Another Power Packed weekend of Entertainment

Last night that was one of the biggest crowds I had seen at one of the Parks and Rec events with Mixed Waters featuring Veeda performing, a fact that Dan Ellison agreed with when I saw him today...He would like to see some greater diversity at the concerts because it seems like they are in his opinion either predominately white or predominately black....There used to be a nice mix in the crowd at the American Tobacco concerts last year, and there is a definite mix at Brightleaf...I think part of that is because of the types and selections of groups which often times were dance kind of music or easy listening type sounds......I fear that was not the case this year at American Tobacco since it was mostly a folk-country kind of lineup and I wasn't as attracted to most of their lineup this year though there is a blues one coming up that Music Maker is involved with at American Tobacco that I want to catch...
Coming back to the band, Veeda, Johnnie Hudson and the rest of the band really cranked some classic soul sounds and I enjoyed talking to the comedian Liz and telling her and her beau about NACA and another showcase opportunity in New York and the need to connecct her with Ronnie Warner about some possible film work and she remembered that I was supposed to connect her with Katreese and the whole Saturday Night Live experience which she feels needs a strong Sista voice......Carl kenney who I had seen earlier said he would love to host and put together a Jazz series at West village similar to the one that they did for a few years with Blues and asked me to help find some sponsorship which I will try and do and I told him how I have always been amazed at the amount of talent accross the musical spectrum that exists in Durham that covers everything from Polka to Jazz to Blues to Rock and Hip Hop and i could have added Latin, Reggae, Funk, Folk, etc and I how I would love to do a showcase of that at the Carolina Theater which might conclude with a really funky jam session that would bring some interesting colllaboratives together that night and possibly in the future......Speaking of collobarations I earlier had reconnected finally with Mertie Snead who told me she wants to put together a project that will expose youth from Durham to the global world and global cultures.....I think this would be so cool.....
Later that evening I went over to a couple of other art spots including Vega Metals where I saw Michael Waller who is still very interested in doing a statue dedicated to Brownie McGhee here in Durham and who was telling me about the statue dedicated to Music and the Sugar hill area that Maceo Parker is throwing his support behind in Kinston and how it is going to be part of the African American Music Trail but he feels that Durham needs to be involved in this effort as well....I also watched the movies that Tom Whiteside was showing and he said he would love to get a good copy of Negro Durham marches on and I told him that we have some good copies of old African American movies here at Hayti and that Charlene Register and the Oscar Michaux society might have some good films that he could as well..he was showing a good film on Chevrolet featuring an early Evil Kneivel type and a old classic Popeye...I love those old classic movies.......At the end of the day, stopped by a art studio near the Marriott and reconnected with the potter Susan and met some other really cool artist as well and hung out with them until the wee hours of the morning..
Somehow on little sleep managed to get up and do work for the Symphony Board at Centerfest and also connected with some great friends like Stephenie McLean, Pat Murray of Skywriter, Brian Spann, and others...I enjoyed teasing the new executive director of the Symphony's son and teasingly threatening to auction him and his friends off for a date to raise money for the Symphony........Also met the new director of Urban Ministries and she is definitely hoping to do some funky partnerships here in Durham.....There were some really cool artist including a guy who does some panaromic type photography from Baltimore and Darius Quarles and a couple of artist that had musical ties to their art and my friend Andria Linn always has cool art even though I was threatening to court her sister even though I found out she is like almost just a little over half my age.....hey luv knows no age...SMILE......
At the end of the day, me and Stephenie stopped by some folks doing migrant activist work and learned how devestatingly high their drop out rate is and they are raising funds for some housing for some of the migrants and I told her about some possible fundraising groups they might want to check out...
Right now I am working Hayti where Megafaun and Fight the Big Bull are about to do some cool music featuring the sounds of legendary producer Lomax......One of the Duke Performance regulars is asking me Movie questions like my favorite movie of 2009 was and I gave as answer Up in the Air...also said I had to admit I liked Avatar..he said the Swedish vampire film Let the One Right In and the film Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Conception are all great films........another worker and me were talking about Mingus and I mentioned the film at Full Frame that I saw about him and his relationship with one of the Rothschilds and she said that relationship was mentioned in the book But Beautiful which apparently has some really cool jazz artists perspectives in...P.S. several people both here and at Centerfest asked how the Blues festival and I definitely got the feeling people missed the community aspect of being outside.
I also learned from here that Aaron has a hard time connecting with Ira Wiggins and he would love to have a better relationship between Central's great jazz students and some of the great musicians that perform here from around the world and he also said that because so much of SHA and NCU's sound is passive and non-vocal they have pulled their announcements from that stage of the media.....Hopefully now that we have more community minded people in charge in opinion at WNCU that can change is what I let them know...well let me stop and hear some of this music.....

