Benét comes to the festival hot on the heels of his latest single, “Can’t Wait,” from his new album The Co-Star, his first full length project in eight years on his own JBR Creative Group record label. The album is a series of duets with R&B, pop and world music artists including Ari Lennox, Alex Isley, Chante Moore, Corrine Bailey Rae, Tamar Braxton, Judith Hill, Goapele, India.Arie, Jordin Sparks, Autumn Paige, SalDoce and Pia Toscano.
 
“If I look back on my entire career, I think my duets were some of the most powerful songs,” Benét tells RatetheRnb.com. “For the past 10 years, it’s always been in the back of my mind, like, ‘Yo, one of these days, I need to do a whole album where it’s all duets.’ This seems the perfect opportunity because I haven’t had a project out in like eight years.”
 
His singles, “Spend My Life with You” (with Tamia, 2000), “You’re the Only One” (2009), “Love & Life” (2009), and “Sometimes I Cry” (2012) earned Grammy nominations for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or a Group with Vocals, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Traditional R&B Performance. Benét’s album Love & Life (2009) garnered four Grammy nominations in the categories of Best R&B Vocal Performance.
 
Thanks to the generous sponsorship of his performance by The Wilson Group (TWG), Benét will bring his soulful, jazz-fluent R&B artistry to the PIJF stage, bathing downtown Pittsburgh with his dope downbeats.
 
“The Wilson Group is a steadfast supporter of arts and culture in our region, and we are proud to be the presenting sponsor for internationally celebrated artist Eric Benet’s appearance at the 15th edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival,” said Derrick Wilson, TWG’s CEO/Founder. “We at the Wilson Group look forward to another 15 years of superb music and art coming from the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.”

The 15th edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, produced by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, takes place September 18 – 21, 2025 inside AWAACC with free concerts on Saturday and Sunday in front of the Center. In addition to the ticketed events featuring a Salute to George Benson with Dan Wilson and Jonathan Butler and the Taste of Jazz Party, the weekend’s artists include Branford Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jazzmeia Horn, Etienne Charles & Creole Soul, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Tarbaby, Bilal, Obed Calvaire, Keith David, Be’la Dona, Kandace Springs, Ella Bric, Nathan-Paul Davis, Michael Mayo, John Shannon, Ekep Nkwelle and more.
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SPONSORS
The 2025 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival is co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, with generous support from the Mellon Foundation. Additional sponsors include The Wilson Group, UPMC and UPMC Health Plan, BMW of Pittsburgh, Visit Pittsburgh, Duolingo, and Carnegie Mellon University. Presenting Sponsor for the Libation Station Tent is Bacardi.
 
August Wilson African American Cultural Center's presentation of the Jazzmeia Horn Quartet is supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with Jazz House Kids and DC Jazz Festival. A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.
 
Major support for AWAACC’s operations is provided by Richard King Mellon Foundation, Henry L. Hillman Foundation, Heinz Endowments, and the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD).
 
AWAACC’s programming is made possible by generous support from its donors. For a complete list, visit awaacc.org.
 
ABOUT HIGHMARK INC.
An independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Highmark Inc., together with its Blue-branded affiliates, collectively comprise the fifth largest overall Blue Cross Blue Shield-affiliated organization in the country with approximately 7 million members in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and western and northeastern New York. Its diversified businesses serve group customer and individual needs across the United States through dental insurance and other related businesses. For more information, visit  www.highmark.com. 
 
The Highmark Bright Blue Futures program‘s goal is to ensure healthier, brighter, stronger futures for all, and it focuses on improving access to care, quality of life, and economic resilience in the communities the enterprise serves. For more information, visit Highmark Bright Blue Futures.
 
ABOUT AUGUST WILSON AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a nonprofit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 100,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today.   
 
For tickets and more information on the 15th Anniversary edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, log on to https://pittsburghjazzfest.org.
 
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​This is more than just music to enjoy. It is also a powerful tribute to a strong young woman whose story touched Bobby’s heart. There have been more than 4,400 documented cases of Black Americans who were lynched by Caucasian mobs. It is estimated that 136 of them were women and girls. Mary Turner was one of them.
 
All three of West’s albums were released on the Soulville Records label, co-founded by his partner, visual artist Lori Precious, whose works have appeared at art galleries and museums worldwide. Together, they have collaborated to create this tribute, with Precious’ captivating, butterfly wing-inspired art donning the cover. She also has created 135 other works to pay homage to Turner’s fallen sisters.
 
Mrs. Turner was born Mary Hattie Graham in Brooks County, GA in 1885. She married Hazel “Hayes” Turner in the same county. On May 16, 1918, an abusive plantation owner, Hampton Smith, was killed. Turner was rounded up, falsely accused of killing Smith, and was lynched on May 18. The following day, Mary proclaimed his innocence, which angered the white mob, and took up arms to defend him before her horrific death. She had two sons and was eight months pregnant when they hung her, set her on fire and cut her child from her body. The baby fell to the ground and one of the members of the mob crushed the infant’s head into the Georgia clay moments before they riddled the mother with hundreds of bullets and killed her.*
 
Turner’s tragic odyssey was chosen for this album and artwork to symbolize the martyrdom of all these women lynched, not as anonymous victims but real people with names. As this dark door opens to the racial terrorism of American history, it also lets in the healing light of truth.
 
