If you go
Jazz on the Grass› When: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, April 2.› Where: Coolidge Park, 150 River St.› Admission: Free.› Online: jazzanooga.orgJudy Carmichael› When: 5:30-8 p.m. Sunday, April 2.› Where: Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St.› Admission: $35.› Online: jazzanooga.orgArts.Black› When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5.› Where: Jazzanooga Arts Space, 431 E. M.L. King Blvd.› Admission: Free.› Online: jazzanooga.orgAlso this month at Jazzanooga Arts Space› April 14, 7 p.m. Icon Tribute: Clyde Stubblefield.› April 20, 7:30 p.m. Icon Tribute: Bessie Smith.› April 23, 1:30 p.m. Sunday Gospel Brunch.› April 29, 2 p.m. Art & Jazz Day Party with Black Art of America.› April 29, 7:30 p.m. Icon Tribute: Duke Ellington.› April 30, 4:30 p.m. Jazz Poetry Tribute to Billie Holiday.
Blue Groove Jazz Band
At 5:30 p.m. Sunday, stride pianist Judy Carmichael will perform at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre.April is National Jazz Appreciation Month and Jazzanooga, a local organization that celebrates jazz year-round, has two events on Sunday to get its monthlong Jam Fest started. They will also present Arts.Black at Jazzanooga Arts Space on M.L. King Boulevard on Wednesday.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, four area bands will perform as part of Jazz on the Grass at Coolidge Park, and then at 5:30 p.m., stride pianist Judy Carmichael will perform at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. She will be doing a free workshop for area jazz students earlier in the day, as well. Arts.Black will take place at 6:30.
Performing at Coolidge Park will be Sweet Georgia Sound, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Jazz Band, the Inman Street Band and Blue Groove, the jazz band ensemble of the Air National Guard Band of the South. The show is free.
For Arts.Black, Jazzanooga is partnering with the UTC Art Department for the free event, which is a look at art criticism from a black perspective predicated on the belief that art criticism should be an accessible dialogue. The panel will feature Jessica Lynne, co-editor/co-founder of Arts.Black in New York City, Tenika Dye, director of Playback Theatre, and visual artists Lisa Polissant from Miami, R. Josiah Golson and James McKissic from Chattanooga.
UTC faculty member Jennifer Dano will moderate the discussion.
These events, like most of the events Jazzanooga presents, are to celebrate jazz and to hopefully introduce it to new fans, especially younger listeners.
"We are happy and excited that the Air National Guard Band could get us on their schedule," says Jazzanooga Executive Director Shane Morrow.
"And the UTC Jazz Band is really good as well. All of these bands are, and this will be very entertaining."
Morrow says he is just as thrilled to have Carmichael here to perform.
"I really didn't think she would be able to make it since she is just coming off a tour in Argentina," he says.
"She is one of the best stride pianists in the world. I mean for Count Basie to say she is one of the best, she must be, right?"
Basie, in fact, nicknamed Carmichael "Stride." She will do a free workshop at the CTC for high school jazz students at 2:30. Stride piano, also known as Harlem stride piano, developed in large East Coast cities in the '20 and '30s. It was popularized by artists like "Fats" Waller.
It is a physically demanding style of playing in which the left hand plays an alternating bass note/chord while the right hand plays a syncopated melody with harmonies and fills.
Carmichael was born in California, but moved to New York in the early '80s. She has played around the world, including in China, and hosts the "Judy Carmichael's Jazz Inspired" show on NPR and SiriusXM NPR Now.
"This will be a truly special show," Morrow says.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.