​DURHAM, NC –Nine years since her last recording hit the charts, Lenora Zenzalai Helmreturns to the recording industry with FOR THE LOVE OF BIG BAND (FTLOBB)featuring Tribe Jazz Orchestra™in a unique approach to the music of the big band tradition.  Released on March 9 on Zenzalai Music, the new album is Helm’s seventh record and her first leading a big band. 

“I was burning the candle at both ends while completing my doctorate degree in Musical Arts at Boston University and teaching Jazz Studies at North Carolina Central University (NCCU),” said Helm. “I was thrilled to immerse myself in these fabulous stories by some of my favorite composers after being out of the studio for so long. To have the privilege to work with all of these talented musicians and to record with my own big band for the first time is truly a blessing.”
 
FTLOBBwas recorded live over two days before an audience at Hayti Heritage Center, an historic church near downtown Durham, NC. The music is a mix of jazz standards, which came to life at the swinging and soulful concert. Guest conductor, Brian Horton, and Helm guided the band through the new arrangements by Stanley Cowell, Cecil Bridgewater, newcomer Maurice Myersand Horton.  Special guests include Joey Calderazzo, piano; Ameen Saleem, acoustic bass; Kobie Watkins, drums; Ira Wiggins, flute;
with vocals by Myersand the North Carolina Central University Vocal Jazz Ensemble.
 
FOR THE LOVE OF BIG BANDkicks off with Nina Simone’s Blues for Mama. Although happily married to the love of her life for nine years, Helm puts her foot in the blues and is so convincing that one might actually believe she is wrapped up in the my-man-done-me-wrong drama of the song.  She swings on to Gillespie’s Bebop, with Calderazzo ruling the keys and Helm and her Orchestra doing the composer`` and bebop proud. 
 
Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke provided the music and lyrics for the beautiful ballad It Could Happen to You; however, it gets a special twist withCecil Bridgewater‘s rhythmic arrangements with hints of 3 against 4 while taking a swing feel for the solo sections and horn shouts. “Cecil took a very innovative approach to a timeless standard. It begins and ends with rubato vocal and horns underneath. It’s a lot of fun to sing,” says Helm. Everything but Youby Duke Ellington and Harry James is also enjoyable with its quirky lyrics about getting everything from horses to baked beans to Peruvian coffee pots, but not the one you love. 
 
Helm declares to her audience that she “loves old jazz standards … they have nice stories and tell of love the way we hope it is.”  The rest of the album is a testament to the beauty of the music and Helm’s devotion to singing it. Rounding out the CD are Chega de Saudade: No More Blues(A. Jobim, J. Cavanaugh/V.de Moraes, J. Hendricks), Soul Eyes(M. Waldron),I Didn’t Know About You(D. Ellington/B. Russell), Sandu(C. Brown/D. Townsend), But Not for Me(G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin), Mississippi Goddam (N. Simone) and Stella by Starlight(V. Young/N. Washington). Abonus track with the Tribe Jazz Orchestra Septet, Helm’s lyrics to John Coltrane’s composition Conversation with God(Dear Lord)is a highlight of the recording with Myers’ vocal arrangement featuring the NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble, directed by Helm.  
 
In addition to the special guests,FOR THE LOVE OF BIG BANDpersonnel is:Lenora Zenzalai Helm, voice; Ernest Turner, Lydia Salett Dudley, Ed Paolantonio, piano; Baron Tymas, guitar; Ginnae Koon, bass; Thomas Taylor, Dorien Dotson, drums; James "Saxsmo" Gates, Sam King,Brian Miller, Matt York, Ariel Kopelove,Shaena Ryan Martin, reeds: LynnGrissett, Al Strong, Zoe Smith, Tyler Perske, trumpets; Robert Trowers, Isrea Butler, Tenay Harrell,Reggie Greenlee, Cameron MacManus, trombones. The band’s conductor is saxophonist/composer/arranger, Brian Horton.

Helm, Paolantonio, Tymas and Taylor along with Timothy Holley, cello; Salome Serena Wiley, tenor saxophone; Lance E. Scott, Jr., acoustic bass; with special guest vocals by Maurice Myers and the NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble, make up the Tribe Jazz Orchestra Septet.
​
The Live Recording, Mix & Mastering Engineer is Rob “Wacko” Hunter.
The Tribe Jazz Orchestra™ is an ensemble of musicians led by vocalist/composer/educator Lenora Zenzalai Helm. Representing one of the few vocalist and woman-led big bands, TJO features a diverse amalgam of some of the top men and women performers in Jazz.  The instrumentation comprises a combination of Jazz orchestra with a modern chamber ensemble perspective. The members all have ties to, or are based, in North Carolina, have performed together in various configurations and have appeared in noted concert venues and international music festivals worldwide. 

