Even words like icon, legend, or most influential jazz singer in history don’t come close to acknowledging the vocal supremacy of Billie Holiday. Her voice was so fluid, listeners never knew whether to cry or rejoice, shout or dance. She, unlike any other singer jazz or otherwise, exhibited her heart and emotions in her vocal delivery. Even on tongue-in-cheek tunes like “Comes Love,” one will still clutch their heart as if to hide it from a bewildered lover on a dark night. Even her name Billie Holiday causes folks to stop and pay attention: Billie Holiday, what about her, what about Lady Day? More than a century since her birth, America remains in a frenzy over Billie Holiday—and their love, compassion and curiosity grows like a tree’s branches reaching to the sky.
On February 8, The Billie Holiday Symposium at Roosevelt House, Hunter College will celebrate the artistic magic of Billie Holiday and the publication of “Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday’s Last Year” by Paul Alexander, Hunter College professor of English and symposium director (11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.).
Among those featured in this all-day event will be Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author Margo Jefferson; singer-songwriter Mala Waldron, Billie Holiday’s goddaughter; Lorraine Feather, also a goddaughter of Billie Holiday’s and a three-time Grammy-nominated lyricist and singer; jazz writer and multi-Grammy Award winner Dan Morgenstern; Broadway star Maya Days; and economist Michael Meeropol, and adopted son of Abel Meeropol, the composer of “Strange Fruit.”
Conceived, produced, and moderated by Alexander, the symposium will consider the legacy of Holiday through the lenses of her personal life, her music, and her most hauntingly powerful song, “Strange Fruit.”.
The program concludes (6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.) with an evening performance of some of Holiday’s songs by those mentioned along with singer-songwriter Madeleine Peyroux and Yolande Bavan, famously known from her time with the improvisational vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan. (she replaced the original member of the group Annie Ross).
For more information and tickets visit the website at billieholidaysymposium @ Hunter College (cuny.edu). Roosevelt House is located at 47-49 East 65th Street. The live symposium will also be livestreamed.
The Harlem-born alto saxophonist Godwin Louis has cultivated his musical palette into a huge blend of ingredients that includes jazz, gospel, classical global sounds and Afro Caribbean. Some might just call it a good music blend.
On February 9, Godwin brings an ensemble of expressive artists to celebrate his new release, “Exploration on Hymns” to Dizzy’s jazz club (60th Street and Broadway). Some of his ensemble will include; trumpeter Billy Buss, organist Johnny Mercer, Cuban pianist Axel Tosca Laugart, bassist Matt Dwonszyk, and drummer Harvel Nakundi. This band is a moving compass exploring the intersections of tradition and innovation.
For tickets visit the website jazz.org. Two shows at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
There is something about adding strings to an ensemble that adds a vibrant lushness and an alluring sound that just draws listeners in like a warm embracing hug. Just listen to “Charlie Parker with Strings” or “Julian Cannonball Adderley and Strings,” and those great enticing rhythms.
On February 16-18, at Dizzy’s jazz club, jazz enthusiasts will have an opportunity to see the “Jeremy Pelt with Strings: The Art of Intimacy.” Lyrical trumpeter and composer Pelt is known for delivering beautiful, lush ballads and inventive compositions. His addition of strings will be a welcome addition to his repertoire. The all-star rhythm section will include; pianist Victor Gould, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Billy Hart. With strings by violinists Molly Fletcher and Tiffany Weiss, viola Nicole Neely, and on cello Reenat Pinchas.
For reservations visit the website jazz.org.
Name that musician in two notes: Stop right there it’s Cannonball Adderley! Didn’t matter if he was playing 74 miles away (with his brother Nat on cornet, they were the real dynamic duo) on any of the many albums they recorded together. Cannonball could always be recognized whether on some sublime songs with vocal stylist Nancy Wilson or the seven albums he recorded with Miles Davis that included “Kind of Blue,” which many acknowledged critics consider the greatest jazz album ever recorded, and one of the best albums of all time. On that recording he played with fellow saxophonist John Coltrane.
Trumpeter and composer Charles Tolliver said that Nat is one of the greatest jazz cornet players to ever pick up the instrument. Aside from Nat’s many years of playing/recording with his brother, as a leader he recorded a string of albums with his jazz standard “Work Song” (lyrics by Oscar Brown, Jr.). As a sideman, he added his signature sound to Philly Joe Jones, Oliver Nelson, J.J. Johnson, King Curtis and Jimmy Heath.
Cannonball and his brother Nat understood jazz form, but their soul jazz came the heart, like the natural-born blues and they played it together. It was the soul sound of jazz, that Tallahassee Ma Mary’s soul fried chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes on white bread with mayo. It was a rhythm from all that practicing and marching on a dusty band field in Tallahassee, Florida under the directorship of Dr. Foster. For all we know Nat’s “Work Song” could have very well been an ode to those long hot practice sessions. After all, the FAMU Marching 100 wasn’t recognized as “the best band in the land” for nothing—no that title came without hard work, but it was good, joyous work. Yes, the brothers Adderley were members of the fabulous Marching 100.
On April 18 in Tallahassee, Florida, the Florida A&M University board of trustees, students, faculty, community and jazz enthusiasts will gather for a renaming ceremony of the Julian “Cannonball” and Nat Adderley Music Institute in honor of their two alumni musical icons.
President Larry Robinson, Ph.D., said the Dec. 7 decision marked the first time FAMU has named an academic program for specific individuals. “It’s significant that it’s the first. It probably won’t be the last,” Robinson said. “We set a high bar by naming it after the Adderleys. They have been so impactful in music not just here, but wherever they have gone around the world.”
Renaming the Institute for Research in Music and Entertainment Industry Studies in honor of the Adderley’s came at the persistent urging of director Darryl Tookes, a singer, songwriter, and producer. “Though many of us understood the legacy of the Adderley brothers, and their connection to FAMU, I felt a sense of obligation as someone who is perhaps the only person uniquely positioned and ordained if you will—and so this became my ministry to get this done. My mission was to get this accomplished here, for the Adderley brothers, the Adderley family, for FAMU, for the city of Tallahassee, the state of Florida, for musicians everywhere, and maybe more importantly, for God,” said Tookes, director Julian “Cannonball” and Nat Adderley Music Institute. “Nat’s daughter Allison said it best, I’m over the moon about this.”
The Adderley brothers moved to Tallahassee in the 1940s when their parents took jobs at the university. The Adderley brothers attended FAMU’s high school before entering the university, where Cannonball studied band education, and Nat, sociology, with a minor in music. The Adderley brothers were members of the Marching “100” Band. Cannonball graduated from FAMU in 1948 and Nat graduated in 1951. And yes, I am a proud graduate of FAMU GO RATTLERS, Do or Die! I will be there with first hand reporting.
This week’s album selection is; The Cannonball Adderley Quintet “Country Preacher: Live at Operation Breadbasket” (Capitol, 1970). “No matter how dreary or difficult times may be, it’s rough and tough but you have to Walk Tall. We got the call from our country preacher Rev. Jesse Jackson,” Cannonball.
Recommended book “The Ways of White Folks,” Langston Hughes (Alfred A. Knopf, 1934). This book is mandatory!