first time I heard music was in the early 1960’s, before I was six, on a local radio station in Miami, Florida. I spent the first five years of my life in Overtown, now Historical Overtown. The song was Downtown sung by Petula Clark.
JC: Do you compose music?
I don’t consider myself a composer, but I have composed one 12-bar blues, entitled My Momma Didn’t Raise No Fools. I have a few other tunes percolating around in my
brain, but I have not completed them or put them down on paper.
JC: Do you have a music publishing company? I don’t have a music publishing company. But I have a music production company, SeMad Productions & Enterprises, for my promotion, performance, and production of live music concerts and single engagements.
I am the vocalist for dem Kat’s In Black Hats, a jazz and blues rhythm section quartet.
JC: Are you with ASCAP or BMI?I I joined BMI because it was free, but I can’t join ASCAP as long as I am a member of BMI.
JC: Are you aware of the challenges that women musicians face in the music industry?
I understand the challenges women face in music, a maledominated industry. However, Billie Holiday is my inspiration for singing and women have always
been inspiring, supportive, and helpful to me, along my musical journey. I have been befriended by Della Griffin, Arlene Talley, Cantrese Alloway, Bertha Hope, Carline Ray, and Paula Hampton of Jazzberry Jam.
Joan Cartwright accepted and supported me, and I want her to know how much it is appreciated. I work with women musicians, when and as often as I can. Recently, I worked with Kiyoko Yamaoka Lane.
JC: What advice do you have for a younger person entering the world of music performance?
The advice I offer to younger musicians and vocalists is to learn the business. They call it Show Business for a reason, the history of exploitation still continues after a whole century.
Who was instrumental in your early years, musically? Definitely, my grandmother and my mother!
My grandmother was a concert pianist and a noted soprano. My mother wasn’t a musician, but she was a key ingredient in my musical life. My father was an audiophile, and we had the best equipment. My mother heard classical or jazz music on the radio and called me to point out highlights of the pieces. She was my biggest supporter and fan, throughout her life.
My grandmother decided that I would take piano lessons at four.
Meanwhile, my grandfather’s house had a big backyard that was right behind the grammar school and he told the school that the kids could play in it. They had no yard, so, there I was, day after day, practicing at the piano and listening to all the kids play in the backyard. I hated it. My grandmother was strict, and this was classical music.
When grandmother left the room for the kitchen, I bit the piano keys! Many years later, when she restored the piano, she told them “Don’t take away the bite marks on the keys!”
I really hated the piano, so, after a year, I begged my grandfather to let me stop. He spoke to grandmother, and they agreed. I realized what a mistake I had made by 10. If you start with the piano, you can move ahead to any other instrument easier.
CARLE VICKERS
by Roberta DeMuro
By the time my grandmother took me back as her student. I had taken up the trumpet. I loved experimenting with different tones. At high school, the music teacher played saxophone. He taught reeds and I took different instruments home for the weekend to practice. My grandmother was disappointed, until I won of gold records!
My grandfather and my father had DDS degrees and practiced medicine. I was following in their footsteps. I had an older friend who was a few years ahead of me in medical school. He called me one day and told me to come sit in on a surgery he had later that day. I scrubbed up and went into the operating room. When the first blood was drawn, I fainted dead away. That was the end of my doctor’s career! I left medical school, disappointing my family, but definitely headed in a different direction. Music!
I attended Howard University, in Washington D.C., at 17. My professor heard that they needed a trumpet player at the Howard Theater in New York City, directed by Charlie Hampton, and he took me to audition. I got the seat and, subsequently, played for Sam and Dave. When they went on the road, I gigged with them for twenty years. I switched from Sam and Dave to Johnny Taylor
of Who’s Makin’ Love With Your old Lady fame.
Most of my twenty years playing shows, across the country and throughout Europe was with blues bands and great blues artists like The Dells, Little Richard, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Billy Preston, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Womack, and the Blues Brothers. I was with the band LTD when in New York, trying to make it. That city kicked our ass!
We went to Los Angeles, bought a band house, and rehearsed eight hours a day. We played for Mary Clayton on 20 Feet From Stardom, and she got a spot at the Monterey Pop Festival with us as her backup band. Lou Adler of A&M Records and Herb Alpert put us in the recording business. We had a couple of gold and platinum albums with Jeffrey Osborn.
At 40, I went to The University of California, and majored in Performance and Composition. I finished in three years because I went year round. While in college, I flew to Europe to gig on weekends. My professors allowed me some leeway in my schedule. I have had excellent teachers, some of the women were department heads at Irvine.
Have you recorded or worked with many women?
I just want to say, the divas earn their titles. The music business is tough for a man, but I can’t even imagine how it must be for women! For a woman to stay
CARLE VICKERS
by Roberta DeMuro (con’t)
in this business for her whole career is amazing. She earns whatever accolades she gets and then some. When a woman knows who she is and stands her ground, I give all the credit to her and lots more!
I was touring in Africa, and we had a show in the desert with two million people! As I looked out from the stage, I could see nothing but people, stretching far beyond my vision. They were all singing, dancing and immersed in the music. I knew this was where I was meant to be. This was what I was meant to be doing.
If you want to experience Carle’s wonderful playing, find T’s Express, a jazz fusion band, playing locally, in the West Palm area, once a month because their music is the likes of Chic Corea, Herbie Hancock and John Coltrane. Difficult stuff!
Carle expressed that, “It gives me the time to write, which I haven’t really had time to do before. I still practice every day and work on my music. There is still so much to learn!”
That is why Carle Vickers is so good at his craft.
Roberta DeMuro
Neal
The Wayne Shorter portrait began as a commission from a devoted jazz enthusiast and jazz art collector from Columbus Ohio. As with all the portraits I create, I began his portrait by researching his musical library and I set the mood in my studio by playing the subject matter’s music for the duration of the project.
