Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1988

The year is 1988 and the name of the festival was shortened to be billed as the Atlanta Jazz Series. The city was set for a summer of weekend performances beginning June 2nd and running through September 4th. On those weekends, the free concerts were held in Grant and Piedmont Parks, while the paid concerts were held at Chastain Park Amphitheatre. the concerts at Chastain served a dual purpose of raising funds so that the Bureau of Cultural Affairs could continue to operate at its high level of achievement and provide an elegant setting for some of the more venerable talent and their enthusiastic audiences.
In addition, the series of jazz concerts were made possible with sponsorship from the Wyndham Hotel/Midtown Atlanta, AT&T, WVEE/V103 FM, Southline, Bud Light, Phoenix Arts Society and WCLK 91.9 FM. The Atlanta Jazz Series and the Montreux Atlanta Jazz Festival were hosted by the city of Atlanta during the same time and cross-featured artists.
The performance lineup was a virtual who’s who featuring the Arthur Blythe Quintet, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Benny Golson Quartet, Michelle Hendricks, Monroe Hatcher Quartet, Music South Orchestra with Tommy Stewart and John Peek, Joe Sudler’s Swing Machine, the Phil Woods Quintet, Azanyah, Duo Exchange, David “fathead” Newman Quintet, Henry Threadgill Sextet, Ojeda Penn Experience, Ellis Marsalis Trio, Cassandra Wilson Quintet with Steve Coleman, Sonny Fortune All-Stars, Joe Jennings & Life Force, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet, Sonny Rollins Quintet, Out of Hear, The Real Band, Michael Pedicin, Jr., McCoy Tyner Trio, Michel Petrucciani Trio, The Bazooka Ants, Nancy Kahler, Flora Purim & Group, John Cloy Quartet, 29th Street Saxophone Quartet, Clark College Jazz Orchestra and the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet with Sam Rivers. #preserving genius

atlanta-jazz-festival

NJ-TWITTER

More Posts: ,,,,,,,

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Oscar “Papa” Celestin was born on January 1, 1884 in Napoleonville, Louisiana to a Creole family. As a youth he worked on rural Louisiana plantations but eager for a better life, he worked as a cook for the Texas & Pacific Railroad, saved up money and bought used musical instruments. He played guitar and trombone before deciding on cornet as his main instrument. He took music lessons from Claiborne Williams, who traveled down the Bayou Lafourche from Donaldsonville.

Celestin played with the Algiers Brass Band by the early 1900s, and with various small town bands before moving to New Orleans in 1904, at age 20. There he played with the Imperial, Indiana, Henry Allen senior’s Olympia Brass Band, and Jack Carey’s dance band. Early in his career he was sometimes known as Sonny Celestin. Around 1910 he landed a job as leader of the house band at the Tuxedo Dance Hall on North Franklin St. at the edge of Storyville.

Keeping the name Tuxedo as the band’s name after the Dance Hall closed,  they dressed in tuxedos and became one of the most popular bands hired for society functions, both black and white. He co-led the Tuxedo Band with trombonist William Ridgely and made their first recordings during the Okeh Records field trip to New Orleans in 1925. Following a fallout with Ridgely, the two led competing Tuxedo bands for about five years. Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Orchestra had Louis Armstrong, Bill Mathews, Octave Crosby, Christopher Goldston, Joe Oliver, Mutt Carey, Alphonse Picou and Ricard Alexis as a members over the years and made an additional series of recordings for Columbia Records through the 1920s. He also led the Tuxedo Brass Band, one of the top brass bands in the city.

Forced out of the business by depression economics, Papa worked in a shipyard until putting together another band after the World War II. The new Tuxedo Brass Band was tremendously popular and became a New Orleans tourist attraction. By 1953 he appeared in the travelogue Cinerama Holiday, became a regular feature at the Paddock Lounge on Bourbon Street and gave a command performance for President Eisenhower at the White House. He made regular radio broadcasts, television appearance, and more recordings with his last recording was singing on Marie LaVeau in 1954.

Bandleader, trumpeter, cornetist and vocalist Papa Celestin passed away in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 15, 1954, amassing 4000 people who marched in his funeral parade. The Jazz Foundation of New Orleans had a bust made and donated to the Delgado Museum in New Orleans, in honor of his contributions to the genre. #preserving genius


NJ APP
Give A Gift Of Jazz – Share

NJ-TWITTER

More Posts: ,,

       Newer Posts »
© Notorious Jazz 2024