Kenya Allmond (me) » Music

Chaka Khan at the Howard Theatre

kenya — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:30:48 +0000

Chaka Khan brought it to the Howard Theatre. She sounded and looked good. I was secretly wondering if in a few months my mid section would allow me to rock this dress (but that’s neither here nor there).

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John Legend’s Marvin Gaye Tribute at the Kennedy Center

kenya — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:00:07 +0000

On May 1, 1972, Marvin Gaye made history performing his album What’s Going On at the Kennedy Center. For the 40th anniversary of that legendary concert, John Legend and the NSO Pops echoed Marvin’s performance. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings accompanied.

This was an excellent concert! It not only featured song but also moving poetry and spoken word from high school students. At one point I thought that Sharon Jones’ strong voice would outdo John Legend but he held his own. After intermission, the crew forgot to place Legend’s sheet music. I was impressed when I realized that he was playing without it when I saw someone run out and place it on his piano.

Video: Dance DC Festival

#INTERSECTIONSDC Duke Ellington School of the Arts

kenya — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:00:01 +0000

The Country Shook and the Children Hollered

Outstanding young artists revisit and rework the American conversation as posed by Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Marvin Gaye and more, seizing their own distinctly American tradition.

#INTERSECTIONSDC Marc Avon Evans

kenya — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 02:00:32 +0000

Baltimore based indie and international recording artist Marc Avon Evans and his acoustic band bring an eclectic blend of city soul to DC. Experience what has made his Baltimore series, Acoustic Thursdays, so popular.

#INTERSECTIONSDC Liner Notes

kenya — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 02:00:25 +0000

Paige Hernandez directs a musical journey through hip-hop’s many intersections when multiple artists join The Corner Store Jazz Trio to breathe life into a fading art – the liner note.

#INTERSECTIONSDC Final Weekend Picks

kenya — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:00:50 +0000

I’ll be out of town for SXSW this weekend and won’t be able to attend the INTERSECTIONS festival for its final weekend. If I was attending INTERSECTIONS, though, I would check out the following performances:

3/8 Thursday

3/9 Friday

3/10 Saturday

3:00 Cafe Concert: AC in DC
3:30 Charles H. Clyburn: Family Folktales
4:00 Reverb & Euphonism: Intersecting A Capella
5:00 Cafe Concert: CASA’s Contemporary A Capella League
7:00 Cafe Concert: Alpha Dog Blues Acoustic
7:30 Imani: Colors of Sound
10:30 Open Jazz Jam Session with the Brad Linde Trio

3/11 Sunday

#INTERSECTIONSDC Weekend 2 Highlights

kenya — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:00:35 +0000

Students and representatives of Critical Exposure were on hand to talk about their photography exhibit at the Atlas. The organization seeks to empower youth through photography. On this larger view of the image featured above you can read what the student wrote. Critical Exposure has worked w/ more than 800 students in DC, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philly, Austin and Albequerque.
Marc Avon Evans gave a cafe concert and Quynn Johnson from Just Tap accompanied on percussion.
Students from Duke Ellington School of the Arts gave an inspiring performance complete with live music, vocalist, dance, poetry, spoken word in The Country Shook and the Children Hollered.
B-Fly Entertainment schooled us on the intersection between jazz and hip hop with live music, vocalist, monologue, spoken word and rap.
The Pushovers gave a concert to a packed Kogod Lobby while Tom Goss gave an energetic concert to a sold out crowd in the Lang Theatre.
DCypher Dance set the stage on fire in Access Granted. The after party was pretty hot too.
Zipzap Circus‘ aerialist awed the crowd in Airborne while raising money for the Zipzap Circus USA organization.
Dissonance Dance Theatre gave an riveting performance inspired by film in Cinema.
Jose Herrera Trio jammed with musicians who showed up for the Open Jazz Jam Session. Quynn Johnson from Just Tap and dancers from Dissonance Dance Theatre joined in the festivities.
Arena Stage’s Voice of Now performed with a packed house. (Seriously, I couldn’t get in.)
The Junior Division of American Youth Chorus sang blues, jazz and swing songs.
alight dance theater, DancEthos & Glade Dance Collective gave powerful and moving performances in Life in Motion: A Trio in Perspectives. alight’s Speechless was moving and DancEthos’ Unsung was powerful.