Precious’ series Requiem for Mary Turner was created in the tradition of artists Jacob Lawrence, Kara Walker and Elizabeth Catlett, artists who have depicted lynching through their art. Precious grew up in the 1960s, lived in Somalia where her father worked with USAID, and is an alumna of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Her works primarily featured the wings of butterflies, and she is partial to themes of veneration, often of women who have been made invisible. The centerpiece of Precious’ Requiem for Mary Turner is an intricate piece of amber-hued wings that radiate outward from the name, Mary Turner, surrounded by a wreath of “flowers” also made of wings. An additional 135 smaller pieces complete the series, each with the name in butterfly wings of the other women and girls.
 
The genesis of Requiem for Mary Turner emerged in 2002 when Precious was reading about the horrors of lynching and wondered if any women had been lynched. As compelling as that idea was, she felt that the subject was sacred ground.
 
“I didn’t think a white person should tread on it,” Precious remembers, “I kind of just put it away. But the idea never really went away.”
 
Still intrigued by the subject, Precious started to investigate. At the time, information on lynching was challenging to find. Through her research at the NAACP, the Ida B. Wells Foundation, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Precious discovered there were indeed women and girls who had been lynched, often for trying to protect their husbands and sons. In 2009 the publication of Crystal N. Feimster’s Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching provided a more complete list of names for cross reference. When the Equal Justice Initiative opened in 2018, their extensive archive on lynching in America became an invaluable resource.
 
In 2018, Precious shared her ideas and research with Bobby West and Jesse Sharps (Horace Tapscott’s bandleader), thinking that as Black Americans they might want to do something with it because, as she explained, “it was not a white person’s story to tell.”
 
“To my surprise, they disagreed with me," Precious recalls. “They said, you have this awareness to tell the story. They kind of flipped the script on me. I said, Okay! And I said to Bobby, could I commission some music from you as a partnership? And he immediately said, yes.”
 
For West, who as a Black Southerner certainly knew of the horrors of lynching and is old enough to remember the murder of Emmett Till, learning about Mary Turner was a surprise. “When Lori commissioned me to do the work, ironically – because I consider myself a scholar on Black America – I didn't know who Mary Turner was. But I was immediately inspired,” West states.
 
Taking the biographical raw materials of his subject and translating them into an aesthetic statement, West produced a “sound portrait” of Mary Turner. “The music came to me through a spiritual process,” West recounts. “First, meditating on the incredible saga of this poor beautiful butterfly, I began to receive celestial messages and to experience inspired motivations. Then there was music that resounded from within me that I was put to task with notating, orchestrating these themes.”

There have been many vivid musical works about lynching, from the Black classical composer William Grant Still’s opus “And They Lynched Him From a Tree” to Billie Holiday’s immortal protest song “Strange Fruit.” Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts and Mary Lou Williams’ religious music were full of the pain and hardships of Black life. Supported by a symphonic orchestra fluent in both American and European classical genres, West’s Requiem is a moving and magnificent opus that features solemn yet soaring strings, a fanfare melody gently prodded by West’s chords, and woodwinds blowing their pointillistic airs from the bloodstained South of the 19th century to today.
 
The first musical sentence is based on the opening line of "The Lord's Prayer." As Mary contemplated her horrific fate by the racists who murdered her, it conjures the single most awe-inspiring sentence Jesus spoke. As he hung from a cross, “forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Using Mozart’s unfinished Requiem in D Minor as a model for the opus’ structure, West incorporates elements of gospel music to create an “aural biography because he “wanted the piece to end on a victorious, redemptive finale.”

To augment Requiem, West added to the album several more selections. Performed in various combo configurations, these songs further illuminate the life of Mary Turner – from the Baptist church cadences of “A Scene from Sunday,” a pleasing piano/vocal duet with the criminally overlooked singer Maxayn Lewis, who also turns in with West equally elegiac duo performances on the hymn “In the Garden” and “Move On Up a Little Higher.” There is the rousing Latin jazz rendition of Sting’s “Fragile” with shades of Ahmad Jamal and Ramsey Lewis, the abstract embers of the improvised “Spirit Move Sunrise” and “Spirit Move Sunset,” the French Impressionism of another West solo, “Lover’s Reflection On Still Water,” a Chopinesque reading of the pop standard “Never Let Me Go,” and the martial Charles Mingus-like New Orleans funeral dirge “March of the Uninvited.”   

In the final analysis, West and Precious resurrected Mary Turner with Requiem, transmigrating Turner’s spirit to a higher place. “I wanted,” concludes West, “to represent that she is free. She is free of all the burdens and tragedy of her short life. I wanted to create a finale that sounds like the ascension of her soul.”

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*For more information on Mary Turner, log on to The Equal Justice Initiative at https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/may/19.
 
 
Media Contact: Carolyn McClair PR
(212) 721-3341 | Info@CarolynMcClairPR.com

​PITTSBURGH, PA, May 16, 2025 – Foodies and jazz enthusiasts unite at the 15th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF) co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield on Friday, September 19, at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC), for a very special tribute honoring Pittsburgh’s own George Benson followed by the Taste of Jazz Party, one of the city’s most highly anticipated events of the year.

