Jazzin’Around Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Betty Carter: “Because jazz doesn’t make money quickly, a lot of people in power are not encouraging young people to really use the word `jazz.’ For a person who’s been out here as long as I have, they’re pretty much sick of me because I just won’t go away. I’m not going away, see,that’s what probably bothers a lot of people. There’s a lot of young singers who are coming up, and record executives hope that they will replace the idea of jazz being what I have in mind with what THEY have in mind. But until I go away, that’s not going to happen…” Betty Carter

Ute Lemper : Bookended by post-war tales of love and despair from the French songbook by Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf, Paris Days, Berlin Nights hearkens back to the years of the revolutionary and decadent Weimar Republic, rooted in music and stories by Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht.

Andy Kirk And His Orchestra @Redhotjazz : In 1928 Andy Kirk took over the Terrence Holder Orchestra renaming it Andy Kirk and his Dark Clouds Of Joy and then Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds Of Joy. The band went on to become one of the most popular of all the territory bands and maintained a successful career that lasted for over twenty years. Mary Lou Williams rose to prominence in the band.

Joni James : Joni’s reappearance has been marked by a series of fabulous sold out concerts in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and many spots between. She won standing ovation after standing ovation and outstanding reviews at The Town Hall and then Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center in the Big Apple. She packed the lovely Wellington Theatre in her hometown of Chicago with a unique one-woman show in two parts entitled “An Intimate Evening With Joni James.” And she was the toast of L.A. with concerts at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Theatre.

Amalia Rodrigues : 1920-Amália da Piedade Rodrigues, nasceu em Lisboa no Pátio Santos, em casa dos avós maternos, aonde ficou vivendo até os 14 anos.

Joe Carter And His Chicago Broomdusters @Facebook : Joe Carter’s lone recorded effort for the tiny Barrelhouse label remains to this day one of the great lost blues albums of the ‘70s, if not at the top of the list. On the surface, its content could not be more at odds with the standard blues album of that decade; a two guitars-drums-no bass combo running through a set of Chicago staples largely plucked from the repertoires of Muddy Waters and Elmore James, minus any modern embellishments, recorded in studio environs that could best be described as crude.

The Staple Singers @The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum : The Staple Singers have been called “God’s greatest hitmakers.” Steeped in the music of the church, this singing family from Mississippi crossed into the pop mainstream without compromising their gospel roots. Fronted by patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples, the Staple Singers have left an imprint of soulful voices, social activism, religious conviction and danceable “message music” across the decades since the release of “Uncloudy Day” in 1956.

Billy Eckstine @bigbandsandbignames.com : He has had a habit, in the past, of blending notes quite out of proportion to what they originally were intended to be. It has created excitement among listeners for its vocal uniqueness, but I am happy to note that he is modulating this trick in his current limited stand preceding an Easter engagement at the Paramount Theater.

[/toggle]