Thank you for your support! We had a great time on April 9th!
Greetings, family, friends and fans!
I am happy to announce that our concert provided at least $1000 to each of the three non-profit organizations: The Peoples' Voice Cafe, The Weeksville Heritage Center (in Brooklyn), and Music On The Inside! I hope that you will consider providing more support to them.
This was the FIRST big concert of the "Chris Oledude" era, and it was a wonderful party! The energy was powerfully positive, the music motivated all of us, and the weirdness of a livestreamed studio session made it a real night to remember. I look forward to releasing the livestream recording (unedited and edited) for everyone to enjoy again!
I want to thank Hayden Ticehurst and his crew at Studio G (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) for their patience and innovation in setting up the session and providing a great mix for your pleasure. I also want to thank Lorray Digital Media (NJ), and its fearless leader, Ray, for making the most of an awkward situation with a good camera set-up and quality video for all!!!
Most importantly, I want to thank my musical colleagues.
The Birthday Benefit Bash Ensemble
Baritone Sax: Martha Hyde deserves special kudos for stepping in literally at the last minute and filling in for a missing part. I forgot to introduce her "on air," so I want to thank her first here!
Alto Sax: Special thanks to my new friend and ally, Lisa Parrot! Lisa provided critical assistance at a critical time in this process and I will be forever grateful.
Most importantly, I want to thank my musical colleagues.
The Birthday Benefit Bash Ensemble
Baritone Sax: Martha Hyde deserves special kudos for stepping in literally at the last minute and filling in for a missing part. I forgot to introduce her "on air," so I want to thank her first here!
Alto Sax: Special thanks to my new friend and ally, Lisa Parrot! Lisa provided critical assistance at a critical time in this process and I will be forever grateful.
Bass Guitar: Thanks to my new friend, Buddy Booker!
Cello: Thanks to my musical mentor and great friend, Barry Kornhauser.
Drums: Thanks to my new and inspirational friend, Bernice Brooks!
French Horn: Thanks to a new friend, Justin Mullens!
Guitars: Special thanks to Tomas Rodriguez, who had to pick up multiple roles when COVID knocked out our other guitarist.
Percussion: Thanks to my brother from another mother, Baba Selah!
Piano and Keyboard: Thanks to new friend, Dan Furman!
Trumpet: Thanks to a new friend, Pam Fleming!
Viola: Thanks to my new soul sister, Pam Hamilton!
Violins: Thank you to my new friend, Eric Salazar, and to my friend and client, Liz Taub (Violizzy).
Vocals: Thanks to my new friends, Laura Bright and Laurent Grant Williams! It was great to be a trio!
Meet my fellow performers
BUDDY BOOKER
Bass
Harlem-born Buddy Booker has been playing Bass and teaching music professionally for many years in New York City as well as across the United States and in Europe.
Buddy received his Music degree from Bennington College and engaged in further study of Western harmony at Columbia University.
Buddy currently holds down the Bass chair every Sunday at Mount Zion A.M.E. Church in White Plains, NY. He is a Bass instructor at The New School and is on the roster for The Cotton Club.
LAURA BRIGHT
Vocalist
Laura Bright is a New York based singer, actor, and musician.
Her most recent credits include Pride & Prejudice: A New Musical (Music Director) at the Connelly Theater and The Joe Hill Revival (Kady O’Shaughnessy) at the Triad Theater.
Instagram: @laurabright17
Learn more about Laura at www.laura-bright.com
BERNICE BROOKS
Drummer
Bernice “Boom Boom” Brooks is a drummer, producer and teaching artist considered to be one of the foremost drummers at the local, national and international levels.
Brooks’ longevity is rooted in her versatility; she is able to play any style of music. Her talent has brought her to great venues, including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall with artists such as Laura Nyro, Toshi Reagon, Patti LaBelle, Elvis Costello, The Weather Girls, Taylor Mac, Joanne Brackeen, Sarah McLawler, Ann Duquesnay and many jazz greats. Bernice has also opened for Ray Charles, Tito Puente, Gregory Hines, Bill Withers and The Staple Singers, to name a few.
Bernice Brooks continues to develop her style with each new experience that happens to cross her path.
"Here’s a shout out to all the singers, musicians, bands and students I have had the honor of working with or for. I am very thankful for my work, my performances, and the opportunity to see the world. Thanks!" -- Miss BB
PAM FLEMING
Trumpet
New York City's Trumpet/Flugelhorn artist Pam Fleming is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. She is the composer/leader of world jazz group Fearless Dreamer, and has released four original recordings, "Fearless Dreamer”, “Climb”, “Buds,” and one with her Dead Zombie Band: “Rise And Dance".
Pam toured nationally on the Lilith Fair with Natalie Merchant, where she was also a soloist with Sarah McLachlan, and The Indigo Girls. She has been touring internationally with World Roots group Hazmat Modine. Pam has appeared with Bonnie Raitt on VH1, and Rufus Wainwright on Late Night with David Letterman.
