DEE DANIELS

We are absolutely thrilled to be performing our annual Christmas concert with international artiste, the inimitable DEE DANIELS! We will get you in a festive holiday mood as well as serve up some wonderfully arranged Jazz classics. Join us for an unforgettable evening! Silent Night

Playlist: 1. O Holy Night | 2. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen | 3. Ode To Joy | 4. Carol Of The Bells | 5. Hark The Herald Angels Sing | 6. Ella Fitzgerald Medley | 7. Send In The Clowns | 8. There’ll Be Some Changes Made | 9. I Got It Bad (and that ain’t good) | 10. I Cant Give You Anything But Love | 11. Bill Bailey | 12. The Ballad Of John Lewis (The Freedom Song) | 13. Gimme A Pigfoo

Tickets: $10.00 Children, $25.00 Seniors, $35.00 Adult (+ fees for all tickets)

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BALTIMORE JAZZ COLLECTIVE

Founded in 2019 at Keystone Korner Baltimore, the Baltimore Jazz Collective is making its Homecoming Return! Music and spirituality have always been fully intertwined in the artistic vision of trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and activist Sean Jones. With boundless passion, energy, and soul, Baltimore Jazz Collective explores the inner and outer frontiers of melody, harmony and time itself.

Sean Jones | Trumpet/Bandleader
Brinae Ali | Keys
Todd Marcus | Saxophone/Clarinet
Marc Cary | Piano
Blake Meister | Bass
Eric Kennedy | Drums

Cover: $35.00 ~ $45.00 + fee

Streaming: $15.00 + fee

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Fionna Duncan was born on November 5, 1939 in a temperance hotel in Garelochhead, Scotland a few weeks into the Second World War. The doctor had refused to come to the family home in Portincaple, on the shores of Loch Long, because a blackout was in operation. The youngest of three, she initially preferred to sing, although she later began to accompany herself on guitar and ukulele.

When she was six, the family moved to Rutherglen and it was there, thanks to Rutherglen Academy’s ballads and blues club, that she added folk and skiffle songs to the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas she sang at the local music society. By sixteen, while still at school, she was singing in talent competitions and with local jazz bands. One competition win resulted in an audition for television and the chance to make a recording.

A family trip to the United States had her singing on radio and television, and Riverside Records offered Fionna a recording contract. Not wanting to live in the States, a stipulation of the deal, she turned it down along with the chance to become label-mates with pianists Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, and saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane. Back in Glasgow, Scotland appearances on the weekly TV show Skiffle Club with the Joe Gordon Folk Four, singing with the Steadfast Jazz Band, and another talent competition win and auditions, she met clarinettist Forrie Cairns.

With her mother’s blessing Fionna joined Cairns’ All-Stars whom she would go on to work into the 2000s. In 1959 she and Forrie were invited to join the Clyde Valley Stompers, a traditional jazz band and recorded the album, Have Tartan Will Trad.

She won the JazzBeat Award for Top Singer in 1960 met Louis Armstrong at his own insistence when they shared a bill, and also met Lena Horne and the Beatles. She continued touring until 1964, then took up residence in London, where she hosted the Georgian Nightclub in the West End, singing with Kenny Ball and Humphrey Lyttelton, among other prominent musicians of the time. Suffering five slipped discs and being hospitalized for a year, Fionna changed careers and trained as a hairdresser. However,  the lure of the microphone and telling stories in song pulled her back to performing.

In 1985 she put together her own group with her partner, bassist Ronnie Rae, Ronnie’s son John on drums and Brian Kellock on piano. Together they became the house trio for Fionna’s Vocal Jazz Workshops, where she became a supportive mentor. if also quite a tough critic to a veritable legion of budding jazz singers as her workshops developed into a regular feature at Glasgow Jazz Festival. The festival’s late-night club also benefited from Fionna’s ‘strict but fair’ hosting skills for several years.

Vocalist Fionna Duncan continued to sing and teach into her seventies, was voted Best Jazz Vocalist and received a Lifetime Achievement award at the Scottish Jazz Awards, died at 83 on December 6, 2022.

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DEBO RAY

Grammy-nominated, vocalist extraordinaire Debo Ray is an immersive musical and visual experience. She has performed on some of the world’s biggest stages: Newport and Monterey Jazz, Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl and more.

Her versatility from neo-soul/R&B to jazz, pop, classical/opera and rock is unmatched. In a Boston Globe feature, music critic Jon Garelick asks: “Is there anything Debo Ray can’t sing?” as well as describing her “emotional expression and charismatic stage presence”.

Debo recently completed recording her first album of original contemporary R&B material which she co-wrote along with, among others, Grammy winning producer Prince Charles Alexander.  Each song tells a bold, unique story musically and lyrically.

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JIMMIE HERROD

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