Sands is a two-time Grammy nominee: Best Jazz Album for his work on Christian McBride’s Out Here in 2013 and for Best Instrumental Composition for Be Water II from his 2020 album Be Water. He’s been recording his own albums since 2002’s Footprints. Sands is considered one of the finest musicians of his generation.

We spoke with him about collaborating with Bridgewater and Elling; his view of music’s ability to bridge divides and what it takes to bring an audience with an artist. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

I want to ask you about something you posted on your Facebook account in August. It was a quote by Langston Hughes. “An artist must be free to choose what he does. Certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.” How does that thought process serve as a guiding principle for you? And if it does, how does that inspire the choices you make, both in the short term and the long term for you as a person and as a musician? 

Well, it really speaks into just the reflection of who you are as an individual and just being secure in your decisions and your creative process and being truly who you are. For myself it’s been a journey discovering that. For everyone, you know, but me as a creative it’s something where you believe one thing and then all of sudden, maybe something in your life or some event or something you’ve come across changes that or shifts that. So now you have to discover what does that mean.

How do I take in this information? How do I use this? Is this information usable? It’s that way with music, it’s that way with life, it’s that way with anything; relationships, with people, as a performer with people that you meet, audience members or band members. Life takes you on a different journey. So what I try to do is to just say, “Hey, okay, this is an obstacle and this is a challenge and let’s rise to the occasion and see if we can do it.” You know sometimes you’ll be surprised that you actually will rise even higher than you thought you would.

As part of the Monterey Jazz Festival on tour you get to work with Dee Dee Bridgewater and Kurt Elling, who I think we can safely say are standard bearers of heavily-rooted jazz traditions in what they do. What is the dialogue you hope to create with them between their traditions and the direction you would like to see music go? 

We’re all friends. I’ve known them for quite some time. I look up to them as mentors. I’ve looked up to them as leaders in this music – people that have paved the way for the generations after them to present and express themselves the way they do. With that being said, it’s an honor to be making music with them and to be the musical director for them. And it’s a lot of fun because they’re very vocal, they’re very animated, they’re very charismatic and they’re very involved. Which is wonderful because they will let me know things that they want to try.

The great thing about working with Dee Dee and Kurt is that they are so open to trying new things. If anything, more new things than what I feel maybe some audience members are comfortable with. Which is an amazing thing because me, being in a different generation, I can push and pull and challenge them in a way. They are more than happy to do so. So it’s actually a really fun environment to work in and to just collaborate with these two artists is really incredible.

What is an example of something that Dee Dee might want to do that would be outside the comfort zone of what people might expect her to do?

If I say to Dee Dee I’m thinking about doing this Jefferson Airplane thing, she’s like, absolutely cool, you know? Or if I say to Kurt I’m thinking about doing this Brian McKnight thing, you know, like I heard this and I want to kind of do an arrangement of it. He’s like, absolutely, let’s try that. Let’s check it out and see what we can do.

How do the six of you choose what’s going to be the right vibe for each evening’s show?

Being the musical director it is my job and my duty to try to figure this out. It is such a wonderful challenge to have. When you’re dealing with these amazing artists on stage who have these different ways of expression, really the music can go anywhere. So you will hear some standards. You will hear some original compositions. We’re representing the Monterey Jazz Festival, so we will be paying homage to the past and we will be reinventing or re-imagining some songs that may have been performed at the festivals. Music by Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday. So we do have that. Then also we have our own stuff as well that we’re working out. So I am up to my neck in possibilities. Just in case the crowd shifts, I could say, let’s play this or let’s do this. Or let’s feature Lakecia and Yasushi on this. So there’s different ways to skin a cat, as they say.

You’ve studied with with Jason Moran and you also studied with Dr. Billy Taylor and Vijay Iyer. A trio of musicians who all have enormous similarities and equally enormous differences, both in terms of how they play and how they look at music. How do you feel your learning from them is exhibited through the work you now do as a musician?

With Dr. Billy Taylor’s business, you know, I’ve learned a lot from him on the business side of it. Just being an artist and being in meetings, being in the boardroom, curating different things. You know, the wonderful thing about Vijay, Jason and myself, we’re all products of Dr. Taylor. [He] was the one that came before us that really established the groundwork on what we do as pianists, as composers, as arrangers, as people that curate music and bring music into a place that may not have anything that exists there.

Studying with Jason Moran, pianistically it was still steeped in the tradition. It was just a different version of it. What he brings to it is visual art. And he brings very different, I won’t even say different, it’s just the other hand, you know. If you have the right hand, it’s just the left hand. That’s it. It’s a beautiful complement to that.