Kicking off the evening at 8:00 pm will be an all-star tribute honoring guitarist/vocalist George Benson. Leading the salute is jazz guitarist Dan Wilson with special guest guitarist Jonathan Butler.*  Following the concert will be the festival’s annual Taste of Jazz Party held at the AWAACC at 9:00 pm. The party features dancing, live music and performances by gospel/jazz/soul-inspired pianist Theron Brown, the soulful vocalist T. Marie, dance music by Selecta and more.
 
The hottest restaurants in Pittsburgh are setting up shop in one of the country’s largest multidisciplinary art centers for a tasting party unlike any you’ve ever experienced. A feast for the senses, the Taste of Jazz Party features a diverse potpourri of flavors from 17 restaurants: Alihan’s, Barcelona Bar, Bistro to Go, Braddock’s Rebellion, Con Alma, Eddie Merlot’s, FL. 2, Fogo de Chão, Joinery, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Pizzaiolo Primo, Ritual House, Spirit and Tales, Talia, Taj Mahal, Vallozzi’s and Whisper.

“The fusion of the Friday night concert and the Taste of Jazz Party is a perfect reflection of the city’s rich cultural tapestry, combining world-class music with culinary excellence,” said Janis Burley, AWAACC President/CEO and PIJF founder.  We are excited to kick off the festival’s 15th anniversary with the tribute to George Benson and are excited to hear what Dan Wilson and Jonathan Butler cook up to celebrate Pittsburgh’s renowned living legend.”

TICKETS
Tickets to the George Benson Tribute and Taste of Jazz Party are $94 - $100 and are available here. Tickets to the Taste of Jazz Party only are $78 and are available here.  For tickets and more information about concerts at AWAACC, The Jazz Train™ and VIP packages for the free concerts on Liberty Avenue, please log on to pittsburghjazzfest.org.  All tickets are on sale now.

The 15th edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, produced by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, takes place September 18 – 21, 2025 inside AWAACC with free concerts on Saturday and Sunday in front of the Center. In addition to Friday evening performances, featured artists include  Branford Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jazzmeia Horn, Etienne Charles & Creole Soul, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Tarbaby, Bilal, Obed Calvaire, Keith David, Be’la Dona, Kandace Springs, Ella Bric, Nathan-Paul Davis, Michael Mayo, John Shannon, Ekep Nkwelle and more.

SPONSORS
The 2025 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival is co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, with generous support from the Mellon Foundation. Additional sponsors include UPMC and UPMC Health Plan, BMW of Pittsburgh, Visit Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Presenting Sponsor for the Libation Station Tent is Bacardi.
 
August Wilson African American Cultural Center's presentation of the Jazzmeia Horn Quartet is supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with Jazz House Kids and DC Jazz Festival. A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.
 
Major support for AWAACC’s operations is provided by Richard King Mellon Foundation, Henry L. Hillman Foundation, Heinz Endowments, and the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD).
 
AWAACC’s programming is made possible by generous support from its donors. For a complete list, visit awaacc.org.
 
ABOUT HIGHMARK INC.
An independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Highmark Inc., together with its Blue-branded affiliates, collectively comprise the fifth largest overall Blue Cross Blue Shield-affiliated organization in the country with approximately 7 million members in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and western and northeastern New York. Its diversified businesses serve group customer and individual needs across the United States through dental insurance and other related businesses. For more information, visit  www.highmark.com. 
 
The Highmark Bright Blue Futures program‘s goal is to ensure healthier, brighter, stronger futures for all, and it focuses on improving access to care, quality of life, and economic resilience in the communities the enterprise serves. For more information, visit Highmark Bright Blue Futures.
 
ABOUT AUGUST WILSON AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a nonprofit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 100,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today.   
 
For more information on the 15th Anniversary edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, log on to https://pittsburghjazzfest.org.
 
 
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* Please note: The 8:00 pm concert on Friday is a tribute performance; George Benson will not be in attendance.
 

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​Media Contacts:
Khalil Waldron: (412) 339-1009 | kwaldron@awaacc.org
Carolyn McClair | CMPR: (212) 721-3341 | cmcclair@awaacc.org

​ENGLEWOOD, NJ, April 28, 2025 – Singer Andrew W. “Andy” Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with his four-octave, vocal virtuosity, which encompassed his bellowing baritone and high flying falsetto, died on Saturday, April 26, at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, NJ, surrounded by loving family and friends. He was 85 years old. His death was announced by his nephew, actor/singer Darius de Haas.

​Bey’s long artistic life ranged from his years as a child prodigy, singing in the family group, Andy and the Bey Sisters – Salome Bey and Geraldine Bey de Haas – his impressive sideman work with many jazz stars including Gary Bartz, Horace Silver, Stanley Clarke and Max Roach, as well as his own albums as a leader, including his 1974 Indian-influenced debut, Experience and Judgement, his 1996 album  Ballads, Blues & Bey, which drew critical acclaim as Bey’s breakout recording and established him as major jazz vocalist after years of obscurity. His album American Song garnered him a 2005 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. His final two projects released in 2013 and 2014, Grammy-nominated The World According to Andy Bey and Pages from an Imaginary Life, represented the zenith of his musical style, which usually featured Bey accompanying himself at the piano, interpreting American standard repertoire and pop artists like Nick Drake.
 
