Twins Jazz features T.K. Blue "Latin Bird" Friday, May 20 & Saturday, May. 21 9 & 11pm Shows RSVP

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T.K. BLUE

T.K. Blue has released his 9th CD as a leader entitled "Latin Bird", which has received rave reviews and critical acclaim.   

He received a commission from the NYSCA and Transart Inc. to compose a piece of music dedicated to the early 

African-American presence in the Hudson Valley area of upstate New York. T.K. chose to write a suite based on the

 life of Solomon Northup and his book Twelve Years a Slave.  Mr. Blue takes us on a wordless but yet richly

 satisfying journey through Northup's life, from his ancestry to his return to his family, making all of the painful,

 harrowing, and joyous stops in between....I found the music to be most compelling when listened to from beginning

 to end, like a symphonic movement..."--Curtis Davenport, Jazz Improv NYC July 2008

T.K. is a musician of the highest caliber who is at the peak of his creative output.  Mr. Blue’s artistry is found on over sixty recordings and has performed with a long list of great international artists such as Don Cherry, Abdullah Ibrahim, Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp, Randy Weston, Dizzy Gillespie, Pharoah Sanders, Melba Liston, Johnny Copeland, Billy Higgins, Reggie Workman, Chico Hamilton, Stefon Harris, Eric Reed, Regina Carter, Bobby McFerrin, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Benny Powell, James Moody, Paquito d’Rivera, and Jimmy Scott, just to name a few.  Blue has a Bachelor’s degree in Music and Psychology from NYU as well as a Master’s degree in Music Education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University.  Read more...

 

 

 

   "..a Carribean spirit can be detected in the choice of instruments....in the lilting dance rhythms and in the joyful shouts of Blue's themes and solos..."    Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post    T.K. Blue's new CD Latin Bird, his first for Motéma Music and ninth as a leader, takes the alto saxophonist back to his musical and personal beginnings. Charlie "Bird" Parker was a major early inspiration for T.K., and eight of Parker's classic compositions are ingeniously reworked in Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, Brazilian, and New Orleans second-line rhythms. The New York-born son of parents from Jamaica and Trinidad, and a mainstay of jazz master Randy Weston's band since 1980, Blue is profoundly fluent in the various musical styles of Africa and the African Diaspora. "Barbados" is given a calypso arrangement and "Donna Lee" is played as a samba, while "Chi Chi," "Si Si," and "Buzzy" utilize a two-three clave. Also in the program is a gorgeous reading of "'Round Midnight," the saxophonist's all-time favorite ballad, as well as "He Flew Away Too Soon," a solo alto saxophone improvisation dedicated to trombonist Benny Powell. Blue's longtime friend and Weston band mate, Powell had been scheduled to play on "Latin Bird" but died a few days before the session. Born in the Bronx and raised on Long Island, T.K. Blue began gigging around New York City in the mid-1970s with the Natives, a group led by South African pianist Ndikho Xaba. Through Xaba, he met Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as Dollar Brand) and joined his group in 1977. He spent three years touring the world with Ibrahim, with whom he recorded three albums. Since 1980, Blue has been a member of Randy Weston's band and currently serves as its musical director.

 

 

Aisha Kahlil

A Member of the Washington DC Jazz Network

AISHA KAHLIL possesses a dynamic, innate power and range in jazz, blues, gospel, traditional, contemporary, and African vocal styles and techniques. Read more....

As a member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, Ms. Kahlil has been voted Best Soloist by the Contemporary A Capella Society, for her work on her composition Fulani Chant, and also for her rendition of See See Rider.

 

 

Her original composition Wodaabe Nights has been featured in the film soundtrack Africans in America,

 

and her composition Fulani Chant has been included in the film soundtrack Down in the Delta, directed by Maya Angelou, as well as the soundtrack Climb against the Odds, a film produced by the Breast cancer Fund.

 

 

Ms Kahlil’s film credits include Beloved, starring Oprah Winfrey and directed by Jonathan Demme, and with Sweet Honey in the Rock and James Horner, has written and recorded original music for the soundtrack of the TNT film Freedom Song,

 

starring Danny Glover and directed by Phil Robinson.

 

Journey to My-Ka is her first solo release, and is a compilation of her own original compositions and arrangements.

 

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