There’s only one more weekend left to enjoy the festivities at INTERSECTIONS!

#INTERSECTIONSDC Weekend 2 Picks

kenya — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:30:05 +0000

Music, dancers, aerialists, theatre and happy hour: what more could you ask for? Here are my picks for the upcoming weekend:

Thursday 3/1

Friday 3/2

Saturday 3/3

Sunday 3/4

See you at the Atlas! If you see me there, don’t be afraid to say “Hi”.

#INTERSECTIONSDC Cafe Concerts

kenya — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:52:49 +0000

A sampling of Cafe Concerts at the INTERSECTIONS festival at the Atlas:

Intersection of Music and Spontaneity

Open Jazz Jam Session

Little Red and the Renegades

Spontaneous Dancing

#INTERSECTIONSDC Weekend 1 Highlights

kenya — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:00:05 +0000

INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival set out to feature a dynamic and diverse multidisciplinary arts line-up that reveals the collaborative energy of artists and audiences from DC and beyond in 12 days of boundary-crossing performances and events. Below are some highlights from the first weekend:

Actor Stephen Lang, of Avatar and Terra Nova fame, did an excellent performance of Robert Browning’s The Piped Piper along with the one man band that is Tom Teasley. While Lang is a masterful actor (who knew he started on stage), Teasley was masterful as well playing instruments with both hands, feet and mouth. And when the rats left town, it really sounded like rats.
Bowen McCauley Dance intersected dance, music and painting into a performance about a voyage to the Grand Canyon.
The In Series opened Shuffle to Show Boat, a musical revue of 1920s Broadway. I was thrilled that music featured included that of W.C. Handy, Eubie Blake and “Fats” Waller. (That’s that jazz history class I took as an elective at UDC coming out.) There are more shows available in the festival.
Then the opening party rocked with Little Red and the Renegades. They have a woman playing a steel drum and Little Red has the voice of an old Blues singer.
Capital City Symphony & Graffito had me in awe as they combined classical and rock music.
Folger Shakespeare Library featured poets talking about a variety of subjects from Phyllis Hyman to jumping turnstiles (and subway spooning) to Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
Nasar Abadey and SUPERNOVA performed with Synchronicity and Divine Order for the first time. It was an awesome concert! (Speaking of Jazz History class, the musical director and pianist for both SUPERNOVA and Divine Order, Allyn Johnson was in that very same jazz history class I mentioned above.) Definitely look out for all three groups especially Synchronicity, a group of sistas playing violins and a cello. Also look out for soloist Lori Williams.
Christylez Bacon and Washington Sound Museum intersected classical, jazz, Piedmont Blues, gogo, hip hop and Irish dance music. I don’t know how but it was hot!
And musicians just showed up and started playing with the Rodney Richardson Trio for the Open Jazz Jam Session. I even saw that John Williams from SUPERNOVA left his concert and joined the jam session. Jam sessions are also scheduled for the two remaining Saturdays in the festival.
Tom Teasley did his one man band thing again to tell the story of Prince Achmed as he accompanied the full length film. He has several more performances in the festival.
And New Galaxy Theatre Group gave us some hip hop theatre with Slam Theatre 2.0: The Miseducation … Each of the sketches are named for a song on Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill but not necessarily the message she was conveying which turns out to be a good thing. It was hilarious! The New Galaxy Theatre Group will appear several more times in the festival.

How is that for diverse boundary-crossing? That was a whirlwind and it was only the first weekend! There are two more weekends remaining in the festival. I need to rest up.

I hope to see you at the Atlas.

Kenya Allmond (me) » Music

Chaka Khan at the Howard Theatre

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