Vijay Iyer is also sort of in the middle of that. I’ve also had teachers like Dave Brubeck, like Geri Allen as well. They all have shaped how I interpret, how I present the music, how I talk about the music, how I feel about the music, the possibilities that you could have. The great thing about Jason Moran is Jason lets you know that the possibilities with music are something that’s malleable and have no limit. You can put it in any space. You can bring it anywhere. You can touch it if you want to. You can smell it. You can taste it. 

All these these geniuses have brought a certain way of presenting the music and also are just absolutely amazing. They’re all steeped in the history. When you think of Jason Moran, you think of Thelonious Monk. When you think of Geri Allen, you think of Herbie Hancock, you think of Bud Powell. When you think of Dr. Billy Taylor, you think of Art Tatum, you think of Earl Hines, you think of Erroll Garner. When you think of Count Basie, you think of Fats Waller. So there’s all these people that come through Duke Ellington and so now we get to me. So hopefully you think of all these people when you hear me. All of my influences, all the people that I love, all the people that I admire, all the people I respect as well.

What do you think of when you think of your music?

I just think of me. That’s the honest answer. I think of just what I’ve been through in my life and where I would like to go. So that’s my music. So any time you listen to me you’re hearing me.

You’ve talked on multiple occasions about Dr. Taylor telling you that one of your jobs is about bringing the audience along with you. What are the challenges that you and any other jazz musician faces in accomplishing that? What do you think is the best way to realize that advice he gave you?

I think it’s something that you have to have patience and awareness to do. Some some artists don’t care, right? Some artists like I play what I play and it is what it is. And you like it or you don’t, you know? I want to bring you into the fold. So this is how we do that. I think there’s different versions of it. With Dr. Taylor I would watch him, before playing a song, talk about what you were going to hear. He would literally break it down for you. Then you get some people that don’t say anything and just play – which is also an experience in itself as well. So it really depends on how you want to present the music. I do a little bit of both. Sometimes I feel like talking and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I’ll tell the audience I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to play. You’re just going to have to be open and listen to it and see what you think because I know you’re going to like it.

It’s been a couple of years since you’ve had a new album out. You posted on January 1st on your Instagram account that it was time to start new work. What can we look forward to after this tour?

There’s a lot of new music I’ve been writing. I’m working on a couple different projects. So be on the lookout for good things. I have a couple of albums that I’m trying to do this year – so you might get more than one which will be a lot of fun. It’s a lot of work, but I’m excited. I’m inspired. Now I live in Los Angeles, so there’s new experiences and new new feelings and new things to write about. So I’m looking forward to presenting my findings and my experiences and just having a ball creating.

I know one of your passions is photography. How does photography find its way into your music and perhaps how does your music might find its way into your photography? 

It’s a little bit of both. With photography what I love about it is the discovery of composition; looking for different different angles to look at something. It all depends on what you’re really looking for out of that subject. That’s the same thing with the music, whether it’s an original composition or a song that’s been done countless times. That’s the subject, but how do we make this unique? What are the angles that I need? What is the lighting that I need? What is the the shading?

When I say lighting and shading, I’m talking about harmony, I’m talking about rhythm. How do I approach this to make it my own? How much do I need? Why does this mean something to me? Trying to understand that.

I also cook as well. So it’s also doing that in the kitchen. Everything kind of goes hand in hand from cooking. What spices do I need? How do I season this? How do I sear this? How do I do this to create this thing? Then the end result is this great meal. The end result is this great song. The end result is this great photo.

In an interview you did in 2017 with Ralph A. Miriello you were talking about how you wanted “to represent America and where I am from.” Where do you see America as we start 2023? How does that influence how you want to express yourself?

As always, there’s a lot to do in America. But I believe that we have the capability to do all of it. If anything, music and art have taught us that we all have compassion and we are looking for the same things. We all are trying to reach for the same goals. We are all trying to come together as one. We do need to remember to do that. I do believe that there is potential and I do believe that there is a way of coming together to resolve some of the issues that we have.

There’s also some things that are very sensitive that we have to understand. These are different times. I believe that with communication, trust and love, that anything can be accomplished. That’s what I’m looking forward to for the rest of the year. And I believe that we will be able to reflect that in the art that we create.

In Hazrat Inayat Khan’s Mysticism of Sound & Music, a book I know you love, there is a line that you’ve highlighted on social media, “The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature – how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion – the more one sees that it is all music.” What role can and should music play in getting us to a place where that line can serve as inspiration for finding our commonality in spite of divergent perspectives on the world we live in?

