**From South Austin to Harlem, NYC, there is support for creative work**
FOR THOSE FOLKS IN THE NYC, HERE IS A HISTORIC EVENT:
Fred Ho/Big Red Media, Inc., Joseph Yoon/Spectrum Music, Ltd., Ben Barson and Scientific Soul Sessions In collaboration with Celebrity Chef Marcus Samuelsson and the Red Rooster Restaurant are proud to present:
THE BIG BAND CONCERT & CD RELEASE EVENT FOR THE MUSIC OF CAL MASSEY: A TRIBUTE and
SPECIAL CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
2 sets at 7:30pm or 9:30pm
Red Rooster, 310 Lenox Avenue, Harlem, NYC [between 125th and 126th Streets, Harlem, NY 2/3 train to 125th Street]
http://marcussamuelsson.com/news/red-rooster-harlem-celebrates-cal-massey-with-a-concert-from-fred-ho
Tickets: $25 with advance reservation; $30 at the door; $10 bar standing only.
All paid admittance guarantees one free compact disc per customer.
RESERVATIONS ARE STRONGLY URGED: 212.792.9001 and say: “Cal Massey special concert.”
Both the 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. concerts will be held in Red Rooster Harlem’s downstairs venue.
Tickets will be available for purchase at www.redroosterharlem.com .
A special Red Rooster 3-course dinner will also be available during the show for an additional $55.
Doors will open half an hour prior to each performance.
Who was Cal Massey and why was his music both great and revolutionary?
Composer, trumpeter, band leader, Calvin (“Cal”) Massey (b. 1927 d. 1971) was one of American music’s greatest composers, mentoring and influencing some of the leading musicians of his era, including Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Archie Shepp, and so many others.
Mr. Massey died at a young age of 44 from years of bad health, part of the “dues paying” of great artists who create within the traditions of African American creative music (aka “jazz”), and Mr. Massey was one of its giants. His compositions have been recorded extensively by the aforementioned artists, and by many others, but his greatest work, The Black Liberation Movement Suite, commissioned by Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panther Party in 1969, has had only 4 of the 9 movements recorded, all by Archie Shepp. Mr. Massey’s lack of mainstream “official” recognition was in large part due to his fierce independence and his radical political stances. The Suite, co-composed with his long-time musical partner, Romulus Franceschini (an Italian American gifted composer-arranger who could easily traverse European concert music and African American musical idioms, and who was a socialist), is one of the undiscovered gems of American 20th century music, and was finally fully recorded by Fred Ho and Quincy Saul (members of Scientific Soul Sessions) in 2011.
The recording, THE MUSIC OF CAL MASSEY: A TRIBUTE, brings together today’s generation of vanguard musicians to honor Massey’s opus, The Black Liberation Movement Suite, and three other Massey works arranged by Fred Ho. Performed by a chamber big band (4 saxes, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, 2 strings and 3 piece rhythm section, with conducting by Fred Ho), having a celebration release concert and party is of special historic significance being at the Red Rooster, as Mr. Massey frequently performed at the original Red Rooster.
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