POLYRHYTHMS WELCOMES LENORA ZENZALAI HELM
Lenora Zenzalai Helm's For the Love of Big Band CD is featured in a virtual concert, narrated by Lenora. This event provides the audience with an opportunity for behind the scenes descriptions and insights for a "live liner notes" experience. All concert photos are by Chi Brown.
September 12 & 13, 2020
POLYRHYTHMS Third Sunday Jazz Series welcomes you to a refreshing and unique livestream experience with renowned bandleader, recording artist and teacher Lenora Zenzalai Helm, as she pays homage to the great women of big-band jazz.
From 9:00 - 11:00 pm (8 pm - 10 pm CST), resplendent with context and insights, Ms. Helm will escort her online audience through her new CD, “For the Love of Big Band,” and will add her own context and insights on the importance of women leaders and artists in the history of this classical American art form.
This collaboration, between Lenora Helm & Polyrhythms, reflects a shared mission and demonstrates that the current pandemic circumstances of our lives have not deterred us from our devotion to our mission, to keep jazz alive in our community.
A veteran musician, recording artist and teacher, Lenora Zenzalai Helm created a woman-led big band which recorded “For the Love of Big Band” preserving the big band and supporting gender equity in jazz.
“This recording is my way of paying tribute to many women bandleaders,” said Helm. “Most were heralded as ‘just singers’ but were actually the CEOs of the big bands that toured in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.”
The list of women who led top bands of the era is long and compelling, and includes Betty Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Ina Rae Hutton, and Blanch Calloway.
Ms. Helm’s credentials in taking on this project are also top-notch, as both vocalist and educator. She was named “Voice of Her Generation” by Jazziz magazine, and she has long been sought-after as a jazz clinician and vocal musicianship coach. Currently, she is associate professor in the Department of Music and Jazz Studies Program at North Carolina Central University, where she is also director of the award-winning Vocal Jazz Ensemble.
And so Lenora Zenzalai Helm is a perfect fit for furthering the Polyrhythms mission of cultural advocacy, education and ambassadorship for our priceless heritage of jazz music. For this concert, Helm seized upon the opportunity to creatively present art in a way that celebrates sharing the music, talent, and craftsmanship in a warm, intimate manner that exemplifies its camaraderie and permits the proverbial peek behind the curtain, as it were.
By all means, join us in allowing Ms. Helm and her band to demonstrate the warmth and swing of big-band music, and accentuate its gender equity.
The Concert will be streamed on www.DavisEntertainmentNetwork.net
DONATIONS ARE ACCEPTED AND ENCOURAGED
1. Log on to PayPal.com
2. Go to “pay and get paid”
3. Click on send money, and enter email address QCJFL2020@gmail.com & enter amount
4. Click send
Polyrhythms Third Sunday Jazz Series is made possible with major support of, the Jenkins Family Foundation, River Music Experience, and Visionary Arts as well as the support of Wells Fargo, Bowman Accounting, Peeples Heating & Air Conditioning, the Austin Family Charitable Fund, Cribbs Landscaping, The Joyce & Tony Singh Family Foundation, Craig & Joni Davis, George Greer, Radio station KALA, and DJ Mixxin Mel.
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