Carl Anthony, Global

Over 60 years ago, a young man, who grew up in a household filled with jazz and Broadway soundtracks, ventured through the Sixties with a curious thirst for the music emerging out of Detroit, Philadelphia, New York City and London. Much of the music was driven by romance with inference to the counterculture of the times but the decade also spawned protest songs influenced by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. This was the unfiltered world in an era of 78s, LPs and 45s, record players, jukeboxes and radio, to which, Carl was exposed.

However, his career in the entertainment industry began quite by chance when he walked through the Virginia State College gymnasium during his freshman year in 1969 and became a production assistant for the homecoming show featuring James Brown and The Delfonics. He would go on to accept a position as an associate at New Wave Communications, a Washington, DC public relations and advertising firm that collaborated with the Mark IV nightclub. For the next four years he learned the intricacies of concert production and promotion. A move to New York City in 1975 saw him partnering with two friends establishing Turtle-Too Productions as pre-eminent concert promoters, producing R&B concerts, showcases and Caribbean festivals at such venues as Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, Beacon Theater, Studio 54, The Cellar, Leviticus and Nassau Coliseum.

By the end of the decade, his interest ventured into broadcast media and landed his first job as an overnight radio deejay in upstate New York. However, a year and a half later he was back in DC working for Mayor Marion Barry in the city’s Department of Housing and Urban Development. For the next eight years he held a variety of positions  – Weatherization Specialist, Contract Compliance Officer, Summer Youth Program Manager and Public Housing Renovation Budget Analyst.

A change of venue from public service with a parental call for help beckoned him to Atlanta, Georgia and thrust him into the role of caregiver. This proved to be fortuitous as he was soon back on the air as one of several overnight hosts on the #1 jazz station, WCLK 91.9FM. Within a year he became the nighttime jazz voice as host of “Serenade To The City”, serving the Atlanta metropolis and the world wide web community.

During his nearly quarter of a century tenure beginning in 1989, his  most notable achievements were creating and voicing the weekly jazz calendar, “Atlanta’s Live Jazz” from 2005 to 2012; and volunteer emcee for the Atlanta Youth Jazz Band Competition from 2003 to 2013; and produced two successful station fundraisers. and hosting concerts on every major venue and club stage in metropolitan Atlanta. He has held several position at the station as  Music Director, Associate Producer of the  nationally syndicated news magazine program, PowerPoint. Two of the shows he produced, Sex & The Disabled and Aids & The African American Woman,  garnered 1st Place awards from the Medical Association of Atlanta.

Carl began co-producing and hosting A Gypsy Life… Productions’ movie review and feature shows – In My Opinion and IMO Reveals, respectively. As a host, correspondent and film critic, he has graced the Red Carpets of four Academy Awards and three Trumpet Awards. He continues to contribute film reviews to In My Opinion… on Facebook.

He has moderated “Jazz In The Classroom”, a WCLK initiative that brought music professionals into various middle schools music classes in the metropolitan Atlanta area to teach master classes by sharing knowledge and real-life experiences coupled with musical instruction and jam session. He annually volunteered to speak to middle school children about a career in broadcast during their “Career Day” events; and mentored dozens of college students in the Mass Media Department. He conducted jazz workshops at the 2009 National Black Arts Festival, for whom he also hosted a weekly jazz program, Notorious Jazz.

Sidelined by the Covid~19 pandemic, he collaborated with the Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta and created the talk series, Conversations About Jazz & Other Distractions. It is a digital conversation that has produced 27 conversations with musicians, composers, bandleaders, historians, educators, managers, producers, ethnomusicologists, fashion designers, artists and authors that allowed homebound audiences to remain engaged. 

With the world opened back up post pandemic, Carl has been named the Voice of the Atlanta Jazz Festival and began hosting the three-day free event Memorial Weekend 2024. He has launched his non-profit organization, i am project,  and is currently mounting a free jazz concert in Coconut Grove West Village. 

He has been inducted into the Who’s Who In Black Atlanta for his contributions to the jazz radio community at Jazz 91.9 FM WCLK and the film industry with A Gypsy Life…Productions.