I believe music, it always does that. Music has never not been the bridge between things that went unsaid. Music has always been that instrument that when there are no words and there’s no way to express, we do it this way. We do it through music. We do it through art. We do it through film. We do it through painting, drawing. We do it through photography. We do it through different mediums. But with music I believe it’s one of the most important ways of expressing yourself because it really allows you to fully understand in a sound what is happening. You can resolve anything with music, you can resolve complications, but you have to be open to what that resolve is going to be. You can always do it within music. I believe music is the bridge between it all.

As long as whoever is hearing it is willing to actually listen.

Absolutely. Absolutely. 

To see the full interview with Christian Sands, please go here.

Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour itinerary: January 19th: McCallum Theatre in Palm Springs; January 20th: Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; January 21st: Fox Tuscon Theatre in Tucson; January 23rd: Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City; January 25th: Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA; January 26th: Balboa Theatre in San Diego; January 27th: Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, CA; January 29th: Campbell Hall at UCSB in Santa Barbara. There’s a second leg of the tour beginning on April 6th in Hartford, CT and continuing through April 23rd in Detroit. For that itinerary, please go here.

Main Photo: Christian Sands (Photo by Anna Webber/Courtesy Music Works International)

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Or perhaps you know the MONK’estra that celebrates the music of Thelonious Monk and has also recorded Beasley’s music. Which gives us another way to know him – through his compositions. Some of that work having appeared in his work as a composer/arranger for film and television.

One of his biggest projects is his collaboration with legendary jazz musician and composer Chucho Valdés on the over hour-long opus La Creación. It’s a three-movement suite that explores the Afro-Cuban religion Santería and the creation story of Regla de Ocha.

The work had its world premiere in Paris last year. Valdés starts a short US tour this Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl where La Creación will be performed. Beasley, along with co-arranger/music director Hilario Durán, will be on stage with Valdés, MONK’estra and the Yoruban band. After Los Angeles La Creación will be performed at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland on September 22nd, the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 23rd, The Rose Theatre in New York on October 7th and 8th, Berklee Performance Center in Boston on October 14th, the Kennedy Center on October 16th and the Chicago Symphony Center on October 18th.

Last week I spoke with Beasley about Valdés and the creation of La Creación. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Chucho Valdes is quoted as saying about La Creación, “This work is very significant to me. I think it’s my masterpiece – so far.” What does that tell you about this legendary musician and composer that, as he approaches the age of 81, he’s still thinking forward by saying “so far?”

The guy lives and breathes music. He told me during the pandemic he was still practicing 6 to 8 hours a day: couple of hours in the morning, a couple hours after lunch, a couple hours after dinner.

So that tells me something right there. He’s still interested and still wanting to get better. 

When in the creation of La Creación did you first get involved and what was your first reaction to the music?

I got involved before he even started writing. It was January of 2020 and it was supposed to be premiered that fall in Paris. Of course, the pandemic happened. So he didn’t really start writing again until 2021. At first I thought it was going to be an opera – the story of of rhythm from the Yoruban culture to the Cuba Santeria up through New York to jazz up till now. It’s turned into this suite now which I think is a lot more interesting and easier to travel with for sure. He approached me about arranging it and orchestrating it in New Orleans that year. He sent me a lead sheet and he said, “Just go, man, you know, just do your thing.” And so I started working on it and marked it up for him in Sibelius and sent it back and we went back and forth a few times.He pretty much gave Hilario and I free rein in a way.

How much of the score is formally written?

It’s a jazz piece. The solos are all improvised. The first movement is a long sort of prayer, if you will, a call and that’s improvised with me and Chucho and the rhythm section. That’s probably 10 minutes at least right there; sort of a free thing. That really mixes modern elements, synthesizers with the original Santería religious ceremony. There’s a long extended percussion, solos and drum solos, and then Chucho is playing a lot. 

In an interview with Jazz Times you told a story of playing next to Herbie Hancock at the Bowl and watching him get lost in the music. You said that lesson inspired you to be “sort of lost as an arranger….to arrange like an improviser.” How did that mindset come into play for La Creación?

Sort of the same way. Chuco sent me basically a lead sheet with the melody, some lines, a tempo vibe and said, just go. So I learned the piece on the piano, kind of absorbed it, and then started imagining it in my head how things could go. The way I kind of imagine having the guitar ensemble mixed with Elvin Jones, that was super important for me because my two movements in the piece, other than the beginning are sort of the modern era.

