NICOLE HENRY
The veteran vocalist returns to Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club for her “I Wanna Dance With Somebody: The Songs of Whitney Houston” concert . The evening offers a full dinner, cash bar, the opportunity to mingle with some of the Seacoasts? dedicated jazz aficionados, and an evening of magical music.
The evening is in support of Seacoast Family Promise, a local New Hampshire 501(c)3. Proceeds from the event will go to support the expansion of the Joshua House, an overnight shelter for local families with children who are experiencing homelessness. Seacoast Family Promise turns 20 years in 2023 and has proven to be a leader in the fight to end homelessness in the state.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lakshminarayana Shankar was born on April 26,1950 in Madras, India and raised in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. His father was a violinist and singer who worked as a teacher at the Jaffna College of Music. The young boy learned to play the violin and first performed in public in a Ceylonese temple at the age of seven.
In 1969 he traveled to the United States where he studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. While attending college at Wesleyan University, he met jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin. With McLaughlin, Shankar founded the group Shakti in 1975, one of the early groups in which Eastern and Western musical traditions met. They released three albums between 1975 and 1977 titled Shakti, A Handful of Beauty, and Natural Elements.
Post performing with various Indian singers for several years, Shankar founded a trio with his brothers, L. Vaidyanathan and L. Subramaniam and they performed throughout India. After the band dissolved, Shankar was a violinist with Frank Zappa for a short time, and then founded the group The Epidemics and released a number of albums as a band leader.
Collaborating with Peter Gabriel, he wrote the soundtrack for the film The Last Temptation of Christ, for which he received a Grammy Award. In the following years, Shankar worked on several of Gabriel’s albums. Since 1996, he has been working with his niece, the violinist Gingger Shankar as the duo Shankar & Gingger.
He has performed in trio with trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg and saxophonist Jan Garbarek and has stretched with Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Yoko Ono, Stewart Copeland, John Waite, Charly García, Steve Vai, Ginger Baker, Nils Lofgren, Jonathan Davis, The SFA, and Sting.
Better known as L. Shankar, Shankar and Shenkar, violinist, singer and composer Lakshminarayana Shankar continues to perform among other endeavors.
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The Jazz Voyager
This week I caught a plane to the home of country music where jazz has taken a footing. This Jazz Voyager is at the Nashville Jazz Workshop to hear Lizzie Thomas sing her heart out. The New Yorker will be unveiling unconventional and adventurous songs that she has recorded with some of her favorite artists as a duo.
Reminiscent of Tony Bennett’s endeavors, however, instead of vocalists, this vocalist has chosen to pair with a few of the finest instrumentalists in the business. They are Russell Malone, Helio Alves, Ron Carter, Cafe Da Silva, Ron Affif, Dezron Douglas, Wayne Escoffery, Rossano Sportiello, Guilherme Monteiro, Noriko Ueda, Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf and John Di Martino.
The organization was founded in 1998 as the Nashville Jazz Institute by Lori Mechem and Roger Spencer, and opened with a handful of students. The program was based on a workshop model developed by Mechem and Spencer growing out of their dissatisfaction with traditional academic jazz education. The workshop model is based on a journeyman/apprentice approach.
The club’s number is 615-242-5299. For more information on days and time of sets visit https://notoriousjazz.com/event/lizzie-thomas.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Milton Suggs was born on April 15th in Chicago, Illinois as a third generation musician. While growing up in Atlanta, Georgia he was continually exposed to music of varying styles, especially with his church choir at the age of seven. He recognized music as a gift from a young age; it was later that he would accept it as a calling. While in elementary and middle school, he gravitated toward the upright bass and later played the alto saxophone and drums, however, it was not until after high school that he committed to the pursuit of music as his life’s work.
Returning to Chicago, he began studying piano with the legendary Willie Pickens, while also honing his craft as a vocalist and performer. In 2012 Milton moved to New York City where he immediately took to performing throughout the city, branching out internationally as a performer and educator.
His voice and approach to music are a reflection not only of his direct lineage, but of the many great voices in Black American Music and culture from the past century and beyond. Firmly rooted in the blues Milton sports a rich baritone with the breadth and power reminiscent of Joe Williams, Donny Hathaway, and Nat King Cole.
Downbeat Magazine’s annual critc’s poll has been repeatedly voted a top 10 rising star male vocalist. Sugg’s fixture in jazz is cemented having worked with artists and bands such as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Orrin Evans, Wycliffe Gordon, Ulysses Owens, and Marquis Hill among others.
Vocalist Milton Suggs has produced four albums to date and is continually developing new projects with new ensembles.
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JULIE DEXTER
Julie Dexter is a world-renowned, award-winning British singer-songwriter and producer. She has shared the spotlight with a host of cutting-edge artists, including Mint Condition, Caron Wheeler, Jill Scott, Lalah Hathaway, Omar, Ledisi, Doug Carn, Third World, and Maxi Priest, to name a few. Influenced by such legends as Nancy Wilson, Abbey Lincoln, and Bob Marley, as well as popular icons Omar and Sade, Dexter takes classic soul to the heart of her artistry.
In 1999, Dexter moved to Atlanta, where she now resides. She launched her label, Ketch A Vibe Records, and in 2000 released her critically acclaimed EP Peace of Mind, followed by Dexterity (2002), Conscious (2005), and New Again (2011). She released Moon Bossa, a collaboration with Khari Simmons, in 2007. Her single “Ketch A Vibe” was featured in national radio ads for President Obama’s election campaign. She has also sung for five Atlanta mayors, including mayor Andre Dickens.
Dexter was honored at the Black Women in Jazz Awards with the Afro Caribbean Soul of Jazz Award in 2017. Her music transcends genres, and fans and critics across the globe have followed her journey through the circles of jazz, broken-beat, bossa nova, reggae, Afro-beat, and soul. Her latest album, Déjà Vu (2019), takes listeners on a journey from bossa to reggae. She is an audaciously independent artist with an undeniable connection to her audience.
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