Doors @ 7pm, Show @ 7:30pm
$20 adv / $25 dos

Beareather Reddy, vocals

Charlie Apicella, guitar, tenor banjo

Avery Sharpe, bass

Steve Johns, drums

 

Blues Alive and North Jersey Blues Society collaborated to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy with this unique musical journey.

 

This program frames Gertrude Pritchett—a.k.a. Ma Rainey—as a trail-blazing American composer and band leader.

 

We shine a light on the woman as a powerful jazz musician, mentor, and collaborator to several musicians who in turn became innovators in their own careers; trumpeter/vocalist Louis Armstrong, pianist Thomas Dorsey, guitarist Tampa Red, and saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.

 

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90 minute concert

 

Selections start with Rainey’s works and progress into examples of call and response, R&B, swing, gospel, and soul.The set climaxes with Dr. Billy Taylor’s homage to Dr. King, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free.” The song was made an anthem of The Movement of the 1960’s by Nina Simone.

 

Setlist will be augmented with audience engagement conversations which frame American music up to the present day as a living tradition of the blues.

 

Presented in partnership with New Jersey Blues Society.

 

Please check out our recent Ma Rainey podcasts: