Jazz WaHi has announced a full day of free events in Washington Heights on New Year’s Eve and Day, featuring family-friendly events and various musicians.
Jazz WaHi is a nonprofit organization promoting jazz performance and music education in Washington Heights. Their mission is to connect jazz musicians with an audience of jazz lovers, expanding it through accessible performances and educational opportunities. Washington Heights jazz musicians/educators Louise Rogers and Mark Kross founded Jazz WaHi in 2014.
Every year, Jazz WaHi puts on several events including the Washington Heights Jazz Festival, Jazz WaHi for Kids concert, The Jazz Vocal Series, and the Weekly Jazz Jam.
New Year’s Schedule
New Year’s Eve
Noon – 2: Hot Club Jazz (a la Django Reinhardt) at La CreParis on 187 with Ollie Soikkeli and Brad Brose.
3-3:45: an interactive, participatory performance for kids, focusing on the trumpet. The event will encourage the children to sing and dance, featuring Shareef Clayton, Louise Rogers, and Mark Kross at Le Cheile Upstairs.
5:30-6:30 pm: Making Space for Serenity at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine solo piano with Alec Castro.
6-8 pm: 181 Cabrini with flutist KAT modiano and bassist Maksim Perepilca.
7-9 pm: Jazz and Blues at Kismat with John Albin, Pete Venzel, Adam Asarnow, Rick Strong, and Jeff Potter.
9:30-midnight: Latin Jazz Party at Northend Food Court on Broadway.
New Year’s Day
Noon – 2: New Year’s Day Brunch at Le Cheile with Emiko Hayashi and Steve Marks.
JazzBuffalo has announced the 2024 Canterbury Woods Jazz Series, bringing three incredible concerts featuring award-winning jazz artists to the brand-new Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center.
JazzBuffalo is the d.b.a. and brand name for the Greater Buffalo Jazz Society, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to building jazz awareness and jazz appreciation in the WNY area. The organization promotes jazz and builds audience appreciation for jazz through jazz news, live performances, concerts, festivals, jazz series, event calendaring, ticketing, hosting internationally recognized jazz musicians, and jazz education.
On February 14, 2024, the 2024 Canterbury Woods Jazz Series presents A Cole Porter Valentines featuring Konrad Paszkudski and Pasquale Grasso. After receiving his jazz piano education in his native Australia, Konrad Paszkudski relocated to the U.S. where he embarked on extensive tours alongside jazz legends such as trumpeter James Morrison and the John Pizzarelli Quartet. Within just four years, he led over 1,000 performances. Konrad will be joined by rising star jazz vocalist, Olivia Chindamo, one of the most promising young jazz vocalists in the jazz scene, celebrating their love for Cole Porter and the Great American Songbook.
Kathy Kosins, an ASCAP Award-winning vocalist, is delighted to present her highly acclaimed project, “The Ladies of Cool,” at the Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center on Friday, March 22 at 7:30 PM. It is a contemporary homage to the iconic West Coast School of Cool, celebrating the timeless artistry of Anita O’Day, June Christy, Chris Connor, and Julie London. Kosins brings classic songs to life with her smoky vocals and clever arrangements, exuding glamour, sophistication, and a sense of cool. Kosins’ album of the same name received accolades from international media outlets such as the Huffington Post and All About Jazz.
Finally, the 2024 Canterbury Woods Jazz Series wraps up on April 21, 2024, with “El arte Del Bolero” featuring Miquel Zenón and Luis Podermo. Renowned jazz artist and 11-time GRAMMY Nominee Miguel Zenón, a recipient of prestigious Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships, will present his two albums dedicated to the cherished Latin American art form of bolero. He collaborates with and will appear with the virtuoso Venezuelan pianist, composer, arranger, and educator, Luis Perdomo, a GRAMMY Nominated jazz artist based in New York, and a longtime partner in their musical endeavor.
Hudson Valley Live has announced their winter/spring 2024 lineup at The Local, Saugerties’ new year-round, multi-arts venue. The season features nearly 30 must-see events ranging from unforgettable concerts to thought-provoking conversations to family-friendly programs, all between January and June 2024.