Hours passed as I painted. With each brush stroke, I got deeper into that zone. I started to feel the soul of the music, which I infused, mentally and spiritually, into the painting. R &B
legend Bootsy Collins said that I breathe life into a flat surface.
He was one of the founders of Weather Report, a band that I loved back in the 1970’s. After making that connection, I was more enthusiastic about the project, and the importance of bringing attention to the trailblazers’ stories, historical backgrounds, and their profound influence on the world through their music.
This is the fun aspect of my painting process. I learn about the subject’s history and their musical contributions to future generations. I am wondering who the next commission will be and what I will I learn from them. I am A Keeper of The Flame, bringing attention to great musicians, through my art. That’s why I PAINT OUT LOUD!
Neal Hamilton | Paint Out Loud 216.798.0285 | nhpaintoutloud@gmail.com |
Paint Out Loud LLC: The Art Of Neal Hamilton #paintoutloud
Hamilton on Wayne Shorter
PHILLIP GREENLIEF
photo by Manuel Enriquez
PHILLIP GREENLIEF
by Biggie Vinkeloe
I met Phillip Greenlief for the first time for breakfast after I had seen him performing at 21Grand in Oakland. I loved his approach to playing the saxophone. It was seamless, virtuoso, and still leaving space for the other musicians in the group. I got to play with him in a large ensemble, where he conducted his piece and I conducted mine. I enjoyed our duo concerts that felt like a friendly dialogue, pushing each other to new horizons.
As a toddler, in Los Angeles, Phillip Greenlief’s parents left him with Maude and Jack, the neighbors next door. “For my nap, I snuggled up against Maude’s Hammond organ. While she played, I slept to that sound, filling my body with a feeling of safety and comfort that created a deep impression of the love of music within me,” Phillip reminisced.
A composer in various formats, including traditional notation, text scores, game pieces, and two varieties of graphic scores composed with Barbed Wire and Map Scores, Phillip said, “I am a free improvisor.” His publishing company is Evander Music.
Phillip’s roots are Mescalero Apache and Irish on his father’s side; and his mother is Chickasaw and Irish. He said, “I prefer not to think of my culture as some kind of badge.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Phillip believes the environment shaped him to a large degree. “In the 1960’s, we listened to 93 KHJ AM. That station was unsegregated. The DJs’ playlists went from The Doors to Melanie or Joan Baez to The Beach Boys, or from the East Coast do-wop artists like Martha and the Vandellas or The Coasters to Jimi Hendrix or surf rock,” Phillip recounted. “Record stores were everywhere, and they were street universities. Then, you had to work harder to discover things. Now, you have the
internet, a virtual encyclopedia of music.”
Eventually, Phillip’s ancestry did impact his musicianship and philosophy of life. He said, “after touring in Canada, Europe, Russia, and South America, I started touring in the Southwest, where my father’s Mescalero Apache ancestors were from. My sound and approach changed, while playing in the deserts and in native communities. I had to address the question, Who am I? As I dug into that, all kinds of non-musical things began to influence my work.”
He got his first instrument, a guitar, in 2nd grade. In 5th grade, he picked up the trumpet and learned to read music. He said, “In 7th grade, I hated what we were playing in the school orchestra. So, I left.”
He bought an electric bass and a small amp, and started to jam with a classic garage band. “Then, I discovered the saxophone and that was it. The saxophone is my voice. It’s what I hear whenever I hear something in my head,” Phillip admitted.
For two years, Phillip bounced back and forth, between Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods. He drove down to San Francisco to attend concerts and there were jam sessions, everywhere. He moved there to dive into “The University of the Jam Session and the Record Store” he exclaimed! “Eventually, I went
back to the University of Southern California and completed my degree.”
“My parents were wonderful. They let me be what I wanted to be. In high school, I was surrounded by musicians, mostly females, and I had great teachers in college,” Phillip shared.
At jam sessions, Phillip found encouragement, especially from African American jazz musicians. He passes that on to young musicians. He remembered that the legendary keyboardist and jazz educator Ed Kelly said, “I’m not going to be around forever, so I am encouraging you. If you’re going to be the one to hold the torch, then I want to share my knowledge with you because the music has to live on.”
Phillip’s first gig was with a talented girl who had a gig at a restaurant in Santa Monica. “It took me by surprise,” Phillip recounted, “when she asked me to join her on stage. We played one song, then another. It felt amazing to be playing with her in front of people.”
Phillip believes that it is up to every musician to ensure that music will always be alive in the world. Teaching students to compose has been a great practice for Phillip, who said, “If a student wants to learn a specific tune, like Confirmation, for example, I ask them to write a melody over those changes - I mean, that’s what Parker did.”
When Phillip worked with the female musician in high school, she wrote lyrics, and he wrote the melodies over the chords. In theory classes at college, he had to write tunes. “I would play in the redwoods and make up solo saxophone pieces inspired by the trees. I would go to a lake and do the same,” Phillip remembered.
“At some point, I was tired of what I was playing and listened to a lot of electronic music. I wanted to find new ways to play and make sounds. I tried to think about creating frequencies on
PHILLIP GREENLIEF
By Biggie Vinkeloe (con’t)
the saxophones, in addition to playing notes. I had to develop new systems of composition to reflect new sound languages. I learned to reimagine the basic tools like long tones, timbre studies, scales, chord arpeggios, and intervallic studies, the key elements in most kinds of music that enable you to be free in a given tonal or non-tonal area,” Phillip offered.
Regarding the challenges women face in the male-dominated music industry, Phillip said, “The scales are far from balanced, and women are paid less than men for the same gigs. The #metoo movement illustrated that some men are deeply fearful of women. They weaponize sex and power to oppress women. This practice is deeply ingrained, throughout history, in every aspect of culture, not just the music business. For this to keep happening in music production is depressing. I don’t
understand how an artform that aims to inspire others and put love and joy into the world can be so segregated and oppressive.”