Downtown Durham and Centerfest

Once again it is time for Centerfest in the downtown Durham......as I have stated before I definitely prefer it throughout downtown versus being in the Parking lot area near the YMCA.....maybe one day it can return to the downtown area......just like I hope that one day the Blues Festival can definitely have a ballpark atmosphere again....the many vendors and people mingling around along with the music definitely give a true festival feel.....Now if we can have that and then add various locations throughout town so it's a Big festival feel like what they have in New Orleans and other cities that have great festivals that would be ideal.....The festival was still great with music from Buddy Guy who went into the audience and really pleased the audience with his history lessons of the Blues in addition to great performances.......and another great act was Wild Magnolias who had the members of the audience, yours truly included, get on the stage and dance with them........yeah I know I have two left feet but it was still a blast....SMILE.....Betty Lavette also gave a soulful peformance and the performance by my friend Melva Houston as well as newer friend Jo Gore were also good and of course it was fun having some activities on the outside with two bands even though I had to do some hustling and some conversating to make sure we had some sound but things worked out finally......
Friday night was good at Hayti as well and I was so glad to hear MSG do a rendition of one of their songs that is one of my favorites called Mean Church People...you know we have all run into those and a painting that Spencer did was real good and definitely captured the essence of local legend John Dee Holeman......The kids group that Hayti put together also did a really good job and folks also enjoyed the kid from Asheville and of course Mel Melton definitely got the crowd pumped up.....
Just finished checking out King Kenney doing his steal the art event where people were getting some great art, in some cases actually for free in the downtown area....He was also remembering his days of being a teen in Durham and playing some great pick up games with Duke stars like Brian Davis, Grant Hill, and Christian Laettner and realizing they have major game and could even hang with the street ball players......King was also talking about getting away from the throwing party thing though he said he would love to put together a black Rock club here in the area and also likes hitting the house parties in Raleigh and Charlotte......His art work is definitely eye catching and he is getting some good prices for it...he was just recently commissioned by the Sienna in Chapel Hill to do four pieces for them....He speculated that Casbah will be about half the size of Cat's Cradle but it does have good sound system and that the other new club near Trotter will definitely be about the size of the Cradle....
Now I do regret missing Chuck Brown in Raleigh a couple of weeks ago and Public Enemy last week but that was the weekend of the Blues festival and the other weekend was a work weekend if memory serves me right....But maybe I can catch them on a rebound show somewhere. Getting ready to go check out Veeda and Mixed Water in downtown Durham....Just ran into a friend of mine who is trying to figure out a way to expose our youths to the kind of travel opportunities she got to enjoy going to places like Brazil, the Caribbean, and Paris for our work at Glaxo Smith-Kline which she just retired from..I think I might have some contacts for her in that realm.......By the way on a lighter note I won my first game in Fantasy Football in Tuffa last week...Maybe this is a good sign and I can finally win a big prize...one can only hope...SMILE....

Get Ready for the Blues Festival

It's hard to believe but a month from now it will be time for another Blues Festival, and as always us folks that are involved in the organization of this event have got some music leading up to the Festival to get you in the spirit, and of course every Thursday I try and get you in the spirit with some great blues at WCOM.
But this Thursday after I'm done with my show, I will try and make a mad dash some kind of way to Papa Mojo's and check out Tad Walters who is one of four concerts that will be taking place around Durham to get you pumped up for some great music at the Bull Durham Blues Festival.....after that concert, there will be three more concerts, one here at the Hayti Heritage Center and the other two will be at Nasher Museum and Blue Note Grill, a new food and music venue here in the area.....I've already heard great things about this venue from musicians who have played there like Drew Questell and Andy Coats so I am looking forward to seeing Will McFarlane do his amazing thing there on September 3rd......
And don't forget the line up for this year's festival which will be held at the Hayti Heritage Center on the 10th and the DPAC on the 11th features some great musicians making a return trip to the Festival...among those making a return trip are Buddy Guy who always gives a Stellar performance, and Bettye Lavette who really got the crowd stirred up the last time she was here.....Hope to see a lot of my Blog following friends at the festival and the concerts leading up to it........

