Just met a fellow Blogger in the area while chilling at Beyu....It was great having the UPS guy tell me how much he enjoyed the show and also have some of you folks on Facebook tell me you are looking forward to next year's festival...just met Odinga, a friend of Solomon's, and his friend Chantelle........Know I am working on a couple of other projects as well..........always keeping things going here in Durham..This exhibit at the Beyu is real nice and I must commend Paula and Alderman for this show.......also the show yesterday at Carrack was real good and it was great seeing folks admire my Dad's tribute piece to 9-11 along with the works of Steven Silverleaf and Jenny Warburg.....
Marc
Monday, September 12, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Another Quiet Day
Well after a busy couple of weeks at MI working on Connecticut, it is good to have some down time..but I really don't believe in downtime so you know I am working on various projects still....went and got a gift card for one of my co-workers yesterday and bumped into a old friend who told me about a film festival she is part of that may be a possible collaborator for the Hayti Film Festival, and then while at Blue Coffee ran into a group of area filmmakers who are working on a film project that might be shown at Hayti as part of the festival or seperatel...also heard from the Interrupters which I believe is a very pertinent film to this community and our youths, as well as those who are getting caught up in gang activity, but unfortunately during Full Frame they did not get to see this film...Hopefully we can bring it to Hayti soon...
Right now, I am at American Tobacco doing some quick writing and checking emails and just bumped into Al Strong, a talented trumpet player from NCCU, who is now working with the Pit band for the play HAIR which is playing at Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC).
On another note, the meeting with the school administrators was interesting, but I am still curious as to how the leadership will be handled as they go forward with the Strategic Plan for Durham Public Schools..they seem to have some very lofty goals, and I wonder how they will implement them and also what will be done to make sure that all aspects of the community are included in the process as well as in leadership posts. It was great seeing some very vocal and passionate student involvement and we need to see more of this throughout the system...It is amazing the work that Spirithouse, See Saw, and groups like this have done with our youths...can't wait to see the leadership that they produce as they grow even further into adulthood.......
Well these are my musings for today.......will probably be back with more at a later time, or later date.....
Right now, I am at American Tobacco doing some quick writing and checking emails and just bumped into Al Strong, a talented trumpet player from NCCU, who is now working with the Pit band for the play HAIR which is playing at Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC).
On another note, the meeting with the school administrators was interesting, but I am still curious as to how the leadership will be handled as they go forward with the Strategic Plan for Durham Public Schools..they seem to have some very lofty goals, and I wonder how they will implement them and also what will be done to make sure that all aspects of the community are included in the process as well as in leadership posts. It was great seeing some very vocal and passionate student involvement and we need to see more of this throughout the system...It is amazing the work that Spirithouse, See Saw, and groups like this have done with our youths...can't wait to see the leadership that they produce as they grow even further into adulthood.......
Well these are my musings for today.......will probably be back with more at a later time, or later date.....
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Poetry Slam
Right now at Hayti waiting for the audience to get here so all these great poets can show the audience what they are about.....earlier today was at Alston Avenue helping support a friend of mine battling Cancer with their fundraising event and then went to see the powerful motivational speaker Stanice Anderson talk about the struggles she had been involved with and the demons that she had to conquer.....
Saturday, September 18, 2010
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.....
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.....
Friday, September 17, 2010
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....
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....
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
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........
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........
Friday, July 23, 2010
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......
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......
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