Spring and Summer music

Yes the weather is lovely, and that must mean it's time for music festivals throughout the Triangle...Yesterday, Durham Parks and Recreation Department brought us another exciting Bimbe Festival. It was fun hearing the great sounds of musicians like Jah Creation, Kim Arrington, Carlitta Durand and seeing some good friends out there enjoying themselves. I missed the headliner Doug E. Fresh but friends of mine told me he gave a good show despite some sound glitches. I understand that day 1 of Artsplosure was rocking as well. I got good reports on it from my friend Yolanda Rabun who performed there and seemed to have had a good time. In addition to that, Shakori Hills and Earth Day have already happened and were fun events as well..Yes, rain did catch some of Earth Day and impact its attendance but that's the catch with outside events. You have to deal with what Mother Nature sends you. Already, the outside music series have started...Friday, I went to see Party Nuts for a few minutes at the Brightleaf series. And last Friday, i went to see some great local blues musicians perform at American Tobacco as part of their series...Among the Music Maker artist featured in this revue style show were Cool John Ferguson, John Dee Holeman, Pat Cohen, Ironing Board Sam, and others. Both of these series, and the Duke Gardens series always bring some great musicians. And of course June will be bringing us Juneteenth downtown and July will be bringing us Festival at the Eno. And then one of my personal favorites in September.. The Bull Durham Blues Festival celebratings its 25th anniversary at the Old Durham Bulls athletic Park.

Recent reviews by Marc L.

What's this?

Folks that check out my Blog know that I am always busy with one project or another...Here is one of my latest..Come and check it out this Friday... Friday, April 13, 2012 9:00pm until 2:00am THE HIPPEST TRIP IN DURHAM! Get your groove on to funk, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and all your Soul Train favorites. Come ready to shake it and dress to impress the Soul Train Line! Featuring emcee Marc Lee and DJ Analog Pancakes, DJ Pappy, and DJ Whole Wheat. $5-$20 sliding scale donation. Proceeds benefit the Durham Solidarity Center, Occupy Durham, and the displaced workers of the YWCA of the Greater Triangle. The Pinhook 117 W Main St, Durham, NC 27701-3603 And following that will be a May Celebration and I will give you more details on that as well.....also check out my latest reviews of activities around the Triangle at Http;//bluesradio.yelp.com

It is incredibly interesting working on putting a show....Have to make sure all the details are in place from the booking of the comedians to the hotel reservations to the plane reservations and do that on a shoe string budget...And you wonder why people pull their hair out doing events.....But in the end, I am confident that the show will be great and folks will be enjoying the humor of B Phlat, Impressionist Sylvia Traymoor Morrison and local comedians Will Little and Tru in this show that is being produced by myself and Yvette Holder. Last night, the Hayti was rocking with erotic poetry and my friend Elliot Axiom knocked off the four champion Potts....Looks like a new era has arrived...The other competitors were also very talented and you know why that slam has to be at the Midnight hour when they get that raunchy and wild. To add to the wildness, earlier that day the Hayti had a Gospel Explosion....Talk about a contrast in shows.....SMILE.....but even some of those bible thumping folks if they thought they could have gotten away with it probably would have been at the other show. On Friday, I had the pleasure of checking out a comedian at the Dangling Loafer. Have to check out another one of those shows at some time, as the comedian I heard was funny and the other ones I met were real cool...Went by Charlie Goodnights and they had a packed crowd. Just now finding out the comedian was Ralphie May and when I looked on the club's page they have added another show for this comedian... Thursday, I did a double shift at WCOM...Rocked the blues show as always, and of course it's fun when I get to sit in for Dave Bellins and Carrboro Live.....This show highlights great local musicians, and its real fun when I can mix Red Collar, Mel Melton, and other outstanding but varying local styles. And now it's a rainy day here in the Bull City.....Let's see what the next week brings....

It's another busy month here at the Hayti...On Saturday, the 21st it was another exciting battle of poets....The Greensboro folks definitely represented. If you would like to see more great poetry, come on down to Hayti this Saturday and check out Soul Expressions and don't forget the Film Festival coming your way in February. It's the 9th through the 12th.......and then in March is the exciting Women of Comedy show coming to Prime Smokehouse in Southeast Raleigh....

Downtown and Blues Festival

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

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.....