Another Exciting Evening and news of a possible rebirth of the Know

For those of you that may be lamenting the demise of the Know Bookstore and missing your Friday night jazz scene, I recently talked to Bruce Bridges and learned that he is looking at several places to come back at...They range from the Old Eagles Inn (which apparently has a Flood plan issue) to a space in Heritage Square near the Family Dollar and near a cornerstone Church which may be used for the jazz on Friday nights...Originally I thought he was going to the Clements Dentistry building where some of his items are currently being stored, but apparently that space is limited in size and parking....There are some other options as well...They range from the old 1013 Building to the Old Duke Power building near Duke's East Campus to the Sturdivant Building where the nighclub Johnny Dollar was back in the day.....Hopefully this or one of the other options he mentioned will come to fruition....
I am also curious to see what will happen with the Old Movie Theatre at Avondale Road that has been abandoned for awhile and would make for a great music venue, classic movie house, or Dinner Theatre in my opinion...and I know some folks are looking at turning the Old Whitted School (Operation Breakthrough) Building into some kind of center, possibly even modeled in a similar vein to the Holton Center....Let's hope that these places and some of our other empty buildings, such as the Edge in Downtown can be put to good use and continue to help in the revitalization of Durham.
But, as we wait, to see what's happening on those fronts there is still plenty to do in existing businesses...Just last night, I stopped by the Carolina Theatre for a retirement for outgoing director Connie Companero who coined the term 15-501 for me because it seemed that every event she went to I was in the midst of it just like at some point according to her you always run into 15-501 and from there I went and heard some great classical jazz as performed by Freeman Ledbetter's group with his primary vocalist who is also his daughter, Adia, delivering some great tunes and the band being in great form in front of a nice crowd over at Beyu and then from there me and my buddy Ray Paschall headed over to Whiskey where Brian Horton and his cadre of performers were really rocking the house with their upbeat jazz......Just another night of great entertainment in the downtown Durham area......

Restaurant scene in Downtown Durham

It looks like Downtown Durham is definitely developing a nice restaurant scene which will hopefully draw new business into the area as well as new residents....Right now, I am sitting at Scratch, Durham's latest spot, which is using ingredients from local farmers..I think they are going to try and do some of the same things that Eden attempted and which Watts does on Broad Street, but let's hope they have better luck than Eden
Across the way is Dos Perros, another new Restaurant, which is serving Mexican food, and which the Durham Symphony used their downstairs space for a meet the conductor event not too long ago...Speaking of downstairs spaces, at least one other restaurant has such a space and it seems to get a decent amount of use and that is Revolution......also some of the downtown spots are using Jazz music to entice people to their spots....Among the premiere one of these is Beyu Caffe which has music three nights of the week and features some of the top performers in the area including Ben Palmer and Marcus Anderson...Other spots that are doing things with Jazz are Whiskey which features Brian Horton and Blue Coffee Cafe which has jazz every Friday night.....and don't forget Cuban Revolution at American Tobacco is offering a weekly event on Thursdays featuring Salsa Music..........Of course in the midst of all of this development are certain mainstays that have been here for over a decade like Devine's in the Brightleaf area and Talk of the Town in Downtown Durham...Other restaurants and clubs that continue to have a nice long stint in the area are the Marvell Event Center and Tyler's in American Tobacco...Speaking of American Tobacco if you are a sports buff, I strongly recommend Tobacco Road which has more TV's than you can care to watch and has plenty of sports activities for you to check out...It was also the sight of a Lisa Raye event a couple of weeks ago....
This is just a walk around some of the eating and nightclub scene in the Downtown area....Other restaurants and bars that are also featured in the area are Toast, The Republic, the the soon to open Dame's Chicken and Waffles which is in the location where Blue Mountain Cafe was....Don't worry, Blue Mountain is continuing to still do catering work for those of you who were fans of that restaurant....Also in the downtown area is Guajillo's, a very affordable Mexican Restaurant, the Ninth Street Bakery, and of course fast food chains like McDonald's and Subway.......Another fun spot not that far from Downtown is West End Wine Bar....
If you want to head further towards Brightleaf there are also a variety of choices ranging from Bull McCabe, which was definitely popular during the World Cup and which has a nice Trivia event, to 1013 which has a Open mic on Wednesday nights. Also in that area is Satisfaction, the James Joyce, the Federal, Amelia's, the Brazilian restaurant Chama's, Piazza Italia, a nice Italian restaurant, Alivia's, the Down Under Pub, Mount Fuji, El Rodeo, Fishmonger's, and Pop's which has moved into West Village which is also the home of a new restaurant which will be going in the location that used to house Tosca's........So for those of you that say there is no place to eat in Downtown Durham, I argue that is no longer true.....Durham continues to develop...Just as it has plenty of things to do, it has plenty of places to eat. But it still needs a few more things which are hopefully on the way..Among these things are a grocery store and that should be hoping soon with the Co-op Grocery store opening soon in the area and some more hotel rooms and when I recently talked to Carl Webb of Greenfire he let me know that that deal for turning the Suntrust into a Boutique hotel should be near completion...Hopefully the addition of this hotel which will have more than 150 rooms and the Eye and Ear location turning into an extended stay will add to the 700 plus that city officials have said we need in the area....Now if only someone can do something with the old Radisson Hotel near the Car lot that would add another 150 plus rooms........and there are still some available spaces I would love to see come back to life and those include the Old Edge spot, the space that held MK's and the space that held the Safari Cuisine restaurant.......Yes Durham is on the verge of a major explosion and I am hoping to be right in the midst of it...

Heat Wave

Don't know about the rest of you folks but we are in June and in the middle of a Heat wave....This just seems much too early, and to think next weekend I will be at the Festival at the Eno which is always hot!!!! and we might be in week two of this Heat wave unless there is a reprieve...Oh well we can always hope....
Right now at Saladelia checking emails and getting ready to find some household items before heading back to the homefront......
Last night I went and checked out the music at Brighleaf...a group called Crossover Blues Band was living up to its name and playing a mixture of music ranging from Blues to Rock to Funk........
This was supposed to be the weekend I was supposed to be at Miami for the American Black Film Festival but once again funds got in the way...However, I will get a report on the excitement there, as I have several friends checking out the activities..........

Change

Change can be an interesting thing in the world of entertainment. And a new change is happening dealing with the Bull Durham Blues Festival......This year in September the Blues Festival will be at the Hayti Heritage Center and on the Saturday of the festival it will be at the Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham's newest jewel, which has already such acts as B.B. King, Roger Daltry, and the Stylistics, and for the 2010 Blues Festival will be featuring legendary Blues Guitarist Buddy Guy.
For years, people have enjoyed the family atmosphere of the Blues Festival with its Kids Zone, various vendors and great food and of course Great music, but as with any outside venture, there is always the danger of what the elements can do and that will not be the case with this year's Festival....Though there are plans to have some outside events, and maybe even in the future having the festival spread throughout town at different venues, some outside and some inside...If that is the case, the Festival could take on the nature of something like the Heritage Festival in New Orleans or Spoleto in Charleston, S.C.
While, I personally will miss the atmosphere of the outside festival and its ambiance, I am looking forward to seeing how the new incarnation takes place and what kind of environment it creates...remember Bimbe too had to go through many moves before landing on its current spot in downtown Durham, and last year's festival with Whodini was tremendously successful and I suspect there will be a good crowd for Slick Rick as well.....But I can tell you one thing though, in my world, Terraplas has become a cuss word first causing discomfort to some, either through glare or just plain dislike when it was layed down to protect the field, and to be honest, it was a factor in the decision to make the move as well...as it was going to be a major cost factor in this year's festival....once again the city has changed the rules...While I love the Ballpark when I go the Bulls games, remember initially it was voted down, and then a end run was done...and now after promising that they would work to keep festivals in the Ballpark, including Blues and World Beer Festival, it looks like neither will be there in 2010 and who knows when, or even if, they will return.....See what happens when folks who were adamant in their defense of a cause like Allen DeLisle and Reyn Bowman either move to new pastures or into retirement....It is true that a new breed of Advocates need to work their magic as well so Durham can keep its unique kinda of energy going............

Musings and Thoughts

Heard someone on the bus today talking about how they had been prescribed vary pain killers by their doctors, but instead decided to go the Herbalist route....I do believe that we overmedicate and need to find natural causes, but at the same time I have much respect for the doctors and nurses of the world............And of course I am all for this Health care bill particularly if it can help the many uninsured and underinsured of the world, we all know this is a major problem for the Creative Class.........
Just like Transportation is also a major concern and earlier today I was talking to one of my Bus Driver associates and he was telling me that TTA may be taking over our local service, possibly having something to do with the rail they want to bring....if they can run it effectively this won't be a problem but according to my pal the drivers for them are paid less and are not unionized, and if this is the case then our Data drivers could be in trouble...also have to wonder if they will try to be more cost effective and reduce routes...Instead I would rather them increase them and maybe even go all day and night...hey I can wish.........
Didn't attend many cultural events this week as I was working at Hayti where Collage was practicing for their big show coming up and on Saturday I was here while a local church used the facility to install their pastor........Of course this meant I missed the Poetry slam at Blue coffee and Beyu but I heard both went well, and also missed another session of Playdate....of course the planning for Troika continues and know there is also planning beginning for the Juneteenth celebration for 2010 here in Durham...I will keep folks posted on all of this, but right now I'm outta....