Phillip advised young people entering the world of literature or music performance, as follows, “Don’t give up. Work hard. Compose. Arrange. Improvise. Be curious about any kind of music or literature you can discover. Listen to music from other cultures. Don’t wait for the phone to ring. Make something happen. Start a concert series and invite people to perform. Compose music, invite people over to play it. Get together to improvise. You don’t need a score to make beautiful music, just big ears, and some technical facility on your instrument to move freely in any direction the music wants to go.”
ERIC ANTOINE GILES
Sax
Video games drew Eric Giles to music as a child was. He wore headphones connected to the TV and that took him to a different place. After a while, he turned the games on, not to play them, but to listen to the music. “Once my parents began to separate, music was the sanctuary where life still made sense. I dove into teaching myself piano. Then, I dedicated myself to the saxophone once I heard Charlie Parker in High School. I knew that there was a truth that Parker had tapped into. I wanted to learn how to express myself that sincerely and expressively,” Eric insisted.
Eric is convinced that God used music to give him purpose when he most needed it. That is where his
ERIC ANTOINE GILES
by Dr. Joan Cartwright
stage name, SalvationSax, comes from. He studied music theory with Dr. Nathan Street at Western Guilford High School and fell in love with it. “Music reminded me of math, another subject I love. So, everything made sense quickly,” Eric recounted.
A self-driven student, Eric practiced on his own the techniques he learned from great teachers like Dr. Nathan Street, and Dr. John Henry Jr. and Dr. Daniel Rice at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (NCA&T). Also, Eric was mentored by tremendous players and educators Dr. Mondre Moffett at NCA&T; Dr. Ira Wiggins, Mr. Robert Trowers, Mr. Edmund Paolantonio, and the late Dr. Brian Horton. “I was blessed to have a few lessons with the great Branford Marsalis at NCCU. Currently, I am studying with Chad LefkowitzBrown, Andrew Gould, and Ryan Devlin,” Eric said.
Before the pandemic, Eric composed a few originals. In 2020, during the pandemic, Eric began the Simply Saxin’ Series in Seoul, South Korea. He created Hip-hop beats from samples of jazz music. Initially, he planned to release a song, every week for a year. But, after 26 weeks, he was performing more. So, he put the project on ice. “I have about 30 songs I’ve created but I haven’t published any, yet” Eric told us. To date, he does not have a music publishing company nor is he affiliated with a royalty collection service.
Eric said he has “many women friends in music, so I have a good
idea of the struggles women face in the music industry but, I’m always open to learning more and understanding better.”
His advice to a young person entering the world of literature or music performance is just to “Start and start now! Don’t wait until you’ve arrived at a certain point where you feel that you are good enough. Begin creating right away. Work on your craft, each day, and let the process be the reward. You’ve got to enjoy the hard work it takes to become great, so, focus on learning to love the part you’re going to spend the most time doing!”
www.salvationsax.com
Sax & Artistic Director, Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts
LOVETT HINES
Lovett Hines
by Joan Cartwright
“The first time I heard music was at my home with my parents in North Philadelphia, blocks from the famed Golden Strip on Columbia Avenue. I was influenced by the United House of Prayer for All People shout band and the R& B shows at the Uptown Theatre,” said Lovett Hines. “I am not a composer, but I receive royalties from recordings I performed on, since the 1960s.”
Hines is aware of the challenges women face in Jazz. “My responsibility to emerging female artists is to equip them with the tools to find their creative voices in the male-dominated music industry. At PCC, we presented Connie Han and Helen Sung as part of PNC Arts Alive, Jazz Cultural Voices concert season 2022-2023,” Hines reported.
“The path to success in jazz as an artist is based on practice, practice, practice. Listen to all types of music from various eras, styles and cultures. Integrate patience, consistency, and imagination into your development process,” Hines advised.
A musician, founder, leader, and music teacher for youth, Lovett Hines is the Artistic Director and founder of the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts Music Education Program. Since 1985, students in the program participated in a broad range of activities, including private instruction, master classes, ensembles, summer jazz camp, and live performances in the U.S.
Hines holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from the University of the Arts. He studied music at Combs College of Music, Grambling State University, and the University of Maryland. Throughout his career, he launched the careers of many young, accomplished musicians and artists.
Lovett has managed the Philadelphia Clef Club for two decades. Prior to that, he worked
at Settlement Music School. He mentored high-profile jazz artists, who emerged in Philadelphia, including the notable bassist Christian McBride, organist Joey DeFrancesco, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, and drummer Justin Faulkner.
Hines was the program director at the Trane Stop Resource Institute and the Change of the Century Orchestra that performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival. Also, he was the music director for the Jerry McCleary Revue at Club Harlem in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A highlight of his music career was a commission to direct the Heavenly Horns, who performed with the Grammy-Nominated Dixie Hummingbirds at the Music in the Air 70th Anniversary Celebration that included Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, and Isaac Hayes.
Atlanta Music Project by Dr. Joan Cartwright
Dantes Y. Rameau holds a degree in Bassoon Performance from Yale University. He played with several orchestras, but his destiny was to found the Atlanta Music Project, where he teaches bassoon to underserved children. When Dantes taught in the New Haven public school system, he realized that students had no connection to Yale. Dantes said, “I had many opportunities in Canada that these children did not have. That spearheaded my decision to do community outreach.”
From 2005 to 2007, he was the only black student at the Yale Music Conservatory. This was during the rise of The Obamas and others, who said, “If you make it, you have to reach back and help others.”
In Hartford, Connecticut, Dantes recalled a student who went to an interview and was accepted. She was so shaken that she broke down in tears. But Dantes said, “I laughed my way through school because I was born seven miles north of Ottawa, Canada, and I had many opportunities for success.”
In 2005, Dantes was one of 10 fellows in a one-year Nonprofit Management Program in Boston. He spent three months in Venezuela with conductor and violinist, Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez, founder of El Sistema USA, a nationwide movement of programs to effect social change through music for children. Ramírez directs the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Paris Opera.