Writing in Jazzwise magazine, Kevin Le Gendre opined, “that baritone, paradoxically full and light, with its floating quality, has acquired more finesse over time, and on slow tempos it is exquisite, primarily because the control that Bey exerts over every single sustain or sotto phrase is faultless.”
 
Born in Newark, NJ, on October 28, 1939, Bey started playing piano at three. He attended Newark Arts High School, performed at the Apollo Theater and in the mid-fifties, he worked on the television show Startime Kids, which also featured Connie Francis and Joe Pesci. Bey recorded three LP’s with his siblings from 1961 to 1965 for the RCA Victor and Prestige labels: Andy and the Bey Sisters, Now! Hear! and ‘Round Midnight. Bey and his sisters embarked on a 16-month tour of Europe before disbanding in 1967. Influenced by Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine, and Sarah Vaughan, Bey’s vocal talents were heard on Horace Silvers’ hard bop oriented LPs that included That Healin’ Feelin’: The United States of Mind/Phase 1 and Music to Ease Your Disease, Gary Bartz’s Afro-themed Harlem Bush Music recordings, Stanley Clarke’s fusion-formed Children of Forever, Max Roach’s martial classic, Members Don't Get Weary in the 60’s and 70’s and Bey’s own seminal recording from 1974, Experience and Judgment featuring his composition “Celestial Blues.”
 
As Ballads, Blues and Bey established Bey as a vocal force to be reckoned with, his quiet, yet dignified battle as an HIV-positive openly Gay man in the 90’s and beyond drew legions of admirers in and beyond the world of jazz.  His awards and accolades include winning the 2003 Jazz Vocalist of the Year Award from the Jazz Journalists Association and NPR’s  2014 Jazz Critics Poll award for Best Vocal Album for Pages from an Imaginary Life.
 
When most musicians in their years as an octogenarian show sign of slowing down, Andy Bey represented the opposite of that notion until his last years. “It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Bey said on an NPR Jazz Night in America in 2019 when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
 
Andy Bey is survived by his sister Geraldine (Bey) de Haas and many nieces and nephews.
 
A memorial celebration of Mr. Bey’s life and musical legacy is being planned.
 
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For More Information:
Carolyn McClair Public Relations
(212) 721-3341 | Info@CarolynMcClairPR.com

​SAN DIEGO, CA, March 26, 2025 – Tenor saxophonist and flutist James Moody (March 26, 1925 - December 9, 2010), whose hit song, “Moody’s Mood for Love” made him a popular jazz giant for seven decades, is being honored for his 100th birthday with a new CD, James Moody 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note, March 26, 2005, recorded during his week-long 80th birthday celebration. The CD will be released internationally on May 16 on Origin Records.

Supporting Moody on this historic night were trumpeter Jon Faddis, flugelhornist Randy Brecker, clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, pianists David Hazeltine and Cedar Walton, bassist Todd Coolman, drummer Adam Nussbaum and trombonist Slide Hampton, with a brief introduction by jazz impresario George Wein.
 
“This live recording is a true tribute to the extraordinary talent surrounding Moody that night…,” Moody’s beloved wife and the CD’s producer, Linda Moody, fondly recalls. “…The energy wasn’t just onstage – the room was buzzing with jazz legends, sports figures, TV personalities, family, friends, and fans who all came together to honor this remarkable man. The Blue Note was alive with love, joy, incredible artistry and the unmistakable heartbeat of a community united in reverence for my husband.”
 
That reverence is aurally evident on James Moody 80 Years Young. The nine-track CD leads off with Wein’s “Introduction to James Moody.” Backed by Nussbaum’s in-the-pocket drumming, the solid bass tones by Coolman, the profound pianism provided by Walton and Hazeltine and a solid frontline featuring Hampton’s boppish trombone, Brecker’s fiery flugelhorn, D’Rivera’s Caribbean clarinet and Faddis’ dizzying trumpet flights, Moody’s melodious and moving, Charlie Parker-influenced tenor sax and flute lines reveal the fire and finesse that made him the standard bearer on those instruments for seven decades. Jazz classics “Ow,” “Bebop” and “Cherokee,” (three early up-tempo selections from Dizzy Gillespie’s late 40s big bands), along with Gillespie’s mid-tempo masterpiece “Birks Works,” find Moody in rare and riveting improvisational form, musically speaking the language of bebop with a 21st Century accent.
 
No performance by Moody was complete without his rousing rendition of “Moody’s Mood for Love – the Television Rap.” Moody recorded it as an improvised instrumental version of the Jimmy McHugh/Dorothy Fields ballad, “I’m in the Mood for Love,” in 1949 in Sweden. In 1952, King Pleasure presented an acclaimed version of it. It then became a hit throughout the United States when vocalese singer Eddie Jefferson put words to it and recorded it with Moody on the 1957 LP, Moody’s Mood for Love. Though it has been covered by a wide variety of artists over the years – from Aretha Franklin and Quincy Jones to George Benson and Amy Winehouse – it is, for all intents and purposes, Moody's song when he sings it, as the Blue Note audience approves, applauds and sings along when the band plays “Happy Birthday” to Moody.
 