Housed in a former Dutch chapel built in 1876, The Local is a space for arts, culture, and community under the guidance of Isabel Soffer and Danny Melnick, co-founders of Hudson Valley Live. The two Saugerties-based music producers and performing-arts professionals have each devoted more than 30 years to producing festivals, concerts, and curated arts experiences.
“After an exciting fall season, we’re returning in 2024 to celebrate an even wider variety of musical traditions and cutting-edge sounds, encouraging discovery through culture. We look forward to bringing even more people together through the arts, with diverse programs for people of all ages and interests right here in Saugerties,” said Isabel Soffer.
Danny and Isabel, photo by Dion Oguest.
Tickets go on sale January 9, with performances by singer-songwriter Tracy Bonham, who celebrates her birthday with a performance on March 16, New Orleans singer-songwriter Joy Clark (Feb. 1), five-time GRAMMY winner Cindy Cashdollar (Feb. 24), banjo extraordinaire Nora Brown (April 20), and more.
The Local will also continue to bring world-renowned global acts to the Hudson Valley, such as Firas Zreik, Palestinian-born, NY-based master of the kanun (Feb. 10); JigJam (March 12), an Irish-bluegrass quartet from Ireland; women-led Caña Dulce y Caña Brava (April 10) who perform music and dance from Veracruz, Mexico; and a rare appearance by Iran’s Persian classical music virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor (June 15), among others.
The Local is a place for community, and whether that’s through the performances we offer or through private events that take place here, we’re thrilled to be a cultural hub for all, right in the Hudson Valley. We’re so encouraged by the economic impact we’ve had here and look forward to engaging with local businesses even more as we expand.
Danny Melnick
The venue’s intimate space is the perfect setting for intriguing conversations, including Consider This, a new discussion series kicking off on March 19 with famed astronomer Bill Berman, who will shed light on the total solar eclipse in April, as well as three other celestial events. Later in the season, acclaimed neuroscientist Farzan Nadim discusses the biology of addiction.
Other new series’ at The Local in 2024 include two family-friendly programs, featuring a street-dance lesson led by teaching artists on the Flex’N style (Feb 4), and a found-object instrument workshop and performance with Dendê’s Brazilian Recycled Sounds (April 21). Barbès x Local, a collaboration with Barbès Brooklyn, one of NYC’s most beloved music clubs, comes to the venue, including psychedelic French-Latin fusion, Southern Appalachian banjo, and legendary global hybridists. Finally, In the Round continues this year, an acoustic series that is intimate, striking, and unforgettable.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit here.
The Local’s confirmed January-June 2024 season lineup:
January
Fri., Jan. 12, 7 pm – John St. Jam: Erene Mastrangeli, Kurt & Cheryl, Abby Lappen, Bennett Harris, Matt Holloran, Jeff Entin & Bob Blum
Sun., Jan. 21, 6 pm – The Spontaneous World of Lonnie Holley
February
Thurs., Feb. 1, 7 pm – Songs of Peace & Love: Joy Clark
The Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Youth Orchestra (CCOYO) will hold its opening concert of the 2023-24 season on Saturday, January 13, 2024, under the baton of Music Director, Kirsten Marshall.
This exciting concert opens with Chaminade’s Callirhoë Ballet Suite, Mascagni and Leoncavallo’s dramatic Intermezzos, and Grieg’s thrilling Concerto in A minor with pianist and concerto competition winner, Nathaniel Shuhan.
As a playful twist in this concert’s repertoire, winners from the Top Toy Tournament Fundraiser will also be featured in Haydn’s Toy Symphony. The afternoon will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s timeless Romeo & Juliet, promising a symphony of emotions.
Now in its seventh season, the CCO Youth Orchestra is embarking on its first overseas concert tour to Italy in April, 2024. Musicians will perform free concerts in major venues in Florence and Venice, including a side-by-side concert with an Italian youth orchestra. In addition to performing, students will visit museums and historic sites, study drawing, and attend an operatic performance.
To raise funds for the trip, the CCOYO have been hosting fundraisers throughout the fall semester, including a chamber concert, coffee fundraiser, leak raking fundraiser, and more. Among these efforts is the , where the most donated nominee winners will perform one of the seven, coveted solo parts in Haydn’s Toy Symphony.
