 |
| Chris Thomas King |
The acclaimed Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and Grammy winning blues artist Chris Thomas King, will perform a Sunday matinee concert on April 18, at 2 p.m. in the Delta and Pine Land Theatre of the Bologna Performing Arts Center on the Delta State campus.
Hollywood movie star Chris Thomas King will join Grammy-nominated jazz saxophonist Antonio Hart, Charlie Parker Institute Director and vocalist Lisa Henry; past Wynton Marsalis Quartet pianist Richard Johnson; past Terrence Blanchard Quintet bassist Derek Nievergelt; and Esperanza Spalding’s drummer, Otis Brown, III for the Sunday matinee performance.
The show will feature musicians who have worked with everyone from Coldplay to recent Grammy Album of the Year winner Herbie Hancock. Chris Thomas King is a Grammy-Award Winning Artist who acted in two Oscar-winning films, Ray (as Lowell Fulson)and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (as Tommy Johnson).Also in attendance will be Thelonious Monk’s son and chairman of the board of the Monk Institute, TS Monk.
The program is a celebration of African American music in DSU’s Year of the Arts, and is part of the Monk Institute’s return to the Mississippi Delta during its annual "The Blues and Jazz – Two American Classics" educational outreach tour (www.thebluesandjazz.org). The April 19 and 20th Informance tour includes visits to public schools in Cleveland and Ruleville.
Funding for the entire tour was provided by Carolyn and Bill Powers, in memory of Mrs. Powers’ grandparents, Joe Rice Dockery and Keith Dockery McLean, the late owners of Dockery Farms. Of Dockery Farms and the blues, B.B. King has said, "You might say, it all started right here.”
MORE ABOUT TMIJ: The Thelonious Institute of Jazz (TMIJ) is the world’s foremost jazz education and outreach organization. Underwritten by Bill and Caroline Powers, the "Jazz and Blues: Two American Classics" is an innovative effort that showcases some of the top talents on the world jazz scene in a combined creative effort with some of the top talents of the American blues scene. The result is an audience-pleasing, one-of-a-kind Delta music show that pleases both Jazz and Delta Blues fans alike. Past guest artists have included Alvin Youngblood Hart, Joe Louis Walker, and three-time Grammy Award winning blues musician Keb’ Mo’.
The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz has performed for everyone from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, and most recently, for First Lady Michelle Obama. They also participate in worldwide tours of countries including India, Egypt, Thailand, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Vietnam with Institute Chairman Herbie Hancock. Their frequent collaborators and supporters include a "who’s who" of American jazz including Terence Blanchard, Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Jimmy Heath, and Danilo Perez.
The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a nonprofit education organization, and was founded in 1986 by the Monk family along with the late Maria Fisher, an opera singer and lifelong devotee of music. Its mission is to offer the world’s most promising young musicians college level training by America’s jazz masters and to present public school-based jazz education programs for young people around the world. All of these programs are offered free of charge to the students and schools. The Institute’s programs fill a tremendous void in arts education caused by public school budget cuts. They strive to help children develop imaginative thinking, creativity, a positive self-image, and respect for their own and others’ cultural heritage.
For more information, contact Allan Mitchell at (662) 832-2593, e-mail amitchell@deltastate.edu or Sarah Andrew Wilson at (202) 364-7272 or e-mail swilson@monkinstitute.org.