Atlanta Music Project by Dr. Joan Cartwright (con’t)
Each fellow went on to run orchestras or other organizations. Dantes’ roommate was a trumpet player from Atlanta and introduced him to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Another contact, Al Myers called the fellowship office for a fellow to come to Atlanta. Myra did not provide financial support, but he connected Dantes with people who helped him incorporate the nonprofit, build a board, and get a cubicle with a computer at the symphony’s offices.
Dantes met Camille Love at the City of Atlanta, who identified three recreation centers for his music program. Together, they raised $30,000 from Coca Cola as seed money to hire music teachers. At the Gilbert House, five days a week from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., students learned music theory, instruments, and choir. At a community meeting, Dantes met Durand Bailey, who applied for and was hired as the Operations Manager.
The Chief Program Director Aisha Moody is from Savannah, Georgia. Her field is Music Education, and she plays piano and clarinet. Aisha taught music at elementary schools and directed the choir, which she has done since she was 13. Unlike Dantes, she worked in Washington, D.C., where there were many resources for students from Ivy League schools. In Georgia, Aisha taught middle school in Cobb County.
Aisha heard about Dantes’ music project and from his blog, she learned that he was a fellow in El Sistema, a program she went through, also, in Venezuela, too. She envisioned an after-school program. She said learned how to organize a music program because “in the El Sistema Program, they put music first, so students emerged at a high level.”
When she got to Venezuela, she was surprised at how young choir members started. “They are far more serious. They told me that I had new levels to reach,” Aisha admitted.
When she returned to the States, she was highly qualified to lead the choir at the Gilbert House. “I contacted Dantes in 2010, and we connected. So, I taught students at his program at the Gilbert House. He had the same goals as I had, and we worked well together. I was a volunteer in the first year, then, moved into the position as Program Director.
AMP has a Holiday concert cycle, a Diaspora Festival in February, and a Spring concert series in April. Since 2013, they have offered private lessons and those students perform three times a year in a public recital. There are 35 faculty members with multiple positions.
Atlanta Music Project community center partners are South Bend Center for Arts & Culture, Perkerson Recreation Center, Utopian Academy for the Arts, Atlanta Youth Academy
Go to https://www.atlantamusicproject.org/amp-events to stay up to date with Atlanta Music Project concerts and events!
James Richard Griffin is a proud son of Jackson, Mississippi. He said, “Every day, a man named Mr. Jessie, who lived on our street, came home from work and pulled out his guitar to make a song about his day. I was six years old. All the kids loved to hear Mr. Jessie play.”
“I began my music journey as a choir singer. My mother was a caregiver and domestic worker. She married my stepfather, when I was a year old. He died in a car accident, when I was seven. I am the oldest child with three younger sisters,” Dick recounted.
His mother was a single parent. “My sisters gave me unbiased love. On Sundays, I got dressed, first, so I could attend the sanctified church with holy rollers, until my family was ready to go to our church. I loved that experience. It translated to the rest of my experience with music. Sometimes, I had transcendental experiences, playing trombone,” Dick shared.
DICK GRIFFIN
by Radha Botofasina
Raised on great southern cooking at Big Sunday dinners, Dick felt loved by his family members. “My mother was a giver and, every Sunday, my friend Paul was seated at the dinner table with us,” Dick remembered. At fourteen, the school’s band teacher told Dick to choose an instrument. “I chose trumpet, but the teacher said there were too many trumpet players, already,” Dick said.
The band teacher said if he played trombone, he could take it home that day. From then on, high school was filled with music. Dick earned money with his singing group that won the grand prize of opening for Sam Cooke, who offered them a job, opening for the Sam Cooke Revue. However, their our parents said they had to finish high school.
Dick attended Utica Junior College for two years. His band director, Mr. Lee, got him a job in a nightclub four nights a week, for ten dollars a night. Dick held that job for six
years, playing piano and singing. He supported himself and helped his family. Dick graduated from Jackson State University with a BA in Music Education. His goal was to be a band director.
“When I finished college, I headed to Chicago and joined Sun Ra’s Galactic Arkestra. But the draft brought me back to Mississippi to teach grades six through 12, for two years, to get a deferment,” Dick reported.
Griffin went on to join the Charlie Mingus Big Band, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Sun Ra. He is a composer, and his most well-known song is Love Always Blues. Eventually, he moved to New York and was the sideman in many musical settings, including plays on Broadway line Me and Bessie and the original Wiz. His advice to younger musicians is “Practice slow to fast. The more you give the more you get from the instrument.”
Congratulations
ALVIN CARTER-BEY
Dr. Timuel Black Community Art and Cultural Award Chicago, IL
HONORARY MEMBER
Special Thanks from Musicman Magazine
ALVIN CARTER-BEY
The Impresario of American Classical Music
Alvin Carter-Bey is a radio disc jockey with 55 years on the air. He is a music consultant for the Chicago Jazz Spotlite (WDCB) Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. He is the musical host and consultant for the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.
Alvin is the Holder of the New City Black Achiever Award and the U.S. Presidential Points of Life Award from President George Bush. Al continues to serve by sharing his musical knowledge with communities in Chicago. He facilitated the street-naming of Dinah Washington Way.
His interviews with notable jazz musicians are featured in the 2022 issue of Musicman Magazine and his book It Was Jug That I Dug, a short biography of saxophonist Gene Ammons (19251974).
JAMES WILSON
ARTHUR
Trumpet
ARTHUR JAMES WILSON
by Dr. Joan Cartwright
JC: State your name and location.
AW: Arthur Wilson. I am from Plantation, Florida.
JC: How did you first come to music as a child?
AW: I was in elementary school. I was coming home, one day, and heard this man playing a clarinet. His name was Curtis White. I was mesmerized by what he was doing. He asked me if I wanted to go to band practice. He took me and everything started from there.
JC: Did you study music theory?
