DANNY MIXON QUINTET
The Harlem born pianist gained attention in the 1970s and continues to record and play in New York and abroad. Starting off as a tap dancer he attended the Ruth Williams Dance Studio before enrolling at the High School of Performing Arts with dance as his major. Soon after arriving at the school he switched to playing the piano after being inspired by visits with his grandfather to see jazz artists playing at the Apollo Theater.
At 17 he began his professional career playing behind Patti LaBelle & the Blue Bells. He went on to work with Joe Lee Wilson, Betty Carter, Kenny Dorham, Cecil Payne, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Frank Foster, Grant Green, Pharoah Sanders, Joe Williams, Eddie Jefferson and Dee Dee Bridgewater. He formed his own jazz trio and recorded with the Piano Choir.
The quintet features vocalist Antoinette Montague, backed saxophonist James Stewart, bassist Bryce Sebastien, drummer George Gray, and Band Leader Danny Mixon on piano.
Two Shows ~ 8:00pm | 9:30pm
Tickets: $35.00 per set
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cleopatra Brown was born on December 8, 1909 in De Kalb, Mississippi. She moved to Meridian, Mississippi when her father took a position as pastor and in his church she played piano as a child.
In 1919 her family moved to Chicago, Illinois and she began learning piano from her brother who worked with Pine Top Smith, playing boogie-woogie for dances. Around the time Cleo was 14 she worked in vaudeville, as well as taking gigs in clubs. In 1935, she replaced Fats Waller as pianist on New York radio station WABC.
From the 1930s to the 1950s she toured the United States regularly, recording for Decca Records among other labels along the way and recording many humorous, ironic titles such as Breakin’ in a New Pair of Shoes, Mama Don’t Want No Peas and Rice and Coconut Oil, When Hollywood Goes Black and Tan, and The Stuff Is Here and It’s Mellow.
Cleo’s stride piano playing was often compared to Fats Waller and she is credited as an influence on Dave Brubeck, who played during the intermissions of her shows, and on Marian McPartland. She played regularly at clubs in Chicago, toured widely, and recorded for both Decca and Capitol Records.
Brown began to shy away from singing bawdy blues songs because of her deepening religious beliefs. In 1953, she was baptized, retired from music, and became a nurse in 1959. Jazz biographies frequently listed her as deceased due to her absence from music. The song Sweet Cleo Brown was recorded by Brubeck in tribute.
From the mid-1970s until 1981, she performed under the name of C. Patra Brown on radio shows in Denver, Colorado. She replaced boogie-woogie music with slower, inspirational music. She returned to record again, and performed on National Public Radio.
Pianist and vocalist Cleo Brown, who was the first woman instrumentalist to receive the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, and also performed and recorded under the name of Cleo Patra Brown, died on April 15, 1995, in Denver, Colorado.
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YOLANDA RABUN
Backed by a flawless band and background vocals, get in the spirit as Yolanda Rabun performs her rendition of seasonal tunes during “Songs of Holiday Cheer” a signature show with a diverse holiday repertoire.
An extraordinarily gifted storyteller with a soul-drenched jazz voice, the Triangle chanteuse is also a publisher and songwriter with four full studio albums with chart-topping singles under her belt with So Real, Christmastime, and No Fear.
She is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (GRAMMYS) and includes her 2021 Holiday Pops with the North Carolina Symphony performance as a personal favorite.
With an energetic personality and joyful spirit, Yolanda successfully manages her music and life as a wife, mother, music entrepreneur, motivational speaker, professional AEA actor, and practicing Corporate Attorney. Yolanda is a modern-day Renaissance woman, get ready for an evening of delight!
Tickets: $28>00 ~ $200.00
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NOEL & MARIA: A JAZZ CELEBRATION OF THE HOLIDAYS
On the heels of a 2023 sellout show, Noel & Maria are joined by their all-star band as well a special guests, vocakist Ray Greene and violinist extraordinaire Karen Briggs, as they reinterpret holiday classics as well as contemporary holiday favorites such as Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Sleigh Ride, Here We Come A’Wassailing, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with a ‘Dave Brubeck’ twist and many, many more!
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Connee Boswell was born Constance Foore Boswell on December 3, 1907 in Kansas City, Missouri but raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. With sisters Martha and Helvetia “Vet”, she performed in the 1920s and 1930s as the trio The Boswell Sisters. They came to be well known locally while still in their early teens, making appearances in New Orleans theaters and on radio. The girls started their career as instrumentalists but became a highly influential singing group via their recordings and film and television appearances.
They made their first recordings for Victor Records in 1925, which featured Connee singing in the style of her early influence, Mamie Smith. The sisters became stage professionals that year when they were tapped to fill in for an act at New Orleans’ Orpheum Theatre. This led to a gig in Chicago, Illinois and then on to San Francisco, California. The desk clerk at the recommended hotel was Harry Leedy was part owner of Decca Records, became their manager on a handshake and later Connee’s husband.
The next stop was Los Angeles, California where they performed on local radio and “side-miked” for the soundies. National attention came with a move to New York City in 1930 and the making of national radio broadcasts. After a few recordings with Okeh Records, they recorded for Brunswick Records from 1931 to 1935.
Connee recorded as a solo artist and had several successful singles. In 1935, the sisters had a No. 1 hit with The Object of My Affection, and the group signed to Decca Records, but after just three releases two sisters called it quits in 1936. Connee, however, continued to have a successful solo career as a singer for Decca but also later recorded for the new Apollo label, RCA Victor, and Decca subsidiary, Design.
During the Forties she was a co-star on NBC Radio’s Kraft Music Hall, starred in her own radio show on the NBC Blue Network, The Connee Boswell Show, and featured on CBS Radio’s Tonight On Broadway, among numerous other radio appearances and films. She was a favorite duet partner of Bing Crosby, and they frequently sang together on radio, as well as recording several hit records as a duo in the 1930s and 1940s.
Vocalist Connee Boswell, who recorded ten albums as a leader and had fifteen hits reach the top 12 on the Billboard list, died on October 11, 1976 from stomach cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City at age 68.
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