But there’s more to Moody than hip bop solos. He is a natural showman with a razor-sharp comedic flair that comes through loudly and clearly on his gravelly vocals. It is evident on “Benny’s from Heaven,” a funny riff off the standard “Pennies from Heaven,” where a soldier comes home to his wife with a child not conceived by him. And there’s “Moody Speaks,” where Moody acknowledges the heavyweight boxer Joe Frazier, in the club, only to find out that Joe is a woman!
 
In addition to the physical CD, the album will be available on all digital platforms, with an added four bonus tracks. The extra tracks include the Harry “Sweets” Edison/Jon Hendricks love song, “Centerpiece,” laced with Roberta Gambarini’s vivacious velvet vocals; “Darben the Redd Foxx,” an old Moody-penned blues composition; “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” which is imbued with Moody’s ballad brilliance; and the Sonny Rollins calypso “St. Thomas,” an excellent vehicle for Moody’s upbeat personality.
 
TRIBUTE CONCERT AND TOUR
Stay tuned for more information on a touring ensemble celebrating Moody’s 100th birthday. Tickets are available for a concert at the Blue Note Jazz Festival at New York’s Sony Hall, 235 W. 46th Street, on May 27 at 8:00 pm. Share in the Moody Love with Musical Directors Christian McBride and Renee Rosnes, Randy Brecker, Terri Lyne Carrington, Paquito D’Rivera, Elena Pinderhughes and Madeleine Peyroux and. For tickets, click here. For more information, call (212) 997-5123

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​ABOUT JAMES MOODY
Moody’s multi-faceted career stems from a life of adversity, challenge and artistic triumph. Born in Savannah, GA, Moody was raised by a single mother in Newark, NJ. Born partially deaf, he attended the Bruce Street School for Deaf in that city. Moody’s uncle bought him his first saxophone when he was 16, and he later graduated from Newark’s famed Arts High School, where Sarah Vaughan, Melba Moore and Wayne Shorter also matriculated. Moody’s early saxophone idols were Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Don Byas. He mainly played tenor saxophone and flute, and occasionally played alto sax. He was drafted into the Army in 1943 and played in an all-Black military band.
 
After his discharge from the Army in 1946, Moody led a group called The Modernists, and he later joined Dizzy Gillespie’s pioneering big band for two years. That initial association with Gillespie would last for decades. Moody was a part of Gillespie’s State Department big band that toured Asia, The Middle East and in Latin America in the mid to late 50’s. Moody later joined Gillespie’s small combos in the 60’s that included a young Kenny Barron on piano. Gillespie and Moody recorded a few critically- acclaimed albums, including Jambo Caribe, Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac, and Live at Royal Festival Hall with Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra. Moody also worked with a wide variety of jazz stars including Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, Milt Jackson, Max Roach, Lalo Schifrin and Elvin Jones. Moody’s 45 albums as a leader include James Moody and his Modernists, Moody’s Mood for Love, Last Train from Overbrook, Flute n’ the Blues, Teachers, Something Special and Moody 4B. Moody also had a cameo role in Clint Eastwood’s 1997 movie, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”
 
In addition to his sensational career as a musician, Moody was a steadfast supporter of arts education. In 2005, he and his wife Linda founded the James Moody Scholarship at Purchase College. In 2011, Mrs. Moody founded the James Moody Scholarship for Newark, NJ, which partners with Jazz House Kids in Montclair and annually awards $10,000 toward college tuition to a Newark high school senior, who embodies the qualities expressed by Moody throughout his life and works through musicianship, creativity, leadership and community involvement.
 
In 1998, Moody received the NEA Jazz Master Award, and in 2000, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee College of Music and an Honorary Doctorate from Florida Memorial College. Moody was a four-time Grammy nominee and a recipient posthumously in 2011. The TD James Moody Jazz Festival, founded in 2012, is named in his honor as a proud Newark native.
 
Whether you are a lifelong fan of James Moody, or just discovering him, the music of James Moody: 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note, March 26, 2005, features the artistry of a musician who loved music as much as he loved life.

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​Media Contact:
Carolyn McClair Public Relations
(212) 721-3341 | Info@CarolynMcClairPR.com

​New York, NY, NY,  April 16, 2025 – Jazzmobile, the first U.S. not-for-profit arts and cultural organization created just for jazz 60 years ago, continues its celebration of National Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), and International Jazz Day, UNESCO’s global celebration of jazz, with a night of straight ahead jazz and down home swing with the world-renowned trombonist, vocalist, trumpeter and bandleader Wycliffe Gordon and his International All-Stars & Friends at Aaron Davis Hall, 129 Convent Avenue in Manhattan, on Wednesday, April 30, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. The concert, in conjunction with the City College Center for the Arts, takes place on International Jazz Day, which caps off Jazz Appreciation Month. 

​General seating tickets are $20/$10 for students and seniors and are available here.
 
“Throughout the years, Wycliffe has been an audience favorite and powerful presence on many Jazzmobile bandstands,” says Robin Bell-Stevens, Director and Executive Producer of Jazzmobile. “His command of his instrument, his deep knowledge of the history and traditions of jazz, and his devotion to swing, exemplify what Jazzmobile is all about as we continue to celebrate our 60th anniversary.” 
 