I think Elvin is super African in the way he plays and I wanted to have that happening with the jazz beat and jazz waltz and stuff like that. So much of my arranging happens away from the computer and the piano. I like that because I don’t end up writing what I already know how to play. 

What stands out to you about what Valdés has created with this work?

The breadth of it is more enormous. You put this many people together and have this vision of a local’s Santería ceremony. The ensemble with a full Latin jazz ensemble with a big band, two arrangers, two music directors, two other keyboard players. That’s a big job and to do it for his 80th birthday.

I’m still amazed with all the different stuff he does all the time. We premiered in Paris and the next day we did a whole different show of a birthday celebration show, you know, with different people, different music. It’s just amazing, you know? He’s very gracious and he’s an amazing person. People are going to really sense his humanity, I think, when they see this piece.

Many people are not familiar with La Regla de Ocha which serves as the foundation for this work. What role does the music play in not just engaging the soul or the spirit, but also in explaining or demonstrating the religious traditions of Africa that came to Cuba in the early 19^th century?

That’s really good. Well the slave trade, number one, that still has to be illuminated. People still don’t get that. It’s heartbreaking. Number two, you can’t eliminate the fact the reason why the African diaspora in the States sounds different. That’s because the slave owners didn’t allow drumming. They were afraid of it. So gospel music happens. After slavery reconstruction instruments, European instruments become what we call jazz and R&B and gospel music.

And in Brazil sort of the same thing happened. The ideal of superimposing African deities onto Christian saints. It’s all over Brazil, all over South America. The greatest thing about human suffering through all the setbacks is what’s survival with this soul intact? This beautiful art form survived all that horror. That’s amazing. It’s amazing that there’s not as much bitterness and anger as there certainly could be.

Has La Creación been recorded? If not, would a live setting be more faithful to the spirit of the work than a studio recording?

That’s interesting because it evolves every night. Every night is different. You could argue that a live recording would be really great because we feed off the audience. There’s a lot of moving parts, it’s a large ensemble, so getting everybody in one place is sort of a challenge. Something about that live energy would be great.

On the other hand, to work on multiple takes and and punch in certain sections to really make it tighter or whatever. It’s not that the live thing is not tighter. It’s just a different animal, you know? You have a lot more control in the studio. Get a nice mix going. I don’t know if there’s an answer to that.

I want to conclude our conversation by asking you about something that Thelonious Monk said. He said, “Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it. A genius is the one most like himself.” What have you and Chucho Valdés and Hilario Durán accomplished with La Creación and how do you think your work has allowed you to be the most like yourself? And perhaps by extension, according to Monk, a genius.

The gift that Chucho gave Hilario and us to take his music and do our thing is to be ourselves. It starts at the top. Chucho knows that. He’s a true artist and he knows exactly what you’re saying. And he knows that to get the best out of somebody in his own work he has to give up a part of himself and let it pay forward to the next step of the process. He did that and that’s a lesson.

That’s one of the best things about leading a big band is the pressure’s off me sometimes. There’s so many great musicians in the band to let them go and do their thing and embrace the music as they hear it. You can have fun and and sort of expand on what they’re doing and be yourself. Does that make sense?

It does make sense. So do you think Chucho Valdés is a genius? 

Geniuses. Listen to how he plays and how he communicates. He doesn’t sound like anybody else. He can sound like other people, but at this age it’s just pure. Somehow it’s just coming up here. Monk can say this, but Monk also put tons of hours into this. So has Chucho. You can have that the talent of a genius. But unless you put the hours in the flow of the genius will not be the same.

To see the full interview with John Beasley, please go here.

Main Photo: John Beasley (Photo by Scott Mitchell ©2012/Courtesy John Beasley)

The post John Beasley Shares the Secrets of Creation appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

This Friday, Grammy Award-winner Ledisi will release Ledisi Sings Nina, a seven-song EP where she puts her own stamp on songs the legendary Nina Simone made famous. The next night she will introduce the audience at the Hollywood Bowl to her take on those songs when she joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic, lead by Thomas Wilkins.

As you can imagine, there’s a lot to unpack with Ledisi about this project. So I’m doing something a little different. I’m publishing the complete interview I conducted with her earlier this week with very few edits. Here goes:

Between the EP and some stage projects you’ve had, you’ve been working with Nina Simone’s material for a number of years. How has your relationship to her music evolved since you began this journey?

