Crib Notes

Tealights

The Woodruff Arts Center is booking younger local musicians to perform in Sifly Piazza every Thursday night throughout the month of June. These free “Nights on the Piazza” shows will kick off at 5 p.m. and three young local acts will play until around 8 p.m.

The first of the series starts tomorrow night (Thurs., June 4) with performances by Nerdkween (5:30 p.m.), Tealights (6:30 p.m.) and Hope For Agoldensummer (7:30 p.m.).

“This is something I’ve wanted to see happen for a long time because I feel like there are a lot of people my age (28) who are very interested in art/music, but don’t see the Arts Center as some place they want to go,” says WAC’s Strategic Communications Manager, Kathleen Covington. “We hope by giving them an introduction with the free concerts, they will see that there really is a lot here that they would enjoy.”

The schedule for the rest of June’s Nights on the Piazza series:

June 11 Patty Mack & the Mo White Quartet (5:30 p.m.) Noot d’Noot (6:30 p.m.) Soulphonics & Ruby Velle (7:30 June 11th – Patty Mack & the Mo White Quartet (5:30) Noot d’Noot (6:30) Soulphonics & Ruby Velle (7:30 p.m.).

June 18 Heather Luttrell (5:30 p.m.) Tin Cup Prophette (6:30 p.m.) Venice is Sinking (7:30 p.m.).

June 25 Sound Detour (5:30 p.m.) Marry a Thief (6:30 p.m.) Winter Sounds (7:30 p.m.).

(Photo by Bartram Nason)

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Looks like Atlanta’s R&B/pop prince Usher Raymond IV is serious about this grown man business.

First marriage, fatherhood, philanthropy, and now this: The Woodruff Arts Center has elected the “artist, actor, media mogul” to its Board of Trustees, according to a recent press release.

Here’s hoping all this civic responsibility won’t negatively impact his music. Remember dude, your fans prefer the salacious, fictional, cheating boyfriend stuff a la 2004’s Confessions to the real life, reliable husband material you bored them with on last year’s Here I Stand.

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We had Woodruff Arts Center’s Art Fusion 40 covered Saturday night. If you missed it, you should cry. Or you could watch our video of the event and feel a little better.

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(Carol Friedman)

One of the highlights of my time spent in New Orleans as the A&E editor for the alternative newspaper Gambit Weekly was getting a few hours to spend with Grammy-winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who among other things is noted for being the composer for director Spike Lee’s films. The year was 2001, and Gambit’s Big Easy Entertainment Awards had selected Blanchard as its Entertainer of the Year.

It was a helluva year for the former Jazz Messenger, who won three awards in Down Beat magazine’s end-of-the year poll (Best Album, Best Artist and Best Trumpeter), which is pretty impressive considering the firepower that comes from fellow New Orleans trumpeters Wynton Marsalis and Nicholas Payton. He’d also scored a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo (on Wandering Moon’s “I Thought About You”). He’d also spent the previous year working on a whopping seven film scores and was preparing to release his sublime Jimmy McHugh tribute album, Let’s Get Lost, featuring collaborations with (among others) Diana Krall and Cassandra Wilson. In fact, the thing that impressed me most about Blanchard was how well he worked with others, whether it was on Spike Lee with his movies, guest vocalists on his albums, or bandmates in concert.

Blanchard is in town tonight to perform in the touring version of the Monterey Jazz Festival, which also includes saxophonist James Moody, performing at the Woodruff Arts Center’s Atlanta Symphony Hall. Tickets range from $30-$50. Here’s that 2001 interview, which provides insight into a creative process that keeps Blanchard busy working on multiple projects.

Here’s one of a bazillion clips from him in concert. I love the last comment: “He sings through his trumpet!” Yup.

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