This upcoming gig offers Gordon and his all-star friends a rare opportunity. “Several moons have passed since our last opportunity to perform together, so I'm extremely excited to perform with my group, The International All-Stars, at Aaron Davis Hall on April 30,” Gordon says. “Getting the opportunity to freely perform music from every period and idiom in jazz is a great feeling! This group – consisting of Adrian Cunningham on reeds and vocals, Ehud Asherie on piano, Yasushi Nakamura on bass, and Alvin Atkinson, Jr. on drums and cymbals – is a dream situation for me and the love we have for the music and for one another exudes from the bandstand.” 
 
At the concert, Gordon and his esteemed ensemble will perform selections from their first recording, I Give You Love. “It speaks to the sentiments we wish to share with all of our audiences and everyone that hears our music," Gordon relates. “From the early classics of New Orleans artists such as Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, and Louis Armstrong to that of Ellington, Basie, Parker, Waller, Gillespie etc... "
 
A dominant musician on the trombone for four decades, the Georgia-born Gordon, was selected by Wynton Marsalis, to join many of his bands and ensembles, including Marsalis’ septet from 1989 to 1995, and he was a founding member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra from 1995 to 2000. Gordon played with a wide variety of musicians as a sideman including Paul Simon, David Sanborn, Dianne Reeves, Dizzy Gillespie and Branford Marsalis. Gordon’s albums as a leader include Hello Pops, Signature Series, Somebody New and Within These Gates of Mine.
 
Gordon’s commissioned works include creating new music for two of the prolific silent film director Oscar Micheaux “Body and Soul” (Jazz at Lincoln Center) and “Within Our Gates” (Jazzmobile, 2011); A Soldier’s Heart (Savannah Children’s Choir/ D-Day) and the Charles Henry Suite (Douglas Theatre/Macon Georgia). Gordon has taught on many college campuses including, the Peabody Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and Temple University. Gordon is a 6-time winner of DownBeat Magazine’s Best Trombone category, was selected Trombonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Associated 15 times and was awarded The ASCAP Foundation Vanguard Award in 2007. Gordon is also a gifted composer, arranger, trumpeter and vocalist.
 
Gordon and company come to the Aaron Davis Hall stage, like Louis Armstrong, in the cause of happiness. “This band is ready to perform the music with exuberance and style, and all with a smile,” Wycliffe said.
 
Jazzmobile’s Jazz Appreciation Month concerts also included a performance by the Saturday Jazzmobile Workshop (SJW) Youth Band, with special guests pianist Danny Mixon, vocalist Antoinette Montague and tenor saxophonist Patience Higgins at The Interchurch Center on April 2 and Charenee Wade Sings Miss Roberta with Love: A Tribute to Roberta Flack, on April 9, both at the Interchurch Center.
 
Jazzmobile is the oldest charitable organization created with a mission just for jazz. The organization presents, preserves, promotes and propagates America’s classical music. Through Free core programs, (Summerfest, Jazzmobile|Sessions, Saturday Jazz Workshops (SJW), lecture demonstrations) Jazzmobile presents world-class artists in underserved communities. Programs not only educate and entertain; but also contribute to these communities’ well-being. Programs are accessible for all, including families. As Jazzmobile celebrates 60 years of presenting free programs, the team is proud to have also inspired other organizations to create programs inspired by Jazzmobile’s founders, NEA Jazz Master Dr. Billy Taylor, Ms. Daphne Arnstein and with programs developed with NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath and other jazz greats of that era. This year SJW students are finalists in the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band competition at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
 
“While April is Jazz Appreciation Month, Jazzmobile is Jazz, and we celebrate 12 months a year,” says Robin Bell-Stevens.  Visit  www.jazzmobile.org for more information.
 
For more information on International Jazz Day, click here.

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The Last Poets

​PITTSBURGH, PA – The August Wilson Cultural Center proudly presents Poetry Unplugged: Always August, an electrifying evening of spoken word, music, and artistic expression, supported by Citizens. Taking place on Friday, April 18, at 7:00 PM, this highly anticipated annual event will take place in honor of what would have been August Wilson’s 80th birthday, celebrating his enduring legacy through the voices of today’s most influential spoken word artists.

Contact: Carolyn McClair Public Relations
​(212) 721-3341 | Info@CarolynMcClairPR.com

​PITTSBURGH, PA, April 8, 2025 – August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC) presents the 15th edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, featuring the city’s own iconic history along with legendary and contemporary jazz artistry.  The majority of performances are FREE on Liberty Avenue in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh with food trucks, a beer garden and Game Zone, plus ticketed concerts at AWAACC.

​“The August Wilson Center is bringing you the best fest yet with the 15th edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield,” said Janis Burley, President/CEO of AWAACC and the festival’s Artistic Director and founder. “As I reflect on the last fifteen years, I am proud of what the PIJF has accomplished: introducing new artists at the beginning of their rise to stardom, jazz legends at the height of their careers, and incredible jam session memories that the musicians remember as a special night in Pittsburgh. Music is the main objective for us, and we are committed to preserving the history, integrity, and ushering the future of this music we love, JAZZ.”
 
