Lisa Denton and Barry Courter
BARRY COURTER: Lisa, as you know, “The Wiz” was a huge success at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre several weeks ago, so it’s pretty cool that Jazzanooga is basing the first of its Soul of Broadway Songbook Series on the production.
The series is designed to showcase theater and musical experiences written by, for and about African-Americans, and the events on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at The Camp House will showcase not only some of the great music from the show but some facts and history about the original 1975 groundbreaking debut.
LISA DENTON: Sounds like something we should ease on down, ease on down the road to see.
And as long as we’re doing our musical workout, we can climb the “Stairway to Heaven” when Black Jacket Symphony performs Led Zeppelin’s “IV” at the Tivoli Theatre on Saturday.
BARRY: That’s a solid choice by BJS. That album got a lot of play at my house back in the day. I bet from the opening “Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move, Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove” to the last notes of “When the Levee Breaks,” I can sing every word and play every air-guitar and drum lick.
Which is really quite a physical feat, playing both air guitar and air drums at the same time, but this is the album for doing just that. Which reminds me, did I tell you I saw an ad the other day for a “Vintage Air Guitar.” It was a picture of just a guitar stand with the sign. Clever, but they were asking way too much.
LISA: Don’t buy that one. I can get you one cheap.
We laugh, but there is an actual Air Guitar World Championship. The 23rd edition is in August. Yes, you read that right. Somebody has been crowned an air guitar champion for the last 22 years. Maybe that’s why the one you saw in the ad was priced so high – it was previously owned by a world champion.
BARRY: Now, that would make sense.
LISA: Back to real music, I recall that one of your favorite Music Wednesdays singers, Jermaine Purifory, will be launching a new musical series Thursday at the Museum Center at Five Points in Cleveland. He sang with Lee University’s Voices of Lee, the a cappella group that appeared on NBC’s “The Sing Off.” And he made it to the end of the Hollywood rounds on Season 9 of “American Idol.” And he sang backup vocals for “Glee” for a while in Los Angeles before coming home.
The series is called Music Under the Stars, and more concerts are scheduled in April, May, June and October.
BARRY: He is definitely one of my favorites. Jermaine also spent much of last year touring with The Impressions singing the Curtis Mayfield parts. Just one more example of the amazing talent we have in our area. Kindora will be our guest on Wednesday, by the way. For folks who don’t know, we have a music guest with us live every Wednesday at noon on Facebook Live #timesfreepress.com.
Get event information every Thursday in ChattanoogaNow or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.