Dionne Farris & The Russell Gunn Quartet

This Friday & Saturday, April 26th-27th, 2013 (8 & 10 PM)
Season End Savings From Jazz Cafe– Tickets $20

Jazz Cafe is cutting ticket prices as a “Thank You to Detroit ” for a great Jazz Cafe Season, is offering $20 Tickets for the Grammy winning Dionne Farris ( ” I Know”) hybrid project with innovative and renegade trumpeter, Russell Gunn this Friday and Saturday.

2 Shows each night, Friday April 26 and Saturday April 27th 8PM & 10 PM

Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts is proud to bring legendary trumpeter and bandleader, Hugh Masekela for one night, Thursday, April 4th at 8PM. Hugh Masekela is a world-renowned flugelhornist, trumpeter, bandleader, composer, singer and defiant political voice who remains deeply connected at home, while his international career sparkles.

Over the course of a 40-year career—during which he has collaborated with a myriad of international artists from Paul Simon to Dizzie Gillespie to Ladysmith Black Mambazo to Alvin Ailey—this extraordinary trumpeter and composer has mixed the music of his native South African roots with the pop-jazz of the ‘60s to create a one of a kind world music that is uniquely his own.

This year also saw the launch of Hugh’s own record label House of Masekela. The first recording under this label is a four-CD box set Friends featuring Masekela and American pianist Larry Willis. It is a collection of 40 American jazz standards reinterpreted by the two musicians, whose friendship dates back more than 50 years, hence the title. Larry and Hugh played a series of concerts at The Jazz Standard to celebrate their new release.

In April 2013 Hugh will return to the U.S for an 18 city tour in support of yet another new recording, entitled “Playing @ Work”.

The Band:
Hugh Masekela Flugelhorn and lead vocals
Abednigo Sibongiseni Zulu Bass Guitar
Francis Manneh Edward Fuster Percussion and backing vocals
Cameron John Ward Lead Guitar and backing vocals
Randal Skippers Keyboards and backing vocals
Lee-Roy Sauls Drums and Backing vocals

Articulate and brilliantly musical in any number of genres, Hugh Masekela has been a defining force in world music, the preservation of South Africa’s musical heritage, the safety and well-being of it’s poorest citizens as well as the struggle for freedom and human rights both in Africa, and around the world.

Tickets are $27- $37- $47 available at Music Hall Box Office or www.ticketmaster.com

Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts
Jazz Café
350 Madison
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 887-8501
www.musichall.org

(Detroit, MI) Producers Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith presents an encore one week return engagement of the hit multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway musical FELA! at the historic Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, with -opening Tuesday, February 12th, with performances through Sunday, February 17th, 2013. Fela! is the musical, based on the life of groundbreaking African composer, performer and activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

With the phenomenal success of the 2012 run at Music Hall, we are proud to bring back the same cast for a limited one week run of the Tony Winning Musical experience.
This run will feature Michelle Williams, the Grammy winner and former Destiny’s Child member, will play Sandra Isadore, show producers Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and Ruth and Stephen Hendel announced on January 3rd. Sandra is the love interest to Fela Kuti.

– Music Hall once again will advance this one week run with it’s effective and innovative series of educational outreach appearances in local High Schools which gives young people a connection between Fela’s music and his human rights activism through live music and dance which helps tell the story of this charismatic musician/activist.

Fela! is the true story of the legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms ignited a generation, is a triumphant tale of courage, passion and love, featuring Kuti’s captivating music and the visionary direction and choreography of Tony Award-winner Bill T. Jones.Inspired by his mother, a civil rights champion, Kuti defied a corrupt and oppressive military government and devoted his life and music to the struggle for freedom and human dignity.

The Music Hall performances will feature the best of both the Broadway and London casts as the theater will be transformed into the set of a Fela Kuti stadium concert in 1976. The kinetic and sensual Afrobeat rhythms provide a mesmerizing soundtrack which help tell the story of this phenomenal musician, composer, agitprop firebrand, human rights pioneer and husband to as many of 27 wives, who not only changed the face of music, but also his home country of Nigeria.
FELA! is directed and choreographed by Tony Award®-winner Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones. Sahr Ngaujah (2010 Tony Award-nominee for Best Actor in a Musical) plays the title character (replaced at some performances by Adesola Osakalumi) Melanie Marshall shines as Fela’s feminist activist mother, who looms large in the story, providing a conscience and angelic presence to the frenetic and whirlwind pace of the overall narrative. Songs include “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense,” “Suffering and Smiling,” “Sorrow, Tears and Blood/Shine, “International Thief,” The Fela! Afrobeat rhythms are infectious and sensual, led by musical director-orchestrator-conductor Aaron Johnson’s 10-piece band, the snaking and hypnotic blend of R & B, Jazz and traditional African rhythms will transport you to the humid, smoky environs of a Lagos Nightclub.

See a preview from the Broadway Smash here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqnQC3RODl0

Official Website with various media
http://www.felaonbroadway.com

FELA! Performance Schedule
Tuesdays — Fridays at 8:00pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00pm & 8:00 pm

Tickets are $30, $40, $50, $75, $100 available at Music Hall Box Office 313 887-8501 / www.felaonbroadway.com or www.ticketmaster.com

For more information vista www.sayyeahyeah.com for all things Fela! Detroit

(Detroit, MI) Jazz Café welcomes back, M.F. Production’s Latin Jazz All Stars for one hot and spicy night – and two shows, Saturday, January 26, 2013 with two sets 8pm and 10pm

M.F. Production’s Latin Jazz All Stars are a phenomenal ensemble that features the current masters of Afro Cuban, Salsa, Brazilian, and Latin Jazz. This year’s version includes Jazz Cafe veterans, pianist, Arturo O’Farrill and percussionist, Chembo Corniel who have each headed their own groups here, are joined by Flautist, Nestor Torres and Steve Berrios on drums.

The Latin Jazz All Stars are a phenomenal ensemble that features the current masters of Afro Cuban, Salsa, Brazilian, and Latin Jazz. Combined, these talented musicians have played with an enormous range of greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Candido, Art Blakey, Grover Washington, Max Roach, Paquito D’Rivera, Paul Simon and Dionne Warwick just to name a few.

Arturo O’Farrill is a Jazz Café favorite, who recently played the Jazz Café earlier this Fall with his blistering trio and will lead this iteration of the Latin Jazz All Stars with his Afro-Cuban flavored playing which is second to none in the idiom. Grammy Award nominated, Conga-playing Chembo Corniel divides his performance time between his two musical loves: Latin jazz and “old-fashioned salsa that swings.”

Line up-
Nestor Torres – Flute
Arturo O’Farrill – Piano
Chembo Corniel – Conga Drums
Steve Berrios – Drums

Tickets: $30 Advance $40 Door – Available at The Music Hall Box Office or Ticketmaster.

Jazz Café
350 Madison
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 887-8501
www.musichall.org
www.jazzcafedetroit.com