The mission of the CCO Youth Orchestra is to offer a high-quality symphony orchestra experience for youth in Ithaca and the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Now in its seventh successful season, we are thrilled to have a robust student membership of 67 players from all around Tompkins County. Our season typically includes two full-length symphonic concerts plus two run-out concerts to rural schools.
We will also be touring Italy in the Spring for our first overseas trip! Part of our mission is to bring our music to surrounding communities that might not otherwise experience live classical music and to educate and engage our students in being ambassadors of music. CCOYO students have experienced a side-by-side performance with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra as well as individual sectional coaching with CCO members.
The Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s Winter Concert be held on Saturday, January 13 at 4:00pm at Ford Hall, Ithaca College. This concert has free admission and donations are gratefully accepted.
EMPAC / Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has announced its Spring 2024 programming.
From January through May, EMPAC 2024 presents a diverse lineup of interdisciplinary programming, including concerts, film screenings, dance performances, artists’ talks, and a two-day symposium. Furthering their mission of gathering artists, thinkers, and audiences together to explore the boundaries of art, science, politics, and technology, EMPAC’s programming will keep people intrigued and entertained.
EMPAC / the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer is located on the corner of 8th Street and College Avenue in Troy. It is a 220,000-square-foot facility designed expressly for creating and presenting experimental media and performing arts. Since the building’s opening in 2008, the curatorial program has supported more than 600 performances and new works through residencies, commissions, partnerships, premieres, installations, publications, and more.
EMPAC Spring 2024 Programming
Barobar Jagtana (January 11) is a screening of Suneil Sanzgiri’s vivid trilogy of short films. He is a recipient of the UOVO Prize and his solo exhibition is currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum through May 2024. The Konkani title of the series roughly translates to “continuously surviving.” The evening screens three of his films: At Home But Not At Home (2019), Letter From Your Far-off Country (2020), and Golden Jubilee (2021), followed by a conversation with curator Vic Brooks.
Barobar Jagtana connects the childhood experience of Sanzgiri’s father at the tail-end of Portuguese occupation in Goa, India with the broader history of South Asian anti-colonial struggle. The films link past events to contemporary struggles, forging connections between solidarity movements across time with a distinct visual language.
Poetry & Fairy Tale (January 19) is a piano recital by award-winning pianist and composer Conrad Tao, hailed “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music” by New York Magazine.Tao has performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony, and his original compositions have been performed by orchestras throughout the world.
This new program combines Western repertoire and provocative contemporary works. Inspired by themes of poetry and fairy tales, Tao’s one-night-only recital tests a line-up that includes music by Johannes Brahms, Tod Moellenberg, David Fulmer, Rebecca Saunders, and Maurice Ravel.
In February, EMPAC presents Reembodied Sound 2024 (February 2-3), a two-day festival and symposium on transducer-based music and sonic art, co-presented with the Rensselaer Department of Arts. A famed member of the New York School, David Tudor pioneered transducer-based artworks in the 1960s and 70s, inspired by the work of his frequent collaborator John Cage. Tudor created Rainforest IV in 1973, which used “surface speakers” (electric transducers) to excite the sonic possibilities of such objects.
The symposium has three tracks: a remounting of Rainforest IV by students of the Rensselaer Arts Department with John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein in commemoration of its 50th anniversary in 2023, a series of demonstrations and paper presentations, selected from an open call that received 189 project submissions from around the world, with a keynote address by noted sound art scholar and composer Cathy van Eck, and a concert of transducer-based works to be announced. All activities are free and open to the public.
Grounds of Coherence #1 / but this is the language we met in (February 9) is a multifaceted evening with filmmaker Shen Xin and performer Ali Van that includes an American premiere film screening, a live performance, and the debut of their collaborative project, AX Archive. Van opens the program in a performance with Shen that aims to mirror the narrative style of Shen’s most recent film. His new short film is from the ongoing series Grounds of Coherence and explores how language can be used to create spaces of belonging. In it, myths are recited in English between two lovers, a story is narrated in Arabic, and protesters chant in regional Mandarin. The duo’s EMPAC appearance concludes with improvisation, incorporating spatialized audio.