AW: Yes, in elementary, middle, and high school. I played a lot of instruments. I was a prodigy, I guess. I was very good at it. Right after the 11th grade, I played with some small bands around the city. I got a chance to play at the bowling alley. Otis Redding was coming to play at a local club. I took an audition and got the gig to go with him on the road from 1964 to 1966, when I came home. I played at a local club for four months, before Otis had that fatal accident.
JC: Do you compose music?
AW: Yes, I compose, arrange, perform, and record music.
JC: How many songs have you composed?
AW: I have 35 songs copywritten, on CD Baby.
JC: Are you with ASCAP or BMI?
AW: BMI
JC: Tell me about the formation of your band and your musical journey.
AW: After Otis died, I worked with a band from Miami, called the Rocketeers. I was with them when Otis had the accident. Soon after, I got a call from Jeff Brown to come to New York to be the bandleader for Sam & Dave. But when I got there, the bandleader was still there. So, I was a sideman with
Sam & Dave, with Ben Littles as the leader. When he left, I became the bandleader. We toured overseas. When Sam & Dave broke up, I went with Dave, in Miami. Too many of us were trying to work at this club. Then, Jeff called me, again, to come to New York to be the bandleader for Sam & Dave, once more. The last time they broke up, I became Sam’s bandleader in California and New York. Eventually, I left Sam and came back to Florida.
JC: Did you tour on a bus?
AW: Sam & Dave had a bus and a plane. We toured Japan, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
JC: They must have been very popular to be able to buy a plane.
AW: They had two back-to-back #1 hits, “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Coming”. So, they were making a lot of money.
JC: So, pop musicians made a lot more money than jazz musicians?
AW: I believe so. I was very young and soaking it all in.
JC: After you left Sam & Dave, what did you do?
AW: I got a call from Bobby Blue Bland’s bass player, asking if I would be his bandleader. Bobby had just fired his whole band. So, I got there, and we talked for a few days. His musical director took all of his music. He needed me to form a new band and redo all of his charts. That took me a few months. I did all of that. I was ready to come back home. But Bobby wanted me to be his bandleader for five years. I picked trumpeter Joseph Harden to be the bandleader and he stayed, until Bobby died. I was a pallbearer at his funeral. His wife and I were good friends.
JC: So, you formed your own band in Florida?
AW: Yes, in Fort Lauderdale, I formed my band, Lowdown, with Johnny Riles on alto saxophone, Joseph Harden on trumpet, and seven others. There were 10 of us in the band. It was hard to find work for that band, so we split up, and went on the road. You cannot make a living in local clubs. You have to get a job or do something else to earn money.
JC: How did you split the band?
AW: I had three horns. We had conga players beside the drummer. We cut it down to seven pieces.
JC: What were some of the clubs you worked in?
AW: It was hard to find work for a 7-piece band. We would play for artists that needed a group. We worked in Miami, most of the time. Frank Williams and the Rocketeers had Benny Latimore and Willie Hale a/k/a Little Beaver was the bandleader. We worked six nights a week.
JC: Did you work at the Historic Hampton House?
AW: Yes, Dave was living there,
ARTHUR JAMES WILSON
by Dr. Joan Cartwright (con’t)
and that’s where we played every night with a big band that had 12-14 pieces. Dave could not pay us like we got paid on the road. So, we broke up. That’s when Jeff Brown, former road manager with Ray Charles, invited me up to New York.
JC: Where did you live in New York?
AW: I lived in Newark, New Jersey. I would come to New York every day, to rehearsal. First, I took the bus, until I bought a car. I was in New York for two years.
JC: Where was Bobby Blue Bland from?
AW: Memphis, Tennessee
JC: Where was Otis Redding from?
AW: Macon, Georgia
JC: How did they find you?
AW: After I left Otis, I was working with Frank Williams and the Rocketeers. Sam & Dave’s manager, Jeff Brown, called me.
JC: How many CDs do you have?
AW: Five. Three are on CDBaby. com. The other two are not there because they contained songs that I did not write. They are jazz standards. I didn’t know how to give all the composers credit for their songs. I had my own recording equipment. I recorded my own projects, but I didn’t know how to give other artists like Miles Davis credit for recording their songs. Now that I am older and know how to do that, I am going to release those two albums. I’m back at it, now. I have to finish up a couple of songs and I will release them soon.
JC: When do you anticipate the release of your next album?
AW: In a month or two.
JC: When did you meet and marry Mildred?
AW: I was in Los Angeles, California. I shared an apartment with a friend, actor Teddy Wilson. We grew up together. He graduated from Dillard High School. He moved back home to New York. and I stayed with him for a while. He was Earl the Mailman, in “That’s My Mama”.
JC: So, when did you marry Mildred?
AW: I moved back from L.A. in 1994. I went to school for dry cleaning, when I came off the road with Bobby Bland. I had my little studio. My girlfriend invited me to a club, where they celebrated my birthday with her and my Mom and children. I turned around and said, “Hello” to Mildred and that was it. We dated for a year, got married in 1995, and have been together for 31 years.
JC: Tell me about your dry cleaning business.
AW: I worked at a dry cleaners owned by these guys from India. They didn’t know what they were doing. They had too many claims, so I quit. I went to work for Barton & Miller, a very popular cleaners for two years. I went back to the
Indians and bought their dry cleaners in 1994. I sold it but I still service my special clients with pick-up and delivery. The person to whom I sold the business does the dry cleaning. I just pick-up and deliver. I owned the cleaners for 20 years.
JC: Did you marry before Mildred?
AW: Yes, I married Yvonne Devoe, and we had one son,
JC: What did your sons think about that, the two baby-mamas having them six months apart?
AW: My Mom had a lot to say about it. I was 18 or 19, before I went on the road with Otis Redding, I played on the weekend with different bands, while I was in high school.
JC: There was the Bachelor’s 3 Club on Sunrise Blvd. The, the club, near 31st and Sunrise Blvd., where EJ used to play. I sang there with him a couple of times.
AW: That was the Embassy. I remember EJ.