"The Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival at The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a powerful testament to music's ability to connect us all,”  said Kenya T. Boswell, senior vice president of community affairs, Highmark Health. “Through our Highmark Bright Blue Futures program, we're honored to support events like this that not only showcase the vibrancy of our community and its well-being but also contribute significantly to our local economy." 
 
The 2025 festival headliners are an eclectic mix of straight-ahead jazz, neo soul, Caribbean and urban folk music.  Jazz stalwarts Branford Marsalis and Dee Dee Bridgewater headline the festival. If you have a taste for the infinite varieties of jazz vocalists, you can feast your tastebuds on one of the reigning queens, Jazzmeia Horn, and Keith David, the richly-voiced, acclaimed stage and screen actor whose jazz album drops later this year, and two young singers -- the Los Angeles-based crooner, Michael Mayo, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center-affiliated chanteuse, Ekep Nkwelle Howard. And if you have a craving for a soothing, keyboardist/vocalist in the vein of the late Roberta Flack, hear Kandace Springs. After you’ve ingested all those musical styles, and you’re ready to dance, you’ll enjoy the D.C. go-go rhythms of the all-woman group, Be’La, Dona, the trap-jazz of saxophonist Nathan-Paul Davis, the West Indian riddims of the Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles and his Creole Soul Ensemble, and the propulsive polyrhythms from the Haitian-American drummer Obed Calvaire. And, if you feel like chasing the blues, then catch Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, the young award-winning guitarist/vocalist from Mississippi.
 
Homegrown guitarist and jazz club owner, John Shannon tours the globe but will shine a light on Pittsburgh-based talent.  Ohio native Dan Wilson is heir-apparent to the legacy of Pittsburgh’s living legend, George Benson.  He is commissioned by PIJF to be the musical director of an all-star tribute to Benson to open the Festival on Friday night September 19.  If you are in the mood for some post-bop, avant-garde, soul music, you’ll dig pianist Theron Brown and Orrin Evans’ TARBABY trio, featuring bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits. Showcasing all flavors and styles of jazz, PIJF embraces the diversity of the music.
 
For the third straight year, pianist/bandleader/composer Orrin Evans will host THE JAZZ TRAIN™, in partnership with AWAACC and Amtrak. The travel package includes round-trip train tickets from New York, Newark or Philadelphia, live jazz music during the trip, light refreshments and exciting jazz-related games and activities followed by four days of live music at the Festival. Passengers are responsible for securing the hotel and festival events of their choice.
 
Festival attendees can purchase single-day or full weekend VIP Passes separately or as a bundle with The Jazz Train tickets. VIP access includes priority seating for outdoor stages, access to a lounge area inside the AWAACC building, VIP-only bars and more. VIP Passes are limited, and advance booking is recommended. Tickets are available at www.pittsburghjazzfest.org.
 
After giving it serious thought and probably changing her mind a time or two, Burley named some of her favorite performances over the past 15 years – “Chaka Khan, the first artist we honored with a Luminary Award … 50,000 people singing War’s classic song, “Cisco Kid” … Patti LaBelle inviting dance partners on stage to sing a duet…Chick Corea, Christian McBride and Brian Blade in one of Corea’s last festival appearances, and Gregory Porter headlining the festival in 2011.”
 
SPONSORS
The 2025 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival is co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, with generous support from the Mellon Foundation. Additional sponsors include UPMC and UPMC Health Plan, BMW of Pittsburgh, Visit Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Presenting Sponsor for the Libation Station Tent is Bacardi.
 
August Wilson African American Cultural Center's presentation of the Jazzmeia Horn Quartet is supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with Jazz House Kids and DC Jazz Festival. A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.
 
Major support for AWAACC’s operations is provided by Richard King Mellon Foundation, Henry L. Hillman Foundation, Heinz Endowments, and the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD).
 
AWAACC’s programming is made possible by generous support from its donors. For a complete list, visit awaacc.org.
 
ABOUT HIGHMARK INC.
An independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Highmark Inc., together with its Blue-branded affiliates, collectively comprise the fifth largest overall Blue Cross Blue Shield-affiliated organization in the country with approximately 7 million members in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and western and northeastern New York. Its diversified businesses serve group customer and individual needs across the United States through dental insurance and other related businesses. For more information, visit www.highmark.com. 
 
The Highmark Bright Blue Futures program‘s goal is to ensure healthier, brighter, stronger futures for all, and it focuses on improving access to care, quality of life, and economic resilience in the communities the enterprise serves. For more information, visit Highmark Bright Blue Futures.
 
ABOUT AUGUST WILSON AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a nonprofit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 100,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today.
 
For more information on the 15th Anniversary edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, log on to https://pittsburghjazzfest.org.
 

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​Media Contact: Carolyn McClair | CMPR
(212) 721-3341 | CmcClair@awaacc.org

DS Kinsel's Work Inspired by August Wilson's Two Trains Running

PITTSBURGH, PA — Renowned visual artist and cultural agitator DS Kinsel will unveil new work created as part of the August Wilson Archive Community Artist-Scholar Award program sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Library System. The exhibition is on view March 6 until April 6, 2025, inside the 2nd floor Claude Worthington Benedum Gallery within the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC).
​

​The exhibition titled, August Taught Us…, presents powerful artifacts created by Kinsel inspired by the life and legacy of August Wilson. Across the paintings and collages, Kinsel merges icons from his own archive with copies of rare documents, photographs, and production materials from the August Wilson Archive, held by the Pitt Library System’s Archives & Special Collections. The exhibition provides an abstract visual report on the vast universe created by Wilson’s American Century Cycle.
 