I’m learning we have a lot of similarities I didn’t know until I started having to put our music together. And I didn’t know how well our music matches together. It’s funny. Thomas Wilkins, when we started working on this show for the Hollywood Bowl, he fell in love with my music too. He was saying we have to have some of your songs in there, too, because there’s a reason you’re singing her music as there’s a similar story going on. At the beginning I didn’t notice it until I found ways of marrying our music together. I just do it in a different way, but her music is very right to the point. Mine is a little poetic, but it still has the same sentiment here and there.

You recently posted on your Twitter account, “You can’t do any job great if you don’t listen.” What do you hear when you listen to Nina Simone?

I hear a longing overtone in all of her music; that need to be loved and accepted. I hear, aside from her political fight to make change, I really hear this beautiful Black woman wanting to be received by others just as she is. I hear her directly saying it. I hear power. And pain. But I also feel her longing to be loved. That’s why, again, the choices I made on the album. There are so many Nina songs that have a mood, but I was very particular. It’s so easy to pick a lot of things. I wanted a long sentence just to say I love you and I hear you and I’m here. And thank you. 

Several of the songs are amongst Simone’s best-known. How did you approach the opportunity to show respect for what she had done, yet still make these performances indelibly yours?

Luckily I have a great producers with me. Jules Buckley and Rex Rideout; Gregg Field and Adonis Rose, they all contributed to making sure Ledisi is still Ledisi while honoring Nina Simone. Otherwise I would be mimicking and pretending to be something I’m not and that wouldn’t have worked. I had to live in this music and put my life in there, too, and interpret my way while touching on some of her phrasing, but still be myself.

It was really important having other ears. That was fun to be open to different perspectives. It’s hard to do that when you’re by yourself, so it’s really fun to have someone guide you; having great producers who understand who you are.

The album closes with I’m Going Back Home. Does singing this material feel like going back home for you?

Oh yes. It felt like a return to a genre of music of full self, full circle. Not only to honor a little bit of New Orleans, which is where I’m from and having people from New Orleans by having the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, but also to come back to a love of jazz and soul and folk and ballads from an era that’s still beautiful. This is tough music. This is not easy to sing with orchestras or brass bands. You have to really hold your own as a vocalist. It felt good to do what the greats have done and complete it on that note to say thank you to New Orleans and have that color in there.

And you’ll be performing at this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

I haven’t been there in so long. I can’t wait. I can’t wait.

In a 1968 interview with DownBeat Magazine, Simone said, “The pressure of show business is on all the time and show business is a fickle business. Whatever is popular now – that’s all that counts. I have to constantly re-identify myself to myself, reactive my own standards, my own convictions about what I’m doing and why.” 53 years later, what if anything has changed and has it changed for the better?

Nothing has changed. It’s still the same. That’s why everyone gravitates towards her. It’s still the same screaming and hollering for change. It’s still who are you? There are so many layers as an artist. You can either catch up with the times or be of the times or leave the times behind [she lets out a big laugh], one or the other. For me, I’m just showing all my layers for me and staying in my lane and not being afraid to leap around. I’m able to do that because of her. If she hadn’t been who she is, you wouldn’t have gotten Ledisi.

The writer followed-up by asking, “You talked about walking the tightrope between compromise and integrity. What if you didn’t have that limitation?” I pose the same question to you.

I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do. Even when I didn’t understand. Even when I wanted to fit in with everyone and it didn’t work. I’m right where I’m supposed to be. I have her to thank, my mom to thank. I have my whole journey to thank. I don’t regret anything. I’m glad it didn’t happen the way I wanted it to happen. I would have been famous really fast, much faster than this, but I’m happy that I learned the way I’ve learned and gone the way I’ve gone. I’ve met some great people without being out front right away. I’m very happy. The goal is to make a great legacy. That’s my goal.

What can audiences learn today from the songs that Nina Simone sang and the life she lead?

That’s a great question. Authenticity. Transparency. Simplicity. And humanity. Compassion. Empathy. All those things we had to learn right from our own homes. Right from our screams. And she’s been screaming it in all her music and freedom.

What would you like people to know about what it means to be a Black woman in 2021?

Allow us to be more than angry. More than being everything. We are beautiful, complex flowers and butterflies and we love and when we love we love hard. When we give we give hard. And we want it reciprocated. [Another great laugh] I laugh, but it’s so real. I don’t know how else to say it. Please allow me to be and give it back to me like I do for you.

If the expression go big or go home resonates at all, it would be debuting Ledisi Sings Nina at the Hollywood Bowl. I know you appeared with Deva three years ago on that stage but not sure when else you might have been there.