JC: Did you play at O’Hara’s on Las Olas Blvd.?
AW: Yes, with Lowdown.
JC: Was that before the opened up the other side? https://www.whosampled.com/Sam-%26-Dave/Broke-Down-Piece-of-Man/
ARTHUR JAMES WILSON
by Dr. Joan Cartwright (con’t)
AW: After. You and I were working at the same time. We would pass each other, though we never met, until later on. I have a flyer with both of us on it.
JC: So, you’re about to put out three albums. What are the titles?
AW: I’ll let you know.
JC: Did you ever work with any women musicians?
AW: With Sam & Dave, we did Paul Simon’s movie, “One Trick Pony” with a saxophone player.
JC: Vi Redd?
AW: No, I told you about her before. She lived in New York. I mentioned her in our radio interview.
JC: Oh, Kitt McClure?
AW: Yes, that’s it. Kitt McClure. She was in that movie with us and Paul Simon.
JC: Did you know Myrtle Jones, pianist and organist?
AW: You know, I really didn’t know a lot of women musicians.
JC: Did you know Millie Jackson?
AW: Yes, I may have met her during my Otis Redding years.
JC: So, there were no women that you met that impressed you.
https://high.org/collection/ bobby-blue-bland-bandclub-paradise/ Bobby Blue Bland Band, Club Paradise
Artist/Maker: Ernest Withers (American, 1922–2007)
Date: ca. 1970s
Credit: Gift of Panopticon Gallery, Waltham, MA, and Mr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Withers in loving memory of their sons, Wendell Jacob Withers, Ernest C. Withers, Jr, Dedrick (Teddy) Withers, Dyral Withers
Accession #: 2002.101
AW: The only one I can think of is Kitt McClure, who could play with the best of them.
JC: What would you suggest to a young person coming into the music industry?
AW: Stay in school. Get enough of that knowledge as possible because you’re going to need it. Get as much music education as you can.
JC: A lot of musicians never went to school for theory. You studied theory, right?
AW: I didn’t go to college. I learned everything from the musicians on the road.
JC: You didn’t need to go to college, right?
AW: I was writing and arranging for the high school band. I learned much more with the orchestra of Bobby Blue Bland. That increased my skills, tremendously. Bobby was more professional. Our uniforms were two- and three-piece suits.
JC: Were the suits made?
AW: A few were made. The road manager would go out to the stores and, if they were conservative enough for Bobby or me, we would
buy them. We could not wear just anything.
JC: What was your most exciting moment as a musician?
AW: Before I was with Bobby Bland, I was in Nat the Cat’s band. He know Cannonball and Nat Adderley. Nat came up to sit in, one night. I was floored. I had played some of his songs. One was “Lilly”. When he came on the stage to play with us, I was excited. He was one of my idols. Cannonball taught at Dillard High School, where I attended.
JC: Do you know Thomas Dorsey, the band leader at Dillard High School?
AW: I played a couple of gigs there and I met him. He took that jazz band to another level.
JC: They won the Duke Ellington Big Band competition in New York several times.
AW: Yes, they are great!
JC: What’s your birthday?
AW: January 20, 1946.
JC: Did you know about the policy in the 1960s, that you had to have an ID card to work on Miami Beach?
AW: Yes, you had to have a union card to play on Miami Beach.
JC: Was that the union office in Hollywood, Florida?
AW: Yes, it was in a warehouse back then.
JC: The black musicians stayed at the Knight Club, a jazz club at the Sir John Hotel.
AW: That’s probably where Nat Adderley came on the stage with our band. We would play on the beach with drummer Freddie Scott, vocalist Benny Latimore, and Roach Thompson, the Blues guitarist. I played trumpet.
Talent Spotlight
CECIL MCBEE, JR.
“If you want to be a working a musician on today’s scene, you might love jazz, but you have to be versatile with the ability to play other types of music.”
Bassman Extraordinaire
CECIL MCBEE, JR.
by Radha Botofasina
The first time Cecil Mc Bee, Jr. remembered hearing music that caught his ear was at seven years old. He heard a Rod Stewart song, Maggie May, and the bass line resonated with him. He and his mother moved to Los Angeles from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“She was raising me on her own. She was a nurse at the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital, throughout my youth. My sister is musical, but she did not become a musician, nor did she have the support that I had to play music,” Cecil reflected.
At 16, he moved to New York to live with his father, Cecil McBee, Sr, and his second wife, Lucia. He attended Harlem Prep School and, at 17, he joined The Spirits of Rhythm, a group of young musicians learning the art of jazz from professional mentors. Four years later, Chico Hamilton hired Cecil to play bass in his band.
Cecil writes smooth jazz tunes. One of them, Cecil’s Groove, has over 2 .4 million downloads on Spotify and went to #27 on the Smooth Jazz charts. Cecil said, “A friend invited me to put a few songs on his album, I had the files on my computer, and he included it. I’m playing a piccolo bass on it.”
On the topic of the marginalization of women in the male-dominated music industry, Cecil said, “I think the challenges that women face now in music are different than back in the day. Nowadays, if a woman can make good music or they can entertain, then her appearance becomes secondary. Ladies like Lizzo, Queen Latifah, Kelly Clarkson, and Adele have broken the image barriers in Pop music.”
Cecil works with women, mostly. He is a long-time colleague and friend of bassist Kim Clarke. He said, “Nowadays, there are so many more ladies playing bass. They play hard and are completely legit. In fact, they are playing harder than a lot of guys.”
Cecil advises a young musician to get out there and be seen. “Keep your axe in the car and hang out as much as possible. If you want to start performing live, make sure you can play. After a while, people will see you and ask you to sit in.” This is advice that Cecil’s father gave to him, and he highly recommends it.
“If you want to be a working a musician on today’s scene, you might love jazz, but you have to be versatile with the ability to play other types of music,” Cecil advised. He feels that today’s musician is not going to make a living like jazz musicians did in the 1980s. So, he believes a young musician needs to know how to play everything from country, hip hop, electronica, blues, pop, and world music with an eclectic approach. This will enable the aspirant to appreciate multiple genres of music. “Putting it simply,” Cecil said, “be seen and learn a bunch of music.”
