A Swinging Black History Month tribute, featuring The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, Kellye Gray, Ed Reed and the Marcus Shelby Orchestra.
Four legends of Bay Area jazz come together for a swinging Black
History Month tribute to the music of the incomparable Duke Ellington.
The show, titled “Come Sunday” after the wonderful Ellington
composition popularized by the late Mahalia Jackson, features a superb 18-piece orchestra led by bassist Marcus Shelby and brings to the same stage for the first time Faye Carol, Kellye Gray, and Ed Reed. It’s the perfect way to cap off Super Bowl Sunday – four treasured local artists saluting Sir Duke....
read more
A Swinging Black History Month tribute, featuring The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, Kellye Gray, Ed Reed and the Marcus Shelby Orchestra.
Four legends of Bay Area jazz come together for a swinging Black
History Month tribute to the music of the incomparable Duke Ellington.
The show, titled “Come Sunday” after the wonderful Ellington
composition popularized by the late Mahalia Jackson, features a superb 18-piece orchestra led by bassist Marcus Shelby and brings to the same stage for the first time Faye Carol, Kellye Gray, and Ed Reed. It’s the perfect way to cap off Super Bowl Sunday – four treasured local artists saluting Sir Duke.
The dynamic Miss Faye Carol has been mesmerizing Bay Area audiences for more than 30 years. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, raised in the East Bay city of Pittsburgh, she sang in the youth choir of the Solomon Temple Missionary Baptist Church, won a talent contest at the Oakland Auditorium, and was soon a hit on the Bay Area R&B circuit. She has performed with everyone from Charles Brown to Ray Charles, greats like Billy Higgins and Bobby Hutcherson, Ben Vereen and Philly Jo Jones, Pharaoh Sanders and Albert King. She can “croon soul and standards, scat hurtling bebop lines, and deliver torch songs with scorching intensity, but everything she does is steeped in the blues,” writes Andrew Gilbert in The Monthly, calling her an “extravagantly gifted vocalist” and praising her “bravura performance.” When Faye Carol sings, her energy and love for the music fill every note.
Kellye Gray is a jazz powerhouse. Her twenty-year career has taken her from Sixth Street in Austin to Les Cavaeaux de la Rochette in Paris, from the JazzSchool in Berkeley to the Viva Musica! Festival in
Slovakia. JazzTimes Magazine has called her “an impressive, indeed
frighteningly vast talent.” The Los Angeles Times has praised her
“stunning scat singing, instrumental simulations, and dark-toned
balladry.” Her performances blend Latin, funk, soul, and blues with
astonishing scat. In the words of the San Francisco Examiner, Kellye
is “a musically most imaginative tour de force.”
Ed Reed has been on a roll since recording his first album in 2007 at
the age of 78. He appeared with Marian McPartland on NPR’s Piano Jazz, was the subject of a Nat Hentoff profile in the Wall Street Journal, won consistent acclaim in the Downbeat Critics Poll, and released two more gorgeous albums. Born in Cleveland, raised in Watts, schooled in the U.S. Army, and incarcerated in Folsom and San Quentin, Ed has paid his dues in more ways than one. During his eventful lifetime, he’s played with such jazz giants as Art Pepper, Dexter Gordon, Frank Morgan, Charles Mingus, Hampton Hawes, and Akira Tana – and he’s developed a peerless singing style, with exquisite phrasing, a golden tone, and a combination of strength and tenderness that is unforgettable.
Marcus Shelby is a remarkable band leader, composer, arranger, and
educator, and he also plays one whale of a bass. He’s recorded twelve albums and won numerous awards, including the Charles Mingus Scholarship to the California Institute for the Arts, the John
Coltrane Young Artists Competition, the Bay Guardian Award for Best
Jazz Band, and the Theater Circle Critics Award for Best Original
Music Score for Sonny’s Blues. He currently leads a trio, a
seven-piece band, and the fifteen-piece orchestra you’ll be hearing,
as well as teaching at the Rooftop Alternative School and Stanford Jazz Workshop, and pursuing numerous commissions. Marcus has devoted himself to many important projects – the inspirational life of Harriet Tubman, the outrageous story of Port Chicago, the enormous legacy of Duke Ellington – and to each he brings his vision, commitment, and artistry.
Come Sunday, February 3rd, to the Freight and celebrate Black History Month through the mastery of Duke Ellington, with four Bay Area greats.
show less
