GRAMMY® Award-winning musician/producer and world-renowned drummer Quentin E. Baxter will present another three-concert series on Kiawah Island. Each concert is $35 for general admission and starts at 4 pm. In addition, a limited three-concert package will be offered for $90.
Tickets are available at www.baxtermusic.com or by calling 843-766-8814. The concert series is sponsored by the Town of Kiawah Island Arts and Cultural Events Council.
Here are the details for each show:
CC + THE ADELITAS
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2024, at 4 p.m.
Seabrook Island Clubhouse – Atlantic Ballroom
3772 Seabrook Island Road, Seabrook Island, SC 29455
The series' first concert will feature CC + The Adelitas led by drummer/composer/educator Dr. Colleen Clark.
Joining Clark for the performance will be vocalist Andrea Chavarro, trumpeter Rachel Therrien, clarinetist Virginia MacDonald, pianist Arcoiris Sandoval, and bassist Mimi Jones.
“CC and the Adelitas” represents the intersectionality between identity, race, gender, and culture. The Adelitas were the women soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution, which helped forge “Adelita” into an icon in Mexican culture, representing the strength and fortitude of women in the modern day. This project and the experience that it creates incorporates the history of the Adelitas and Mexican songwriters and/or singers and sets the music in the Jazz idiom.
The combination of history, language, culture, and music highlights the importance of our acknowledgment and welcoming of diversity and inclusion. By presenting the songs in Spanish, “CC and The Adelitas” also welcome a broader audience to the music, reassuring our music community that Jazz can be a conduit of not only expression but expression of identity.
Founder and Artistic Director of the University of South Carolina’s Jazz Girls Day, Dr. Colleen Clark is an Assistant Professor of Jazz at the University of South Carolina where she coordinates the small ensembles, conducts a big band and teaches her drumset studio and Jazz history courses.
DAN WILSON QUARTET
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2024, at 4 p.m.
Seabrook Island Clubhouse – Atlantic Ballroom
3772 Seabrook Island Road, Seabrook Island, SC 29455
The second concert of the series will feature Benedetto Guitarist Dan Wilson.
Accompanying Wilson for the concert will be pianist Glenn Zaleski, bassist Brandon Rose, and drummer Quentin E. Baxter.
Growing up in Akron, Ohio, guitarist/composer Dan Wilson spent the majority of his youth within the church community, where his musical path began.
Traces of his major guitar influences – including Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, and George Benson to name a few – can be discerned through his playing, but his musical identity has been shaped by everything from gospel and blues to traditional Jazz, hip-hop and horn players like Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
After graduation from Hiram College, Wilson made his recording debut with pianist Joe McBride and performed to worldwide acclaim with Joey DeFrancesco and Christian McBride’s Tip City, eventually recording his debut as a leader To Whom It May Concern.
Wilson has had the honor of sharing the stage with Jazz greats including Eric Marienthal, Russell Malone, Les McCann, René Marie, Jeff Hamilton, David Sanborn, and Dave Stryker. He also teaches Jazz guitar and music theory through private lessons.
Wilson’s career took him on an exploratory journey into foundations laid down by the guitar/organ tradition, eventually leading to an invitation to perform with Jazz great Joey DeFrancesco, with which Wilson went on to earn a GRAMMY® Award nomination for DeFrancesco’s Project Freedom album (Mack Avenue Records, 2017).
This collaboration allowed the guitarist to insert his dialect into the musical prowess and respect that DeFrancesco had earned throughout his journey.
Wilson had been playing with DeFrancesco for a few years when he met bassist, composer, and arranger, Christian McBride. From there, Wilson went on to tour with McBride’s trio Tip City, eventually leading McBride to serve as producer on Vessels of Wood and Earth and release the album on his newly formed imprint Brother Mister Productions through Mack Avenue Music Group.
In celebrating his fourth album as leader, Things Eternal [Mack Avenue, Brother Mister Productions], Wilson takes stock of the lessons learned from each of those rich sources, ensuring that their legacy lives on through him even as some of them pass on. His wide-ranging tastes are reflected in the artfully curated repertoire for Things Eternal, which includes songs by The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, and Sting alongside Jazz classics by the likes of McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Michael Brecker, and Herbie Hancock, as well as a song by hometown favorite Phillip K. Jones II.
The album’s two Wilson originals both reflect its central theme in unique ways. “Since a Hatchet Was a Hammer” was a phrase he heard from his then 97-year-old Aunt Mary, who he says was “outspoken for nearly a century.” Her undimmed spirit and keen insight are both reflected in the guitarist’s determined tribute.
The title track was inspired by a vivid fever dream that Wilson had shortly after losing his grandmother and features wistful lyrics sung by Jessica Yafanaro over Glenn Zaleski’s dreamlike Fender Rhodes.
The title of Things Eternal is extracted from the hymn “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand,” in which Wilson found solace during these trying times.
JONTAVIOUS WILLIS
SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2024, at 4 p.m.
Turtle Point Clubhouse – Legends Room
1 Turtle Point Lane, Kiawah Island, SC 29455
The third concert of the series will feature GRAMMY® -Nominated, Award-winning vocalist/guitarist Jontavious Willis.
Jontavious Willis is resolved in his mission: to reinvigorate today’s Blues with the spirit of the past. Inspired by a time when the Blues were plentiful and rhythm reigned supreme, Jontavious leverages his unique sound – a synthesis of his Georgia heritage and reverence for traditional Blues – to get the world dancing again. A GRAMMY® -nominated musician and songwriter, Jontavious performs original, toe-tapping tunes in the style of Delta, Piedmont, Texas, and Gospel Blues. Dynamic vocals, technical prowess, and an abundance of Southern charm keep Jontavious sending jolts of vitality through the Blues community.
Jontavious was born and raised in rural Georgia, an environment with deep cultural roots that provides the inspiration he has continuously drawn upon to create his unique sound. He spent much of his childhood singing Gospel music at the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church with his grandfather, which provided him with his first setting to perform for an audience. An early phenom, his passion for the Blues was sparked at age 14 when he came across a YouTube video of Muddy Waters playing “Hoochie Coochie Man.” He achieved widespread acclaim when living legend Taj Mahal invited Jontavious to accompany him onstage in 2015, with Taj describing him as his “Wonderboy.” Jontavious was invited to open for Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ during their joint TajMo tour in 2018, allowing him to present his work on a national stage.
Blue Metamorphosis, his acoustic debut album released in 2016, garnered rave reviews in Living Blues and Blues & Rhythm and won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge 2018 Award for Best Self-Produced CD. His GRAMMY® -nominated sophomore album, Spectacular Class, sees Jontavious survey an array of Blues styles with lively ensemble performances. Jontavious features prominently in solo shows and festivals across the world, sharing his unique blend of time-honored yet modern, intellectual yet danceable Blues with all.