Dancer and choreographer Ligia Lewisis at EMPAC 2024 with the first East Coast presentation of her stage production, A Plot / A Scandal (February 16 & 17). After debuting in Germany in 2022 it was recently awarded the prestigious annual Der Faust prize, citing Lewis as the “master of ceremonies.” This piece explores fantasy, pleasure, and narrative experimentation. Lewis’ prior performances in the U.S. have been called “the most vital new work…beautiful, blistering” by the New York Times.
Akoma (March 15) previews the new multimedia production from acclaimed electronic musician and Pulitzer Prize for Music finalist Jlin, and visual artist Florence To, in preparation for the upcoming tour of Jlin’s latest album of the same name. Jlin’s music is influenced by “footwork,” a genre of post-house music originating in Chicago, featuring athletic and hyperactive rhythmic drive. For this concert, Florence To designed an interactive landscape of sound and light mapped onto various surfaces and lighting rigs that respond to Jlin’s music.
EMPAC-commissioned concert Susceptible Chambers (April 5) by composer-performers Antonia Barnett-McIntosh and Jessie Marino is continuing the season’s theme of sonic exploration through everyday objects. It begins with the reconstruction of a simple microphone and expands into technologies from different eras, like pulley systems, pianolas, needlepoint, and sodium vapor lamps. Barnett-McIntosh and Marino create a new performance that draws the audience into an unusual and playful sonic and visual world, experimenting with and challenging accepted practices of today’s electronic music and contemporary music more broadly. They also present an open studio and talk (January 17) at the start of the season.
Space Carcasses (April 23) by performing artist and choreographer Onye Ozuzuis a work-in-progress dance performance that explores how architectures haunt the body and impart their histories to us as physical effects. The work includes a virtual, composite space layered with audiovisual data from three different architectural sites. Space Carcasses is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project with an international society of co-commissioners that includes dance centers across the states. At EMPAC, this free presentation offers a window into Ozuzu’s research, development, and production of Space Carcasses, including how the artist and EMPAC production teams are engineering a “sound dancer” using EMPAC’s spatialization sound technology.
Iconic Afro-gothic composer and vocalist M. Lamar closes out EMPAC’s Spring 2024 season with Machines and other intergalactic technologies of the spirit (May 3), the third collaboration with experimental music duo The Living Earth Show, as part of their ongoing residency at EMPAC. Lamar gains the production backing to put on his largest-scaled work to date: an evening of psychedelic rock, noise music, opera, and doom metal, drawing conceptually on the “Astro-Black mythology” of the visionary jazz artist Sun Ra.
Lamar performs in a 15-foot tall rocketship-boat-coffin structure, with images of outer space as popularized by mass media over the years, ancient Egypt, and pre-Atlantic Christianity. The performance is a follow-up to M Lamar and The Living Earth Show’s 2019 Met Cloisters collaboration, Lordship and Bondage: The Birth of The Negro Superman.
The EMPAC Spring 2024 season also presents a curated set of lectures, with appearances from composer and artist Marina Rosenfeld, giving a work-in-progress talk that takes her decades-long work with dubplates into new visual and sonic territory (January 24); scholar André Lepecki, on choreographic works that challenge the ideas of time as a technology for policing movement (January 25); Marina Vishmidt, on art, labor, and value, reflecting on projects from EMPAC’s archive (February 22); Ezekiel Dixon-Román, on computation influenced by black radical anti-colonial thought, cybernetics, and critical philosophies of technology (March 21); and Peli Grietzer, on art’s structures concerning architectures of artificial intelligence (April 11).
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit here.
Ireland-based cinematic, melancholic pop group The Coronas have supported Bruce Springsteen in front of more than 65,000 people in London’s Hyde Park, played for President Joe Biden in County Mayo during his visit to his ancestral home in Ireland, and made chart history as being the first independent Irish band with three consecutive topping the charts. They have announced they are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a special show at the Bowery Ballroom.
Voted #1 Live Act of the Year by Hot Press Magazine, one of Ireland’s best-loved bands The Coronas has no intention of slowing down, continuing tours in Europe and the States this March. They are fresh off a series of huge summer shows and festival appearances that included the iconic Electric Picnic Festival and Glasgow’s TRNSMT.