FOR THE LOVE OF BIG BANDis Helm’s seventh commercial release. Her previous recordings include I Love Myself When I’m Laughing, Chronicles of A Butterflyand Precipice. She has performed and recorded with some of the biggest names in Jazz while leading her groups at renowned jazz festivals and venues worldwide, including Jazz Standard, Dizzy’s Club Women’s Jazz Festival, Schomburg Center's Women in Jazz Festival, Blues Alley, JVC Jazz Festival, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Cape Town Jazzathon, University of Pretoria Jazz Festival, Essentially Ellington Regional Festival at Brigham Young University and Fiji Jazz & Blues Festival. She is on the Jazz Vocal Advisory Board for Juilliard Jazz, joining esteemed colleagues Dianne Reeves, Kurt Elling, Carmen Lundy, Carla Cook, Charenee Wade and Hilary Gardner. Helm has amassed numerous composer and music awards, including Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works, and served as a U.S. Jazz Ambassador.
For more information, visit www.LenoraHelm.com.

​Stay connected with Lenora Zenzalai Helm at:

• www.twitter.com/lenorahelm
• Lenora's Official YouTube Channel
• www.Reverbnation.com/lenorahelm
• www.facebook.com/LenoraZenzalaiHelm 
• Lenora on iTunes
• www.cdbaby.com/artist/LenoraZenzalaiHelm 
• Lenora's Online Courses
• https://www.chamber-music.org/member/lenora-zenzalai-helm-zenzalai-project
• http://www.theawfc.com/user/lenora-zenzalai-helm/

• https://portablemacdowell.org/#artists/lenora-zenzalai-helm
• https://soundcloud.com/lenora-zenzalai-helm
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenora-hammonds-a2205810
• www.VocalJazzSummerCamp.com

 

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​NEW YORK, NY, October 24, 2019 – Fifty years ago, a young Jamaican pianist named Monty Alexanderwalked into Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem and immediately knew he had entered the inner sanctum of Jazz. On Wednesday, October 30, at 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm, Jazzmobile and Minton’s present MONTY MONK MINTON’S: 50 Years Later, a celebration of Alexander’s 50thanniversary since he first performed at the world-famous venue, featuring a special tribute to Thelonious Monk, with music from Monty’s latest album Wareika Hill (Rastamonk Vibrations).

​NEW YORK, NY, OCTOBER 2019 – The tribute album is certainly not a new concept, as artists have raised their voices in celebration of iconic musicians and songwriters in all sorts of creative ways over the years.  So conventional wisdom would suggest, there's no new way to approach this concept?  Well what if you celebrated a "sound” – more specifically, you celebrated the personal influence and impact of a "vocal range" in a particular genre?  If you contemplate the creation of a modern day tribute to the impact of "deep male voices" of the past in "romantic ballad" settings, one name should instantly stand out from the all the rest -- The Prince of Sophisticated Soul himself, Will Downing.

New York, NY, September 25, 2019 – Today the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation (LAEF) announced three days of celebration in honor of the organization’s 50th Anniversary, includingthe Annual Louis Armstrong Continuum Symposium and Concert and the Annual SatchmoTMAward, with a special Lifetime Achievement Award to the LAEF board president.

​IMAGINE DOCUMENTARIES ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE PARTNERSHIP 
WITH THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG™ EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, INC 
ON DEFINITIVE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
 
DEAL GIVES ACCESS TO HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF PERSONAL AUDIO RECORDINGS, FILM FOOTAGE, PHOTOGRAPHS, PERSONAL DIARIES AND LETTERS FOR EXCLUSIVE USE IN FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

New York, August 12, 2019 –Imagine Documentaries President, Justin Wilkes, announced today that the company has reached an exclusive deal with the Louis Armstrong™ Educational Foundation to produce the definitive documentary on Jazz- legend and beloved entertainer, Louis Armstrong. The deal comes with access to hundreds of hours of audio recordings, film footage, photographs, personal diaries and a life’s worth of ephemera for exclusive use in the first significant documentary dedicated entirely to his life. In addition to Louis’ prolific music and film career, Louis was an avid biographer and kept an almost daily audio diary from the early 1950’s until the day he passed in 1971, all on reel-to-reel tape recordings and all organized meticulously “for posterity” by “Pops” himself.

​NEWPORT, RI, July 24, 2019 –From Duke Ellington’s rocking rhythms, Thelonious Monk’s melodious thunks to Mary Lou Williams’ spiritual swing and Michel Camilo’s island improvisations, the Newport Jazz Festival has been the premier showcase for pianists for decades. This year’s edition features a wide variety of keyboardists, shaping the state of jazz to come.