I also did a show with Patti Austin and Dee Dee Bridgewater and Judith Hill. We all did a show and did 30s jazz music along with tributing Natalie Cole. And I was at the Playboy Jazz Festival.

Now it’s going to be just you out there in front of an audience that could reach 17,500 people. What excites you most about introducing people to this material there?

I know, right? I know. That’s a lot. It feels full circle to a completion with the album that’s out Friday and then perform it the next day on Saturday. I’m blown away. My mom is flying in. I just don’t know what to feel yet. The LA Phil? This has been a dream that I’ve been begging for for almost four years. It hasn’t hit me yet. I think it will when I hit rehearsal on the day of the show. I don’t know what to say. I’m still blown away it’s real. I couldn’t believe it when they said yes. This is real and this is Nina and it’s us together. But I know I’m going to sing the hell out of this music with my last breath. The LA Phil? This is crazy. I’m excited.

In addition to your work as a singer, you’ve also been on stage in shows like Witness Uganda, Caroline, or Change and you have been attached to an in-the-works stage version of The Preacher’s Wife. What role will theater play in your life moving forward?

It’s so wonderful to be able to experience theater. I’m pretty sure I’ll be in theater again in the future working with Billy Porter. Hopefully The Life will see the light of day next day we get there. We’ll see what happens. I’m hoping that will happen next. 

Will that be at Encores in New York?

Yes, I’m looking forward to doing that. I’m waiting for the actual confirmation this is when we’re doing it. I’m excited about it. We’ll see what happens. I definitely want to do theatre and get better. I want to do better in all the things I love. 

I want to wrap this up by asking you about something you said in your Grammy Award acceptance speech. You ended it by saying, “Just keep going, keep going, keep going. We endure.” Throughout your career how has Nina Simone inspired you to keep going and endure?

Well if she can sacrifice her whole life and being for the cause, even at a point where it hurt her, I can still stay in this run being just as I am. She never waivered from being something she wasn’t. That’s how she inspired me. To be a wonderful Black woman and expressing herself in whatever ways she finds comfortable, no matter what the consequences are. So that’s what I’ve always been. I’ve been called so many things for moving around, but if you know my story, I’m from a place that has so much in it like a gumbo or a jambalaya, and that goes wherever you are and whatever you do. I’m very proud of my roots and having her a part of this legacy and to honor her for all that work so that all of us can speak loud. Speak loud.

For tickets to Ledisi Sings Nina Simone at the Hollywood Bowl, please go here.

Ledisi will be at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 31st. She will perform Ledisi Sings Nina at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in San Diego on August 17th. She will also appear at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 25th. In October she launches a tour in support of her 2020 album The Wild Card.

The post Ledisi On Nina Simone: More in Common Than She Thought appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Thankfully it appears we will have an even larger number of ways to enjoy culture at home in the weeks and months ahead. This weekend’s best bets include a virtual version of the annual Monterey Jazz Festival, a live-streamed musical from England, a dystopian virtual reality live musical, a concert with two stars of opera and stage and so much more.

Here are your Best Bets at Home: September 25th – September 27th:

From The Ford with Lula Washington Dance Theatre – Now

Cultural Attaché made a big deal about the cancellation of this summer’s Hollywood Bowl season. Lost in the shuffle was the cancellation of the season at The Ford Theatre as well. Much like their colleagues on the other side of the Cahuenga Pass in Los Angeles, they have been presenting some programming on line.

While much of it isn’t programming that we would naturally cover – which does not reflect on its quality at all – this week’s program is a perfect fit.

Los Angeles-based Lula Washington Dance Theatre performed at The Ford in 2018. That performance became available Thursday on The Ford’s Facebook and YouTube pages. The performance (and, in fact, all of the performances they began streaming in August) are available for viewing.

Earlier this year I interviewed Lula Washington as they celebrated their 40th anniversary. You can read that interview here and get more information about this wonderful company.

Monterey Jazz Festival – September 25th – September 27th

Every day this weekend the Monterey Jazz Festival is streaming two-hours of performances by jazz legends. There will be a mix of archived and new performances. The streaming begins each day at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT on the festival’s YouTube channel.

The line-up is as follows (and when I last checked there was still a notice that more performances might be added):

Friday, September 25th: Dianne Reeves, Roy Hargrove & RH Factor, Christian Sands (the 2020 and 2021 Monterey Jazz Festival Artist-in-Residence), Terri Lyne Carrington – Mosaic Project, Next Generation Jazz Orchestra Directed by Gerald Clayton, Christian McBride & Inside Straight, Jamie Cullum and Herbie Hancock.