Cecil McBee Jr. lives in San Diego, California, where he is a muchsought-after electric bassist and composer.
Radha Botofasina
Imagine how I felt to hear the music to my song, No Ordinary Romance almost exactly as I had conceived of and recorded it, credited to three other people, including Pharrell, the producer of the infringing track, but my name was nowhere to be found. When I spoke with Pharrell’s manager, she maintained that Pharrell would never do anything like that. Well, I think the esteemed Marvin Gaye would beg to differ.
I keep asking is it a compliment to have your music stolen someone whom the Recording Academy just recognized for being “a real champion for the music community” and one of the biggest names in music in the last two decades? In 1983, at producer Nile Rodgers’ New York apartment, I stayed the night to put finishing touches on my song, No Ordinary Romance. It was the first song we recorded, the next day, at Power Station Recording Studio.
Nile and I met bassist Bernard Edwards, cofounder of Chic. Bernard invented the most iconic bass line in history from Good Times that was used on Rappers Delight. Also, there was legendary Chic drummer Tony Thompson and Robert Sabino, Chic keyboardist. Chic was music royalty, and they were gathered together to play my music. I was in music heaven, so humbled, as I reflect-ed on the years of study, practice, travel, hardships, successes, failures, trials, and gigs it took me to get here, with Nile Rodgers, one of the most celebrated musicians, songwriters, and record pro-ducers in history. This band was stellar!
Suddenly, an unassuming person walked toward me, saying, “Hi Michael, my name is Steve Winwood. I’m not sure if you know of me, but I had a band called Traffic.” My mind was blown. Not that I was talking with Steve Winwood, but that he was going to play keyboards and sing with me on my song!
In the early years, in New York, over the previous decade, I worked with creative savants like Ntozake Shange, the brave and unrivaled poet, playwright
Michael Gregory
Michael Gregory (con’t)
and author, with the brilliant poet and author Jessica Hagedorn, the perspicacious librettist and poet Thulani Davis, stellar and deeply cre-ative musicians and pioneers Oliver Lake, Abdul Wadud, Julius Hemphill, Olu Dara, Baikida Car-roll, Jerome Harris, Marty Ehrlich, Ed Blackwell , Leo Smith, Anthony Davis, David Sancious, Phillip Wilson, David Murray, Fred Hopkins, and Henry Threadgill. We were integral contributors to the iconoclastic Loft Music scene in 1970’s New York.
The business of music is an unpredictable roller coaster, one minute you’re riding the waves of your triumphs. The next, you’re floored by lack of promotion, intellectual thievery, or stalled by racist roadblocks. Fast forward to 2015, I received a Google alert for my name in the blog, Moving The River by Matt Phillips. Imagine how I felt, hearing the music to my song, almost exactly as I had conceived of and recorded it, credited to three other people, including Pharrell, who produced the infringing track, but not to me.
A few days later, Nile Rodgers called me, saying, incredulously, “Have you seen this blog?” He knew No Ordinary Romance, well, and that I had written it. But Pharrell’s manager maintained that Pharrell would never do anything like that. I don’t have any expectation for Pharrell and his people to do right by me. I suppose just putting this story out into the world will lessen the feelings of powerlessness and anger I have felt from holding this in for all of these years.
I came from a world in which no artist would take credit for or steal another artist’s work. We al-ready had so much to say, creatively, and we had deep reverence for the creative process. I’ve been involved in the business of music long enough to know that many people do not have integrity and are not honest. Capitalism is exploitative and predatory. What shocked me was another artist steal-ing from me, and a Black artist at that.Michael Gregory Jackson
Photo: Deborah Feingold excerpt from - https://medium.com/.../is-it-acompliment-to-have-had...
MICHAEL
The 3 Keys
Featuring Gail Jhonson, Bob Baldwin & Phil Davis
Define the Power of Three & Celebrate The Magic of Keyboards on Shanachie Recording We 3 Keys
The number three is often referred to as a divine and mystical number. Pythagoras called it the ‘perfect’ number. Chart-topping Contemporary Jazz pianists Bob Baldwin, Gail Jhonson and Phil Davis (The 3 Keys), harness the wisdom of three on their harmonious and splendid piano expedition, We 3 Keys. The recording celebrates the magic of keyboards and is inspired by some of the trio’s keyboard/piano influences including George Duke, Bernard Wright, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Eliane Elias and Bernie Worrell, among others; whose contributions to the keyboard world are profound. There is an eclectic mix of keyboard sounds including Moog synths, pianos, Fender Rhodes, organ, keyboard bass, and other various synthesizers. At the core of We 3 Keys is the deep respect and mutual admiration that Baldwin, Jhonson and Davis have for one another. Jhonson explains how the anticipated project evolved. “Phil and I were performing with Grammy-winning guitarist Norman Brown in GA, and we met up with Bob Baldwin backstage. Naturally, I wanted a photo of the three of us together since it is rare for keyboard players to get the chance to hang out. We were joking and laughing and as we took the shot I said, ‘we should be a group!’” Baldwin adds, “The piano like all instruments is such a personal instrument. It was cool and refreshing to see a different spin on the same instrument from all our different perspectives. This project is really to showcase the piano, which is the backbone for Contemporary and Smooth Jazz.”
The sumptuous twelve-track We 3 Keys showcases mostly originals while illuminating each of the pianist’s compositional prowess and virtuosity. We 3 Keys opens with the cool swinging “That Beat,” the album’s first single co-written by Gail and Bob. Gail penned the bluesy “Piano Bar” with bassist Andrew Ford, who joins her on the track. “Andrew is really special to me,” she shares. Phil Davis’ head-nodding “Into The New,” demonstrates just how tight the synergy is between the three pianists as they trade-off to thrilling effect. Phil also composed the ethereal “Dreaming About A Better Place.”
