7th Annual Jazz Festival Returns To Duck [Concert Preview]
The 7th Annual Duck Jazz Festival returns this October, featuring a talented lineup of musicians live in concert, including The Delpheayo Octet’s “Sweet Thunder”, Lady Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, Peter Lamb and The Wolves, and Carroll V. Dashiell Jr. and the East Carolina University Jazz Ensemble.
Born in New Orleans, Delfeayo Marsalis was destined to a life in music. One of the top jazz trombonists performing today, Marsalis has won multiple Grammy Awards for his musicianship. He is equally accomplished as a producer and arranger having produced over 100 recordings for major artists including Harry Connick, Jr, Spike Lee, Nicholas Payton, and for his brothers Ellis, Branford, and Wynton Marsalis. As a bandleader, he has earned wide acclaim, especially for his albums Pontius Pilate’s Decision (1992), Musashi (1997) and Minions Dominion (2006). He brings all of his talents to bear on his most ambitious project yet: Sweet Thunder. Using the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn suite Such Sweet Thunder as the point of departure for his octet, Marsalis has created a fresh, new musical composition.
With a singing style influenced by Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Little Esther Phillips and other legendary greats, Lavay Smith has become an internationally recognized Diva of Jazz and Blues. As the vocalist and leader of her 7-piece band, Lavay creates her own compositions and draws from a large repertoire of classics. The band features some of the world’s finest musicians and is comprised of four horns (trumpet, trombone, alto saxophone and tenor saxophone), piano, bass, and drums. These top of the class musicians have performed or recorded with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat “King” Cole, Johnny Otis, Ray Charles, Big Mama Thornton and many, many more. The combination of world-class singing and musicianship provides the perfect recipe for dancing and good times.
Peter Lamb and The Wolves is a North Carolina-based band formed by saxophonist Peter Lamb in 2008. The music features strange eclectic melodies and sounds from around the world, combined with a funky New Orleans groove. Lamb leads on tenor saxophone, aided by Al Strong on trumpet, Stephen Coffman on drums, and two musicians doing double duty-troubadour—Mark Wells on vocals and piano, and George Knott handling upright bass as well as the elephantine bass saxophone. Their repertoire reaches back to New Orleans’ earliest syncopaters, but also forward to hipster bards like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits; a tango might trip on the heels of a French waltz or a Russian folk song.
An Associate Professor of Music and the Director of the East Carolina University Jazz Ensemble, Carroll V. Dashiell, Jr. is recognized for excellence in the music industry as a bassist, musical director, and also as a composer/arranger. Under the tutelage of bassist Dashiell, who joined the ECU School of Music faculty in 1989, student ensembles have earned international recognition as a premiere university jazz ensemble from the State of North Carolina.
The 7th Annual Duck Jazz Festival is happening on Sunday, October 13 at the Duck Town Park,
Gates open at 10am and the concert begins at 11.
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