“This body of work is a reflection of what I learned—not just about August Wilson, the historical figure, but August Wilson the practicing artist, negotiator, and everyday person.,” said DS Kinsel. “Wilson’s archive is more than a collection of scripts and notes; it’s a portal into the ways of being of a monumental Black American artist, and I aim to honor that legacy through my work.”
 
As a Community Artist-Scholar, Kinsel has been engaging with Wilson’s materials in Hillman Library since 2023. These investigations into Wilson's work have also encouraged Kinsel to uncover lost icons within his own artistic archive, leading to time spent reviewing artifacts from Kinsel's creative journey to fuse alongside Wilson's notes. The resulting work uses all of this source material as a foundation to build bridges between past and present narratives of Black resilience, genius, and artistic expression.
 
The Claude Worthington Benedum Gallery at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center boasts a wide range of dynamic exhibition and educational spaces that have hosted thousands of talented artists and creative students of all ages and backgrounds. Kinsel’s exhibition reinforces the AWAACC’s mission to support local artists, elevate Black voices, and present dynamic visual storytelling and artistic experiences.
 
The exhibition is free and open to the public. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with Kinsel’s work, learn about his research process, and reflect on August Wilson’s enduring influence.
About DS Kinsel:
DS Kinsel is an award-winning creative entrepreneur and cultural agitator who expresses his creativity through various mediums, including painting, printmaking, collage, installation, curating, performance, and public art. His work focuses on themes such as space keeping, urban tradition, hip-hop, informalism, and cultural re-appropriation. DS is former AmeriCorps Public Ally member and an Awardee of the Pittsburgh Courier Fab 40, Pittsburgh Magazine PUMP 40 Under 40, Pgh Tech Council Creative of The Year, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's "Top Ten People To Meet in 2016," and the Incline's "Who's Next" for 2018.


DS is also the co-founder of BOOM Concepts, a creative hub dedicated to advancing black and brown artists representing marginalized communities. Since its establishment in 2014, BOOM Concepts, based in Pittsburgh, has curated 50 on-site exhibitions, paid over $500,000 in artist fees, and produced 200+ events across the country. BOOM serves as a space for field building, knowledge sharing, mentorship, and storytelling, continually challenging and uplifting the creative community. In 2021, BOOM Concepts was selected as one of the partners to represent the Greater Pittsburgh Region on the Google Arts & Culture platform and recognized as one of Pittsburgh's Cultural Treasures through The Heinz Endowments and The Ford Foundation.
 
ABOUT THE AUGUST WILSON ARCHIVE
Held by the University of Pittsburgh Library System, the August Wilson Archive is a comprehensive collection of materials that document Wilson’s life and career. The archive includes handwritten notes, scripts, playbills, production materials, personal correspondence, and rare photographs that shed light on Wilson’s creative process and contributions to American theater.
 
ABOUT AUGUST WILSON AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a nonprofit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 100,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today.


Major support for AWAACC’s operations is provided by Richard King Mellon Foundation, Henry L. Hillman Foundation, Heinz Endowments, and the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD). AWAACC’s programming is made possible by generous support from its donors. For a complete list, visit our website. www.awaacc.org

EVENT DETAILS:
What: The August Wilson Archive presents:  August Taught Us… by DS Kinsel
When: March 6 – April 6, 2025
Where: The Claude Worthington Benedum Gallery, 2nd floor, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Admission: Free and open to the public
 
AWAACC Gallery Hours of Operation:
Thursday: 3pm-6pm
Friday: 3pm-6pm
Saturday: 1pm-5pm
Sunday: 1pm-5pm
 
Experience More:
Sunday, March 16, 3-5 PM
Black Power Storytime, presented by artist DS Kinsel as part of his exhibition August Taught Us, is a dynamic storytelling event that celebrates Black voices through captivating performances of prose, poetry, essays, and more, highlighting the richness of the Black experience. Presented in collaboration with partners like BOOM Concepts, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh Festival of Books, the program creates an inclusive, intergenerational space for cultural exploration and appreciation. Through the power of storytelling, this event fosters dialogue, preserves traditions, and showcases the creative brilliance of Black authors.

Friday, March 28, 6-9 PM
Kinselland Radio, created by Anqwenique and DS Kinsel, is a vinyl-driven sonic experience that takes listeners on a journey through deep cuts of classical, jazz, hip hop, R&B, rock, and retro pop. Having performed at venues like Carnegie Museum of Art and The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Kinselland blends ancestral inheritance with personal crate-digging discoveries. For the March 28th Gallery Crawl at AWAACC, they will curate a musical selection inspired by August Wilson’s personal collection, seamlessly intertwined with their own.

Saturday, April 5, 3-6 PM, Closing Reception
The exhibition closing reception will feature a gallery talk with DS Kinsel and AWAACC Literary Curator, Jessica Lanay: “AW Archive as Ancestral Work.”