It's smooth sailing with Bob Baldwin’s funky “Gimme The Keys.” “When I first heard ‘Gimme The Keys,’ I fell in love with it,” exclaims Gail. “I told him, ‘I’ll drive!’ and we laughed! The R&B inflected, and syncopated groove dares you to sit still. Gail’s “Rhythm Speak,” is sure to be a hand-clapping crowd pleaser while her “SummerDance,” penned with Justin Young (also on the track) playfully shifts rhythms and keys.
“When I heard ‘Something Nice’ by Gail, it put me in a George Duke mood. I first met Duke in the 70s and had the honor to open for him on several occasions. Gail and Bob co-wrote the soul and funk-drenched tribute to Wright, “Work It Out.” Baldwin reflects, “I grew up watching Bernard Wright, who was a child prodigy out of Queens, NY (hometown of Najee, Ragan Whiteside, Tom Browne, Marcus Miller, Donald Blackman), break into the business as a teenager. We 3 Keys also features a lush and memorable version of the aforementioned “Camaleão.” “It was fun re-working that track with everyone”, says Bob.
“Music is a healing tool for me,” declares pianist, composer, producer, and arranger Bob Baldwin, who began taking piano lessons with his father (Bobby Baldwin Sr., who worked alongside bassists Keter Betts and Art Davis) at age six. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, pianist, producer, composer, and educator Phil Davis was raised in a musical household. Davis is an Assistant Professor/Coordinator in the music department at his alma mater Clark Atlanta University. “I knew I wanted to play professionally when I was a kid and saw Stevie Wonder on the Farfisa Keyboard at the Uptown Theatre in North Philadelphia!” shares Walden University doctoral candidate Gail Jhonson, affectionately dubbed ‘The First Lady of Smooth Jazz. She is the co-founder and leader of the all-star female band, Jazz in Pink. Shanachie recording artist, The 3 Keys are on the move~
For more information, contact Monifa Brown (646) 886-5629/mbrown@shanachie.com
American Jazz Pianist, Composer, Bandleader, Educator
Ahmad Jamal was born July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Before he formed his first trio in 1951, Jamal worked in Pittsburgh. This is the radio interview with Ahmad Jamal by Alvin Carter-Bey on September 28, 2014.
ACB: We have a legendary piano stylist and I want to say Chicago’s own. The great Ahmad Jamal is here at WHPK. But he’s from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and lives on the East Coast, when he’s in the United States. Good afternoon, sir.
AJ: Alvin Carter-Bey, I’ve been waiting for you, my friend. Thank you very kindly. I have been preparing for you with your erudite self.
ACB: Listen, You’re such a wonderful man and we really appreciate you.
AJ: Well, I appreciate your contribution to the culture of the world, Mr. Alvin Carter-Bey.
ACB: Thank you very much, sir.
AJ: You’re delving into one of the world’s greatest art forms, American Classical Music. You coined that phrase for someone, I think.
ACB: Hey, listen, for you. And I got into a little trouble. I had a lot of different discussions. Just recently, I read something about Gray Bartz dismissing the word Jazz altogether because he thought it was a word of profanity and it should not be used.
AJ: He’s well-versed in the sodash, defined as profanity in Webster’s Dictionary. That’s correct. Gary Bartz is a scholar.
ACB: So, you’re saying that he’s on target in respect to -
AJ: Yeah, sure. That’s one of the definitions of jazz and a word that I don’t think correctly defines what we do, you know. Ellington didn’t call himself a jazz artist. John
July 2, 1930 - April 16, 2023
Coltrane didn’t. At least, I don’t think he did. I don’t call myself a jazz musician. I call myself an artist who plays American Classical Music. I’m not paranoid about the word Jazz because what we’ve done is sophisticated. But Jazz is not a sophisticated word. It was never meant to rise to the status that we know it as a worldwide cultural. Thousands of youngsters are learning this artform in the United States. You’ve heard of Berklee School of Music and the New School. Juilliard has Jimmy Heath as a graduate and tenured professor. He taught there for years. The late Dr. Yusef Lateef taught at Amherst, [where Archie Shepp taught]. People are studying this musical art form. It is powerful music. This is powerful stuff. For the rest of this article visit: https://issuu.com/joancartwright/docs/ musicman_2022_2-2-2022
WIJSF Members Roberta DeMuro (Musical Director, pianist) and vocalists Edlene Hart and TC The 3rd perform music composed by Joan Cartwright, founder of Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc., a 15-year non-profit that promotes women musicians, globally. Joan and Roberta worked at the Arts Garage with Amazing Musicwomen in 2012. Edlene and TC The 3rd are new to the organization. They are accomplished artists in their own right. Some of Joan’s songs were inspired by TC’s parents, organist Trudy Pitts, and drummer Mr. C who performed at Gert’s on South Street in Philadelphia in the 1970s. Bright Moments! was their greeting, when Joan came in to sit in. A Jazzy Cabaret features 14 songs by Joan and lyrics to songs by Miles Davis (Tune-Up), Dizzy Gillespie (A Night in Tunisia), John Coltrane (Bessie’s Blues), and Kenny Dorham (Blue Bossa).
International Jazz Bassist Endea Owens and Saxaphone legend, Mr. Jesse Jones
Melton Mustafa and The Melton Mustafa Orchestra
February 22, 2023
Chris Lewis Conquest Graphics
3900-A Carolina Avenue Richmond, VA 23222
RE: WOMEN IN JAZZ SOUTH FLORIDA, INC.
Dear Chris:
This letter is to affirm that our organization accepted the award of $1,000 in Free Printing from your company. We so appreciative of this grant that enables us to print the fifth issue of Musicwoman Magazine and the fourth issue of Musicman Magazine!
It is special to be recipients of this grant for the ninth year in a row. Your generosity helps us further our mission to promote women musicians, globally! The men we feature are special too! On to 2024!