Saturday, September 26th: Regina Carter, Next Generation Women in Jazz Combo Directed by Katie Thiroux, Next Generation Jazz Orchestra Directed by Gerald Clayton, Davina and the Vagabonds, Clint Eastwood in conversation with Tim Jackson, Eastwood at Monterey with Diana Krall & Kenny Barron Trio, Berklee Institute of Jazz & Gender Justice Quintet, Our Native Daughters featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell and a Tribute to Dave Brubeck with Cannery Row Suite featuring Kurt Elling & Roberta Gambarini.

Sunday, September 27th: Sonny Rollins Tribute featuring Jimmy Heath, Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis, and Joshua Redman, Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, Anat Cohen Tentet, Angela Davis in conversation with Terri Lyne Carrington, Gerald Clayton Quartet, Cooking Demonstration with Lila Downs from her home in Oaxaca, 2012 Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour with musical director Christian McBride and Dee Dee Bridgewater on vocals, 2018 Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour with musical director Christian Sands and Cécile McLorin Salvant on vocals and a Tribute to Quincy Jones, “The A&M Years”, featuring Hubert Laws and Valerie Simpson.

There is no charge to watch these programs. Donations are encouraged and will go to the artists performing, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Just Like Us – Latino Theater Company – September 25th – October 4th

Los Angeles-based Latino Theater Company continues presenting both archived films of previous productions and readings of new works with a sneak peek of Karen Zacarías’s Just Like Us.

The play depicts the lives for four teenage Latinas. Two girls are undocumented and two are not. As the realities of their separate immigration situations begin to reflect what each girl may or may not be able to accomplish, their friendships get tested.

Zacarías based her play on Helen Thorpe’s best-selling book of the same name. Zacarías (Native Gardens) uses a documentary-style approach to this play.

The cast includes Richard Azurdia, Natalie Camunas, Michelle Castillo, Alicia Coca, Peter Mendoza, Elyse Mirto, Lys Perez, Geoffrey Rivas, Lucy Rodriguez, Kenia Romero and Alexis Santiago. Just Like Us is directed by Fidel Gomez.

While you are at the LATC website (where you can access Just Like Us), you might also notice that Nancy Ma’s Home will be available for viewing. Ma performed her one-person show at LATC last year. The play illuminates Ma’s struggle to accept her own identity when she finds herself torn between her immigrant family’s Chinese Toisan background and her new-found American home.

Miranda: A Steampunk VR Experience – Now – September 26th

In 2013 the first production of Kamala Sankaram’s steampunk opera took place. Seven years later, a new version that takes the work and brings it into the virtual reality world, co-created by Tri-Cities Opera and co-presented by Opera Omaha, is available for free (with advance registration).

Miranda tells the story of three suspects who are on trial for the murder of a wealthy woman. Each of the three defendants will have to testify in order to exonerate themselves. You, the audience, will serve as judge and jury. The entire story takes place in a dystopian feature that appears to be a radical version of our present-day world with steampunk influences.

The performance happens live in real time. Each performer is kept separated in their own motion capture cubicles. Utilizing motion capture gear (think Andy Serkis in the Planet of the Apes remakes) their movement and performances are captured a brought into the 3D virtual environment.

There are three performances each day. The website lays out the various ways you can experience Miranda (you don’t have to have VR gear to do so.)

I honestly don’t know how good this will be, but it is certainly a unique way to bring the performing arts to audiences during the pandemic. The sheer bravado of doing a project this way makes it worthy of inclusion.  

Dances at a Gathering – The Royal Ballet – September 25th – October 24th

Jerome Robbins’s Dances at a Gathering was first performed in 1969 by the New York City Ballet. The hour-long work is set to the music of composer Frédéric Chopin.

The Royal Ballet brought the ballet back onto their stages during the 2019-2020 season. It marked the return of this particular Robbins work after an absence of eleven years.

Dances at a Gathering features five couples. The company for this performance includes Luca Acri, Federico Bonelli, William Bracewell, Alexander Campbell, Francesca Hayward, Fumi Kaneko, Laura Morera, Yasmine Naghdi, Marianela Nuñez and Valentino Zucchetti.

Robbins was a five-time Tony Award winner and a two-time Academy Award winner. He’s best known for West Side Story.

The Royal Ballet is charging £3 to view the ballet. That’s just under $4.

