The Jazz Voyager

Setting down in Atlanta, Georgia after a fourteen and a half hour flight from Kyoto this Jazz Voyager is heading to friends for a shower and a lay down before heading out to indulge myself in a two stop night of jazz. My first stop is St. James Live for a little night music. Operated by husband-and-wife Ron and Evelyn St. James along with their daughter, Tiffany have established a warm, relaxing ambience for an extraordinary evening. With a menu ranging from tapas to sweet treats, salads and small bites, their culinary diversity will enchant and satisfy any palate. I’m looking at fish tacos and peach cobbler to hold me through the evening.

This week I’ll be in the audience enjoying The Baylor Project. A husband.  A wife.  An astonishing duo built on love, family, faith, culture and community. These are the things that power Jean and Marcus Baylor.  This enticing collaboration is steeped in the heart and soul of jazz.

St. James Live is located in Camp Creek Village Townhomes at 3220 Butner Rd #240, 30331. More information can be obtained by calling 404-254-3561 or by visiting stjamesliveatl.com.

I’ll wrap up my evening with a late night hit with The Hightower Harper Hang at the Handle Bar at 476 Edgewood Avenue. More info at 404-600-2639. It’s a full night of jazz in the A where this Jazz Voyager hasn’t had the opportunity to see friends and musicians not seen or heard in a few years.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Kat Edmonson was born in Houston, Texas on August 3, 1983 and is the only child of a single mother who enjoyed songs from the Great American Songbook and traditional pop from the 1940s and ’50s. She wrote her first song at age nine while riding the school bus. In 2002, after a year at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, she moved to Austin, Texas, to pursue a music career.

The same year Edmonson auditioned for the second season of American Idol and was one of the Top 48 contestants invited to Hollywood in Losa Angeles, California. Returning to Austin from Los Angeles and spent several years as a regular in the Austin club scene. She worked briefly in real estate but quit her day job in 2005 making the decision to pursue music full time.

2009 saw Kat self-release her debut album, Take to the Sky, which reached the Top 20 on the Billboard magazine jazz chart. Her sophomore release Way Down Low in 2012 was the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign. It received a warm critical reception from The New York Times and NPR, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Her third album, The Big Picture, was released in 2014, which also reached No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.

She would go on to open for Lyle Lovett’s tour, perform on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, on NPR’s Tiny Desk, Austin City Limits and A Prarie Home Companion. By 2013 she had her first U.S. tour and an invitation to play the Montreux Jazz Festival. Opening for Jamie Cullum the same year she toured France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the UK. She went on to tour with Michael Kiwanuka, Chris Isaak, and Gary Clark Jr.

All this led to film appearances in Angels Sing and Café Society, her songs used in Admission, her song Dark Cloud in the opening sequence of Closure, her song If in Netflix’s Russian Doll,  and a Cocca~Cola Winter Olympics commercial.

Vocalist Kat Edmopnson continues to stretch the boundaries of her talent with performances and recordings.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Albert Stinson was born on August 2, 1944 in Cleveland, Ohio and learned to play piano, trombone, and tuba before settling on bass at age 14. After graduating from John Muir High School in Pasadena, California in 1962, he began playing professionally in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California. There he worked with Terry Gibbs, Frank Rosolino, Chico Hamilton, and Charles Lloyd  in 1965.

Later in the decade around 1967 he worked with Larry Coryell, John Handy, Miles Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, and Gerald Wilson’s Los Angeles-based big band.

Never recording as a leader, Stinson appeared on Hamilton’s Impulse! albums, Hutcherson’s Blue Note album Oblique, Handy’s Koch Records album New View! and Clare Fischer’s album Surging Ahead. He recorded thirteen albums with the above as well as with Coryell, Lloyd and Joe Pass

Double-bassist Albert Stinson, whose ebullient personality, bright tone, and aggressive attack contributed to his being nicknamed Sparky, transitioned from a drug overdose while on tour on June 2, 1969 at the age of 24.

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Three Wishes

Dwike MItchell was hanging out at the house of the Baroness when she questioned his three wishes and told her:

1. “To be able to play for people every night, that is my very special wish. To be able to play consistently well for everyone, to be able to give the best of myself every day. Love me like I love you, darling! For every day is different. Today is dark and black. And if one could give one’s best to everyone, that would be the greatest wish of every musician.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Petra Van Nuis was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 1, 1975. Her initial exposure to music came from her father who was a classical pianist. She made her professional debut at the age of eleven with the Cincinnati Opera Company and the following year her first national tour was underway.

Middle and high school saw her attending Cincinnati’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts and continued summer studies at New York City Ballet’s School of American Ballet and San Francisco Ballet School. Van Nuis went on to get her BFA in Musical Theater from the University of Cincinnati’s College~Conservatory of Music. She then performed in regional theaters and national tours until 1999 when she hung up her dancing shoes to sing.

Entering the world of jazz singing she spent nights in her hometown listening to vocalists Ann Chamberlain and Mary Ellen Tanner who supported her early efforts. By 2001 she and husband, guitarist Andy Brown, moved to New York City where she met Marion Cowings and Barbara Lea. Two years later she’s in Chicago, Illinois under the wings of Jeannie Lambert, Judy Roberts and Marc Pompe who mentored her. Forming her own band she sings at all the major venues and festivals around the city.

Vocalist Petra van Nuis, who has five Japanese released CDs, continues to perform, record and tour nationally and internationally.

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