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Strathmore Presents

IRMA THOMAS THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA

& THE PRESERVATION HALL LEGACY QUINTETSunday, November 12, 2017, 4pm

Irma Thomas, vocals

The Blind Boys of AlabamaJimmy Carter, vocals

Ben Moore, vocals Paul Beasley, vocals

Ricky McKinnie, vocals Joey Williams, guitar and vocals

Ray Ladson, bass guitar and vocals

Preservation Hall Legacy Quintet Greg Stafford, trumpet

Freddie Lonzo, tromboneJoe Lastie, Jr., drums Calvin Johnson, reeds

Christopher Vaughn, piano and organ

Marya Glur, Tour ManagerPhil Pagano, Audio Engineer

Program to be announced from the stage.

Columbia Artists Management LLC – Tim Fox / Alison Ahart Williams – 1790 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 Produced in association with Solid Productions, LLC – Chris Goldsmith

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ABOUT IRMA THOMAS It is difficult to believe that 2017 marks the 58th anniversary of Irma Thomas’s first recording session. She remains one of America’s most distinctive and classic singers, a treasure from the golden age of soul music who remains as compelling and powerful as ever. As Don McLeese wrote in his review of her Grammy Award-winning 2006 album, After the Rain, “Most singers who have been recording as long as Thomas resort to tricks, mannerisms, and show-off displays, but she remains the anti-diva, a stylist of exquisite understatement whose every note rings true and hits home.”

Thomas first achieved prominence with a string of 1960s hits such as “Time Is On My Side” (later covered by the Rolling Stones), “It’s Raining,” and “Wish Someone Would Care.” She toured extensively across the South with her band, The Toronados. Yet her life has not been without its share of hardship and challenge. Pregnant at age 15, she was forced by her father into what she calls a “shotgun marriage.” After the devastating effects of Hurricane Camille in 1969, when she was a single mother with four children to support, she moved her family to Los Angeles and worked for a time at a Montgomery Ward store, recording and performing only intermittently. Upon returning to Louisiana in the 1970s, she slowly built her reputation as The Soul Queen of New Orleans, signing with Rounder in 1986. In 2005, while she was working in Austin, Texas, Hurricane Katrina flooded her home and destroyed all her possessions and her nightclub, The Lion’s Den. In the wake of tragedy and loss, Thomas and her husband rebuilt their home, and her career has enjoyed an unprecedented upswing.

After The Rain, recorded in rural Maurice, Louisiana, only weeks after Katrina, won Irma her first Grammy, as well as a Blues Music Award for Soul-Blues Album of the Year. Simply Grand followed, receiving a Grammy nomination and another Soul-Blues Album of the Year Award. Thomas had previously garnered Grammy nominations for her live album, Simply the Best!, and her collaboration with Marcia Ball and Tracy Nelson for Sing It!, both on the Rounder label. Many career highlights have followed her Grammy triumph, including her appearance with Stevie Wonder at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and her recent appearance on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In 2009, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

There are many other bright sides to Thomas’ story. After she graduated from Delgado College in 2001 at the age of 61, the school initiated the Irma Thomas Wise Women Center. “We provide counseling to young women, and the occasional young man, who may be unsure of the possibilities of furthering their educations,” she explained. “We provide encouragement, and I share my own struggles.” Thomas summed up her career in a conversation with New Orleans writer Jeff Hannusch in 2009, “I really haven’t thought a lot about being in

show business that long because I’m having so much fun right now. Recently, I’ve gotten a lot of acclaim and its all humbling. The Grammy award was especially prestigious, but I’m truly honored and humbled by them all. I might slow up a bit in the future, but I don’t ever foresee retirement. I know 50 years is a long time, but when you’re doing something you really love, you don’t think about the years.”

ABOUT THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMAThe Blind Boys of Alabama are recognized worldwide as living legends of gospel music. Celebrated by The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and winners of five Grammy Awards, they have attained the highest levels of achievement in a career that spans over 70 years and shows no signs of diminishing.

The Blind Boys have earned praise for their remarkable interpretations of everything from traditional gospel favorites to contemporary spiritual material by acclaimed songwriters such as Curtis Mayfield, Ben Harper, Eric Clapton, Prince, and Tom Waits. Their performances have been experienced by millions on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, the Grammy Awards telecast, 60 Minutes, and on their own holiday PBS special. The Blind Boys’ live shows are roof-raising musical events that appeal to audiences of all cultures, as evidenced by an international itinerary that has taken them to virtually every continent.

The Blind Boys of Alabama met at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939, and left to advance their professional career in 1944. Their recorded output, reaching back to 1948 with their hit “I Can See Everybody’s Mother But Mine” on the Veejay label, is widely recognized as being influential for many gospel, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll artists. The group toiled for almost 40 years almost exclusively on the black gospel circuit, playing in churches, auditoriums, and stadiums across the country.

