MYRNA CLAYTON
America’s Songbird, Myrna Clayton, captivates audiences worldwide with her unforgettable, classy, and soul-filled jazzy style. From the United States to five continents abroad, her performances leave audiences in awe. Alabama-born and Atlanta-raised, Myrna is a highly respected singer renowned for her versatility, particularly her mastery of Jazz: Standards, Straight Ahead, Bebop, Contemporary, and Smooth.
Commissioned by the U.S. State Department, she has represented American music at U.S. Embassies across the globe, including performances in France, Germany, Russia, Namibia, Guatemala, Nigeria, the Baltics, Switzerland, and most recently, Ghana’s 2024 Jazz in January Festival. A Jazz orchestra conductor in Kazan, Russia, even tagged her “The Maynard Ferguson of Jazz vocals,” highlighting her mesmerizing musical presence. Locally in Atlanta, Myrna graces stages at venues like the High Museum’s Friday Night Jazz and City Winery.
Beyond her vocal prowess, Myrna is a passionate advocate for accessibility for performing artists across the disability spectrum. She is deeply committed to highlighting their talents and improving their career trajectories and life possibilities. This dedication led her to found SHOWAbility, a non-profit organization serving artists and audiences across the disability spectrum. SHOWAbility creates accessibility and visibility for these artists, focusing on their unique talents and abilities rather than their challenges.
Jazz Brunch Tickets: $20.00 ~ $35.00 | $25.00 Food & Beverage Per Person
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DASHILL SMITH & NAME THAT FEELING BAND
Multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, producer, performer and actor Dashill Smith performs an eclectic array of genres including hip-hop, free jazz, funk, soul, blues, afro-beat. and more. He puts together freestyle rhymes, plays the trumpet, and improvises with the same mind frame as he does when I rhyme.
Smith performs with quite a few bands in town with his small unit, The Omega Level Squad, as well as The Biological Misfits, a band he co-Lead with actor, poet, and musician Malcom-Jamal Warner, and Mausiki Scales’ The Common Ground Collective. He also performed regularly for a few years with the legendary Jazz-Funk pioneer; vibraphonist Roy Ayers.
Tickets: $10.00 ~ $20.00 + $2.51 fee
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CHANDA LEIGH
Vocalist and pianist Chanda Leigh brings her quartet to the Cafe I Am Lounge for a night of jazz.
The Band: Chanda Leigh ~ Piano | Joe Jennings ~ Saxophone | Anthony Daniel ~ Bass | Bernard Linnette
Tickets: $35.00
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ralph Humphrey was born on May 11, 1944 in Berkeley California. While still a student at California State College Northridge he recorded with the Don Ellis Big Band in 1968, and stayed with the band until 1973.
Leaving Don Ellis and jazz he joined Frank Zappa’s band in 1973 and his drumming can be heard on at least a dozen albums. Humphrey, never far from jazz, played drums for Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, and Manhattan Transfer, as well aas pop stars Barbra Streisand, José Feliciano, Bette Midler, Captain and Tenille, Richard Carpenter. His music has been heard in television series such as American Idol, Charmed, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and more.
As an educator he has taught the drum curriculum at the Los Angeles Music Academy. He and Joe Porcaro created the drum program for the Percussion Institute of Technology, a part of the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California. Between 1980 and 1996 he taught the program and headed the department.
Drummer Ralph Humphrey, whose name has been spelled differently in some credits as Humphry or Humphries, continues to perform, record, tour and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Julius Wechter was born on May 10, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois and studied and learned to play the vibraphone and percussion, which he did with the Martin Denny group by the time he was out of highschool in the 1950s. The early Sixties saw him moving to movie soundtracks, television and session work for the Beach Boys, the Monkees, Sonny & Cher, and various Phil Spector productions.
His long and successful association with Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass started when he played percussion on their first hit, The Lonely Bull in 1962. He later composed Spanish Flea. He went on to play marimba and vibes on many of Alpert’s songs in the 1960s, as well as writing at least one song on most of those albums.
Encouraged by Alpert, he formed the Baja Marimba Band which was quite successful, hitting four chart songs in Billboard’s Top 100, and numerous on its Easy Listening Top 40. Disbanding in the mid Seventies, Julius turned his attention to television and movies again, but continued to play with Alpert.
In his later years, he devoted himself to psychology, earned a master’s degree, and served as vice president of the Southern California chapter of the Tourette Syndrome Association.
Marimba and vibraphonist Julius Wechter died on February 1, 1999 at his home in California of lung cancer, at the age of 63, a day after his song Spanish Flea was used in The Simpsons episode Sunday, Cruddy Sunday.
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