Romantics Anonymous – The Wallis – September 26th – 4:00 PM EDT/1:00 PM PDT

For the past few years Emma Rice and Kneehigh have brought their innovative productions of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk and Brief Encounter to the stage at The Wallis in Beverly Hills.

This year Rice was scheduled to return to the United States with a tour of The Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic and Plush Theatricals Production of the musical Romantics Anonymous, but that was not to be.

Romantics Anonymous is based on the 2010 film Les Émotifs Anonymes. It tells the story of two people who make chocolate and are navigating their way through the world in very different ways. Angélique, who pours her heart and soul into her chocolates, is part of a support group helping her get a better grip on her life. Jean-René listens to self-help tapes while trying to keep his floundering chocolate factory afloat. They are both very emotional people and, of course, fall in love.

The musical was written by Michael Kooman (music) and Christopher Dimond (lyrics). Rice wrote the book.

Lyn Gardner, writing for The Guardian, said of the show, “Romantics Anonymous is a multifaceted gem, chock-full of love, generosity and joy…”

Ever resourceful, Rice and the entire team have taken a unique approach to making their show available. The entire cast and crew have been in quarantine and will be performing the show live at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre on Saturday. The Wallis is one of six companies to host the United States performance.

Romantics Anonymous stars Marc Antolin, Carly Bawden, Me’sha Bryan, Philip Cox, Omari Douglas, Harry Hepple, Sandra Marvin, Laura Jane Matthewson and Gareth Snook.

The cost to watch the show is £21 which is just under $27 (as of the exchange rate on 9/24 when this was written). Romantics Anonymous will only be streamed live on this one date. There will be, however, an audio described version and a closed caption version available on Monday, September 28th at 11:00 AM and 11:30 AM respectively.

A Time to Sing: An Evening with Renée Fleming and Vanessa Williams – The Kennedy Center – September 26th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Opera singer Renée Fleming and Tony Award-nominated actress Vanessa Williams team up for this new concert filmed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The women will share the stage and perform songs written by Harold Arlen, Benjamin Britten, Antonín Dvořák, Joni Mitchell, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Stephen Sondheim, Sting and more. There will also be the world premiere of Diva by Andrew Lippa.

Tickets to watch the concert are $15 and will allow access to view A Time to Sing through the rest of 2020.

Open Fist Theatre Company’s 30th Anniversary Virtual Gala – September 26th – 10:00 PM EDT/7:00 PM PDT

For any theatre company to last thirty years is quite an accomplishment. Los Angeles-based Open Fist Theatre is celebrating that accomplishment with a virtual gala and online auction on Saturday night.

Joining the company during this one-hour event will be Shoshana Bean (Broadway’s Waitress), Jason Paige (For the Record shows) and Ty Taylor (lead singer of Vintage Trouble.)

Since their inception in 1990, Open Fist Theatre Company has produced multiple award-winning productions including Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved In The Former Soviet Union and DeLEARious.

There is no cost to watch the gala. Donations are, of course, encouraged. There are also VIP tickets for a virtual cocktail hour that runs in the 60 minutes prior to the gala’s start. Those tickets are $100.

Those are my choices for your Best Bets at Home: September 25th – September 27th. As usual, I have some reminders for you.

Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new series Sound/Stage launches today on their website. This week’s program is called Love in the Time of Covid and features performances by the orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel conducting. Guests include mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and actress María Valverde. Works by Peter Liberson, George Walker and Gustav Mahler will be performed.

This weekend’s Table Top Shakespeare: At Home will have performances of King John on Friday, Titus Andronicus on Saturday and Much Ado About Nothing on Sunday.

Here are this weekend’s listings from this week’s Jazz Stream:

The Nicole Glover Quartet performs live from Smalls on September 25th.

Fridays at Five from SFJAZZ streams at 2014 concert: John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme 50th Anniversary Celebration on September 25th.

The Kenny Barron Trio live at the Village Vanguard streams on September 25th and September 26th.

Ramsey Lewis performs live on September 26th.

The Marcus Strickland Trio live at Blue Note streams on September 26th.

Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain and Julian Lage perform live from Healdsburg Jazz Festival on September 26th.

This weekend’s operas from the Metropolitan Opera’s Puccini Week are Tosca on Friday, Turandot on Saturday and La Bohème  on Sunday.

That is a lot of options for this weekend’s Best Bets at Home: September 25th – September 27th. Continue to check back at Cultural Attaché for our weekly suggestions to satisfy your desires to see the performing arts.

Main photo: The company of Romantics Anonymous (Photo by Steve Tanner/Courtesy The Wallis)

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