The Blind Boys had their own chance to “cross over” to popular music in the 1950s, along with their gospel friend and contemporary Sam Cooke, but stayed true to their calling. In the 1960s, they joined the Civil Rights Movement, performing at benefits for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They toiled in the vineyards all through the 1970s as the world of popular music began to pass them by. But in 1983, their career reached a turning point with their crucial role in the smash hit and Obie Award-winning play The Gospel at Colonus, which brought the Blind Boys’ timeless sound to an enthusiastic new audience. In the 1990s they received two Grammy nominations and performed at the White House. In recent years the Blind Boys’ musical brethren have paid homage to their legacy and their continued relevance by asking them to contribute and collaborate on new

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projects. The Blind Boys have appeared on recordings with Bonnie Raitt, Ben Harper, k.d. lang, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Susan Tedeschi, Solomon Burke, and many others. The Blind Boys of Alabama have profoundly influenced an entire generation (or two) of gospel, soul, R&B, and rock musicians and are still blazing trails after all these years.

With as much momentum as the Blind Boys have gathered in the last several years, there is no chance of slowing them down. As long as they are called to, they will continue to create uplifting music for their fans and inspire new generations of musicians.

ABOUT THE PRESERVATION HALL LEGACY QUINTET Gregg Stafford (trumpet) is coined “The last Trumpet player in New Orleans” for a reason. He has dedicated his career to preserving traditional New Orleans jazz music and tradition. While his trumpet playing is seeped in tradition, in his youth he had no desire to become a musician. By chance, his high school band leader needed a trumpet player and recruited Stafford. Nine months later, he started marching in parades. He was sixteen years old and, at that time in the late 1960s, brass band music was for “old men.” But Stafford had grown up watching brass bands and loved practicing tunes at home. He began playing in the E. Gibson Brass Band with childhood friends Tuba Fats Lacen and Michael Myers and subsequently in Danny Barker’s Fairview Baptist Church Band. Stafford also played in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, which he went on to lead, the Olympia Brass Band, and the touring Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Decades before he began playing regularly at Preservation Hall, Stafford came by to hear the music. But he absorbed much more from the musicians he thought of as fathers—Louis Cottrell, Harold Dejan, Albert Walters, Jack Willis, Teddy Riley, and many more. These men taught him about history, pride, and values. Stafford says music holds the people and the community together; every time he plays, he holds audiences in rapture.

Freddie Lonzo (trombone) was born and raised in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhoods and was exposed to the music of the streets at a very young age. Having cemented his desire to play New Orleans jazz, joining early second line parades would later lead him to his first professional gig with EG Gabon and Doc Paulin’s Band. A true master of every style of New Orleans music, from marching brass to modern jazz, Lonzo’s first appearances with Preservation Hall date back to the mid-80s when he toured and played with Percy Humphrey and Kid Sheik.

Joe Lastie, Jr., (drums) was born and raised in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Lastie comes from a long line of family members equally dedicated to music and the church. Having played his first job with a rhythm section backing the Desire Community Choir, he would go on to study jazz with Willie Metcalf at the Dryades Street YMCA with classmates Wynton and Branford Marsalis.

After a brief move with his family to Queens, New York, Lastie returned to New Orleans where he was invited to substitute on drums at Preservation Hall in 1989. He’s been a regluar with the band ever since.

Calvin A. Johnson, Jr., (reeds) is a saxophonist, composer, and bandleader born and raised in New Orleans in 1985. Calvin’s paternal grandfather, George Augustus “Son” Johnson, was a musician who led Works Progress Administration bands during the Great Depression and taught musicians at the Grumswald School of Music in New Orleans. Son Johnson and Mrs. Johnson gave birth to 11 children, which included five boys and six girls. Of those 5 boys, 4 were musicians, including the late clarinetist/saxophonist Ralph Johnson of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Johnson sharpened his skills at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and has vetted himself as a professional musician. His expansive touring history ranges from top local venues to international festivals performing with Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Harry Connick Jr., Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and Big Sam’s Funky Nation to name a few. His diverse musical career spans from traditional, contemporary, brass band, and avant-garde jazz to funk, and hip hop. Calvin Johnson does not simply play; he embodies the sentiment of the saxophone: strong, resonant, and a testament to the unique vibrancy of New Orleans’ spirit.

Christopher Vaughn (piano, organ) is the musical heir to the late and great gospel organist and vocalist Leon Vaughn and found his way to Preservation Hall through his cousin, the drummer Joe Lastie, Jr. A performer since the age of 13, Chris has regularly performed at a number of churches around New Orleans including New Saint Mark and St. Paul, and he is currently the Minister of Music at First Evangelist Church in Central City, New Orleans. In addition to performing in spiritual settings, Vaughn performs with Little Zion Baptist Church Choir at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and alongside the Preservation Hall Legacy Band.

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Outside Presenter

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Outside Presenter

SALUTE TO VIENNA NEW YEAR’S CONCERT Sat, Dec 30, 3pm Inspired by Vienna’s beloved New Year’s Concert, this charming celebration blends acclaimed European singers and dancers with exceptional local symphonies for a rich cultural experience that will leave your toes tapping.

Strathmore Presents

CATHERINE RUSSELL & JOHN PIZZARELLI A SALUTE TO BILLIE HOLIDAY & FRANK SINATRA Fri, Jan 5, 8pm Prepare to be transported to another era when two of the premier interpreters of jazz standards and the Great American Songbook pay tribute to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra in a masterful collaboration.

CATHERINE RUSSELL& JOHN PIZZARELLIA SALUTE TO BILLIE HOLIDAY & FRANK SINATRAFri, Jan 5