More things happening in the Bull City

Just came back from a meeting for Troika which is preparing for another great show in November and hopefully this year will be just as special as Last year...I know I am planning to make it so....Seems like everytime we turn around, the rest of the world is discovring the Triangle..Just listening to this great singer from LA who has performed with Prince, Macy Gray, and others extoll the virtues of Beyu where Marcus Anderson regularly performs..and she is singing the praise of this establishment...
And of course national acts appearing at Papa Mojo's are always talking about how great they love that establishment and this area......
Why just this weekend we had artists from LA and Atlanta, as well as local folks performing at Duo Slam which is a new form of Slam competition that was created right here and did quite well on its initial inception.........
I keep telling folks this area is blowing up....Look at acts like Midtown Dickens, Polvo, Kooley High, Ninth Wonder, the Beast, and many others taking off from right here and as the word gets out acts come from all over the country to discover our special jewel of a place....
And of course I am actually waiting for Spring and Summer when the outside concert season begins and we get to see all kinds of great acts performing outside..but don't forget that while we can enjoy great weather and great music, there will also be some great concerts taking place at our inside venues like those at Duke and NCCU, and Hayti Heritage Center, DPAC, and The Carolina Theatre....in April, I'm looking forward to checking out the whispers and Stephanie Mills..........
I'll be back to tell you more about some of these exciting events very soon....

Playlist on Thursday, the 28th...

Here is the playlist for a lovely Thursday, though they are calling for snow.......

1. Slave Driver - Cyril Neville - Brand New Blues - MC Records (2009)

2. Signifying Monkey - Michael "Hawkeye" Herman - It's All Blues To Me - Topaz Productions (2005)

3. High John - Tampa Blue - So Low - 2005

4. One Good Woman - Howard & The White Boys - Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - Chase Music Group (97)

5. Stayed So Long - Gregg A. Smith - Forbidden Fruit - Trinity River Records (2002)

6. Bad Case of The In Betweens - Mike Dugan & The Blues Mission - Mission Accomplished - TopShelf Studios (2003)

7. Got My Eyes On You - Fiona Boyes - Blues Woman - Yellow Dog Records (2009)

8. Every Day I Have The Blues - Big Joe Duskin - Big Joe Jumps Again! - Yellow Dog Records (2004)

9. She's Hot! - Robin Barrett - Blue Movie -Twin Lion (2002)

10. You Don't Know Nothin' About Love - Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas, and Tracy Nelson - Sing IT1 - Rounder Records (98)

11, Cut Me A Key - Taxi Chain - Smarten Up! - NorthernBlues Music (2004)

12. Guilty - Deb Callahan - Grace + Grit - Blue Pearl Records (2008)

13. Boogie Child - Big Bill Morganfield - Blues In The Blood - Blind Pig Records (2003)

14. Fast Food Mama - M.S.G., The Acoustic Trio - Done Spoke My Mind - 2008

15. Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed - Candye Kane - Superhero - Delta Groove Productions (2009)

16. Hard Headed Woman - Homemade Jamz Blues Band - I Got Blues For You - NorthernBlues Music (2009)

17. Snakes In My Garden - William Lee Ellis - It's All Connected - Yellow Dog Records (2007)

18. Big Boss Woman - Johnnie Bassett & The Blues Insurgents - Party My Blues Away - Cannonball Records (99)

19. Now That You Got Me - Dr. John - The Best of The Parlophone Years - Blue Note Records (2005)

20. A Woman Wants A Freak - Chuck Roberson - A Woman Wants A Freak - Ecko Records (2003)

21. Cyberspace Sadie - Big Al Jano's Blues Mafia Show - Lady That Digs The Blues - Hottrax Records (2002)

22. New Crossroads - Michael "Hawkeye" Herman - Everyday Living - Topaz productions (2005)

Winter Blahs......

Well, you know Winter can wreak havoc on Winter plans and household agendas.........but it can also help create positive situations through the negative....SMILE......
Case in point, this latest Ice Storm....Folks were expecting it to happen, and sure enough it did, and it changed schedules around....It pushed back the Haitian Relief concert that is being done at Hayti back a week til February 6th and it pushed the Toddler Academy benefit back to March........and it managed to close down some clubs here in the area....and on my personal front, it managed to wreak havoc on some water pipes and some cieling wall.........But this is forcing me to get some things in a better order, which means I can better serve you my entertainment public...........I'll come back and write some more on this and other matters soon..Just occured to me I hadn't published anything recently.......