The Coronas is comprised of lead vocalist/guitarist Danny O’Reilly, bass guitarist Graham Knox, and drummer Conor Egan. They are returning to North America to begin a run of shows on March 5, 2024, culminating with St. Patrick’s Day at the Bowery Ballroom. They last toured the U.S., a year ago, but this past March performed at the celebrated pre-Academy Awards “Oscar Wilde Party” in Los Angeles and squeezed in an SRO nightclub show in Hollywood as part of this extraordinary year.
Last month the band released The Best of the Early Days, a compilation of records from the band’s first three albums, plus a special never-before-released album closer “One Last Time.” All of the tracks were released on vinyl for the first time, in addition to CD format, and via all digital platforms. Four songs each come from their 2007 debut Heroes or Ghosts, their 2009 breakthrough Tony Was an Ex-Con (winner of Best Album at 2010’s Meteor Awards, for which they beat U2 and Snow Patrol) and 2011’s Closer To You, their first Irish chart-topper, all chapters in an extraordinary, near 20-year career.
We loved listening back to our early albums and remembering the wild times we had making them. The three of us met at school, and we were still kids when we started the band. Choosing which songs to include was the hard part – each of us has our favourites. All of the songs are packed with memories of gigs we played, places we’ve been and the mates we’ve made along the way. We couldn’t make music like that anymore, but we wouldn’t change a thing. Every song has its place in The Coronas’ history. Hearing them together is a reminder of what we’ve achieved and how far we’ve come.
Danny O’Reilly.
The new song “One Last Time,” once known as “Bonus Night,” was recorded during the Tony Was An Ex-Con sessions. “We always loved it,” explained Danny, “but at the time we felt that ‘Warm’ was the album’s acoustic moment and having another stripped-back song would have been too much. It has a beautiful string arrangement by James Hallawell. It’s a Coronas gem that I’m delighted we can finally share with our fans.”
An eighth Coronas studio album is in the works to kick off the next 20 years. For more information about the band, visit here.
The Coronas Tour Dates
December 21—Vicar Street, Dublin, Ireland December 28—INEC Arena, Killarney, Ireland March 5, 2024—Empty Bottle, Chicago March 6—Shank Hall, Milwaukee, WI March 8—The Great Hall, Toronto, ON, Canada March 12—The Foundry, Philadelphia March 13—Atlantis, Washington, DC March 15—Brighton Music Hall, Boston March 17—Bowery Ballroom, New York City
To close out 2023 and ring in 2024 in Saranac Lake, the annual New Year’s Eve Bash at the Waterhole Music Lounge will feature not one but two bands – both with sets of brothers who have a history of rowdy and raucous performances in the North Country music scene. This year, The Mallett Brothers Band will bring along special guests DiTrani Brothers, who will start the night off at The Waterhole on Sunday, December 31.
With a sound that comes from deep in Maine, The Mallett Brothers Band have a style that ranges from alt-country to Americana, country, jam and roots rock, a musical melting pot influenced equally by singer/songwriter tradition as harder rock, classic country and psychedelic sounds.
A busy tour schedule has helped Mallett Brothers Band build a dedicated fan base across the US – including The Waterhole – and beyond while still calling the state of Maine their home.
Formed in 2009 in Portland, Maine,The Mallet Brothers Bandis an independent, nationally touring country rock and roll band consisting of brothers Luke and Will Mallet (vocals, acoustic and electric guitar), Nick Leen (bass), Andrew Martelle (fiddle, mandolin, guitar), and Brian Higgins (drums).
Kicking off the New Year’s Bash will be The DiTrani Brothers. Hailing from Brattleboro, Vermont they are no strangers to the North Country music scene. Most recently they performed at the 2023 Northern Current Community Music Festival, Party on the Patio, and the 2022 Bloody Mary Sunday Party at the Waterhole.
The band bends melodies and driving rhythms, playing perilous tunes for the hopeful. Drawing influences from Western and Eastern-European folk music, Roa Swing, early American Jazz, Ragtime and Balkan music. The band delivers both wistful and raucous performances that allude to past traditions with a contemporary sentiment.
Doors for this performance will open at 7:30, music will begin at 8:30 pm. Tickets are $15 flat rate and can be purchased at the downstairs bar in person in Saranac Lake, or by visiting the Waterhole website.
The infamous Gospel voices of Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Jonathan McReynolds, Erica Campbell, Israel Houghton, and Jekalyn Carr, have announced their 2024 One Hallelujah tour, with a stop at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.
Hailed as the Top Gospel Artist of the Decade by Billboard, Tasha Cobbs Leonard has built her career on larger-than-life performances and powerhouse vocals that will get everyone dancing on their feet.
Jonathan McReynolds has maintained an incredible voice and a beautifully honest approach to songwriting. He made his way from dorm room performances to Christian music’s biggest stages.
Erica Campbell is an American Gospel singer, songwriter, talk show host, and First Lady. Specializing in the urban contemporary gospel, Christian R&B, and contemporary R&B genres, she started her music career in 1998 with her younger sister, Tina Campbell, as part of the group Mary Mary.
Israel Houghton is a GRAMMY award-winning American Christian music recording artist, songwriter, producer, composer, worship leader, and multi-instrumentalist who formed Israel & New Breed, a music group and ministry organization that has produced gold-selling albums.
Tickets are available now. Artist presales began on Wednesday, December 13, and additional presales have run throughout the week ahead of the general on-sale on Friday, December 15 at Ticketmaster.com.
ONE HALLELUJAH TOUR 2024 DATES:
Wed Mar 06 — Boston, MA — MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Thu Mar 07 — Philadelphia, PA — The Met
Fri Mar 08 — Brooklyn, NY — Kings Theatre
Sat Mar 09 — Washington, D.C. — The Theater at MGM National Harbor
Tue Mar 12 — Charlotte, NC — Ovens Auditorium
Wed Mar 13 — Raleigh, NC — Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts
Fri Mar 15 — Miami, FL — James L. Knight Center
Sun Mar 17 — Jacksonville, FL — Moran Theater
Thu Mar 21 — Indianapolis, IN — Murat Theatre at Old National Center
Fri Mar 22 — St. Louis, MO — Stifel Theatre
Sat Mar 23 — Memphis, TN — Orpheum Theatre
Sun Mar 24 — Cincinnati, OH — The Andrew J Brady Music Center
Thu Mar 28 — Evans, GA — Columbia County Performing Arts Center
Fri Mar 29 — Atlanta, GA — Coca-Cola Roxy
Sat Mar 30 — Birmingham, AL — BJCC Concert Hall
Thu Apr 04 — Chicago, IL — Chicago Auditorium Theatre
Fri Apr 05 — Detroit, MI — Fisher Theatre
Sat Apr 06 — Columbus, OH — Mershon Auditorium
Sun Apr 07 — Nashville, TN — Opry House
Tue Apr 09 — New Orleans, LA — Saenger Theatre
Wed Apr 10 — Houston, TX — Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
Thu Apr 11 — Dallas, TX — The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Fri Apr 19 — Phoenix, AZ — Arizona Financial Theatre
In February and March 2024, the Grammy award-winning brothers Damian “Jr Gong” Marley and Stephen “Ragga” Marley will launch their exclusive Traffic Jam Tour across North America. This is the first time the brothers have jointly presented a curated set, offering a unique showcase to their fans. The tour includes a stop at Brooklyn Paramount.
Multi-GRAMMY-winning talent, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley is a highly acclaimed Jamaican singer, songwriter, and producer. He is the youngest son of the revered legend, Bob Marley. His musical style fuses reggae with elements of dancehall, hip-hop, R&B, and rock, crafting a fresh and modern sound that is uniquely his own.
Damian was the first ever Reggae artist to win a GRAMMY AWARD outside of the Reggae category. The acclaimed 2005 breakthrough disc, Welcome To Jamrock, won a GRAMMY Award for Best Reggae Album, with the New York Times naming the track “the best reggae song of the decade.”
Stephen “Ragga” Marley is a world-renowned singer, songwriter, and producer whose work has earned no fewer than eight GRAMMY Awards. Born into a musical family, Stephen is the child of reggae legends Bob Marley and Rita Marley. In 2008, he released his first solo album, Mind Control, which won the GRAMMY Award for Best Reggae Album. His subsequent solo albums include Mind Control Acoustic, Revelation Part I: The Root of Life, and Revelation Part II: The Fruit of Life. Stephen’s first new full-length album in more than seven years, Old Soul, was released on September 15 via Tuff Gong Collective/UMe/Ghetto Youths International.
Stephen champions charitable endeavors centered in Jamaica as a co-founder of the Ghetto Youths Foundation, along with his brothers Damian and Julian Marley. In 2017, Stephen established Kaya Fest: an annual music festival that features special guests and rare family performances, all with the larger purpose of raising awareness around the benefits of cannabis, guided by the mantra “Education Before Recreation.”
The seamless shows in the Traffic Jam Tour will feature a special curated set list of both brothers’ catalogs and a medley of their father Bob Marley’s classics. Damian and Stephen Marley have written and performed a multitude of singles together over the last two decades, including the most recent collaboration, “Cast The First Stone” from Stephen Marley’s new LP Old Soul. The brothers wrote/produced/performed on the anthemic GRAMMY-winning reggae classic “Welcome To Jamrock,” in addition to timeless compositions like “Medication,” “Grown & Sexy,” “All Night,” “It Was Written,” and, of course, “Traffic Jam.”
DAMIAN + STEPHEN MARLEY: TRAFFIC JAM TOUR DATES:
Fri, Feb 16: Long Beach, CA – Cali Vibes Fest*
Sat, Feb 17: Stateline, NV – Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival*
Sun, Feb 18: Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues Las Vegas
Wed, Feb 21: San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
Thu, Feb 22: Wheatland, CA – Hard Rock Live Sacramento
Sat, Feb 24: Boise, ID – Revolution Concert House & Event Center
Sun, Feb 25: Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
Mon, Feb 26: Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
Tue, Feb 27: Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Sun, Mar 17: St Petersburg, FL – Reggae Rise Up Florida*
Tue, Mar 19: Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore Philadelphia
Wed, Mar 20: Washington D.C. – The Fillmore Silver Spring
Sat, Mar 23: Boston, MA – Citizens House of Blues Boston
Mon, Mar 25: Toronto, ON – HISTORY
Tue, Mar 26: Montreal, QC – MTELUS
Wed, Mar 27: Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
Fri, Mar 29: Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit
Sat, Mar 30: Chicago, IL – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
The Heart of Rock and Roll, a jukebox musical featuring songs from the GRAMMY Award-winning band Huey Lewis and the News, is coming to Broadway this spring.
Matt Doyle and members of the Old Globe company of “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” 2018. Credit: Jim Cox.
The show will begin performances on March 29, 2024, ahead of an opening night on April 22 at the James Earl Jones Theatre. The musical premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in 2018, featuring a cast led by Tony winner Matt Doyle and Katie Rose Clarke. A summer 2023 workshop was led by Jonah Platt with Clarke.
The Heart of Rock and Roll tells the story of two 30-somethings each with certain plans, changing when they meet each other, set to a score of songs made famous by Huey Lewis and the News.
The Heart of Rock and Roll features a book by Jonathan A. Abrams, based on a story created by Tyler Mitchell and Abrams. Brian Usifer does the music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations, with Gordon Greenberg directing and choreography by Lorin Latarro. The musical is also being produced by Hunter Arnold, Mitchell, and Kayla Greenspan.
Working on our show has been so gratifying. I’ve always been a storyteller, and it’s a thrill to see my songs woven together in service of a fantastic, new story. That it will all take place on the world’s most prestigious stage — Broadway — just makes the ride that much sweeter.
Huey Lewis
Lewis’s tune “The Power of Love” was featured in Back to the Future on Broadway earlier this year, and in the original movie as well. “The Power of Love,” as well as “Workin’ for a Livin’,” “Stuck with You,” “If This Is It” and the musical’s title tune are among the Huey Lewis and the News songs that will be featured in The Heart of Rock and Roll.
Casting for the Broadway production, as well as additional creative team members, will be announced soon. To purchase tickets and find more information, visit here.