In addition to extensive work with reggae stars Burning Spear, Maxi Priest, and Dennis Brown, New Year’s Eve shows and recordings with Jam Band Gov’t Mule, "Li'l" Jimmy Scott (Sessions at 54th St. on PBS), Cab Calloway, Robert Palmer, Arrow [Hot Hot Hot], The Easy Star All-Stars ("Dub Side of the Moon", "RadioDread", and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Dub Band"), the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, and the Diva Jazz Orchestra. Pam is also a long-time member of Metropolitan Klezmer and the Isle of Klezbos
Learn more about Pam at: www.FearlessDreamer.com
DAN FURMAN
Piano / Keyboards
Dan Furman hails from Old Hickory, Tennessee (just outside Nashville).
He began playing piano and composing music at an early age and went on to study composition and jazz piano at Oberlin Conservatory.
After moving to New York in 2003 to play jazz, he began writing for music theater as well. He spent four years in the BMI Lehman Engels Musical Theater Workshop.
Dan is Director of the Brooklyn Tavern Theater, which puts on original musicals in Brooklyn’s taverns and beyond. He is the composer/lyricist/bookwriter of Impossible But True, and the composer and lyricist for Ybor City (with Anita Gonzalez, bookwriter) and Sign In the Six O'Clock Sky (with bookwriter Arnold Schulman). He is currently developing The Proust Virus, a musical about video game characters who come to life when Proust is uploaded into their game, and has presented The Joe Hill Revival, an updated vision of the legacy of labor activist Joe Hill. The Joe Hill Revival premiered in Sept/Oct 2021 at Rustik Tavern in Brooklyn.
Dan lives in Brooklyn with his wife, neuroscientist Kim Allen. He works in Manhattan as a jazz pianist and music director/accompanist.
Learn more about Dan and his work: www.danfurman.com www.brooklyntaverntheater.com
LAURENT GRANT WILLIAMS
Vocalist
Laurent Grant Williams is international vocalist, actor, arranger and Teaching Artist. His training took place at the Terry Knickerbocker Studio and Quincy University, Quincy, IL.
Laurent was most recently seen in Dan Furman's The Joe Hill Revival as Joe Hill. His previous credits include A Boy From Troy (Little Island), Turning 15 On The Road To Freedom (National Tour), Hair, March On!, The All Night Strut (SALT Award Winner), The Imaginary (29 Hour Reading), Big River, The Toxic Avenger, Dreamgirls, Festival of the Lion King (Hong Kong Disneyland), Avenue Q, The Little Mermaid, Ragtime, Carousel and many others.
Laurent is also a Teaching Artist and has taught throughout the Midwest, as well as in schools throughout Upstate New York and New York City. He would like to give all praise to God and a special thanks to this phenomenal and talented ensemble and his family and friends for their undying support!
PAMELA HAMILTON
Viola
Pamela has been a teacher and performing artist in New York City for 35 years.
As a music educator, she has been a teaching artist for Harlem Children’s Zone, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Jazz @ Lincoln Center’s Middle School Jazz Academy, The O’Connor Method for Strings program, and the Harlem School of the Arts.
Pamela has performed and recorded with several noted jazz, gospel, classical, inspirational and R&B groups over her over 50 years as a violist, vocalist and violinist, and has performed with her own jazz ensemble, “The Pamela Hamilton Group”.
“Mostly, however, I make music just for the heaven of it!”
BARRY KORNHAUSER
Cello
Barry Kornhauser was born in the Midwest -- of the Bronx -- but he is now a certifiable long-time Brooklyn resident.
As a composer, arranger, teacher and multi-instrumentalist (cello, guitar and bass), Barry has worked in a wide variety of musical environments, performing on stages ranging from Merkin Hall and NJPAC to the Bronx Zoo and Hippo Playground, from St. John the Divine and Trinity Church to Sing Sing Prison and Creedmoor.
Barry’s past collaborators include Suni Paz, Lucia Pulido, Bernardo Palumbo, Bev Grant (The Human Condition), the Derailers (with Charles “Honeyboy” Otis), Jana Herzen, Jay Mankita, Meredith Wright (Sweetbeatz), Luis Diaz, New Translations (w/David Binney and Paula Potocki), Cutumay Camones, Tomas Rodriguez, Jolie Rickman, Juan Lazarro Mendolas, David Gonzalez, Zenobia Conkerite and the Owens Brothers Band (since 2013).
Along with Jaque DuPree, Barry serves as an artist-in-residence with the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. He is presently developing an educational resource about harmony as applied to the cello
LISA PARROT
Saxophone
An expatriate Australian who has shown that she can succeed on the competitive New York jazz scene, alto and baritone saxophonist, Lisa Parrott has been based there since the mid-90s, working with a range of prominent bands. Her performance credits are stylistically wide-ranging and include Dave Brubeck, Nancy Wilson, Johnny Mandel, Cindy Blackman, Gunther Schuller, Marty Ehrlich’s Large Ensemble, Jane Ira Bloom, the Artie Shaw Orchestra, Jimmy Heath’s Big Band and the Diva Jazz Orchestra, where she held down the bari sax chair from 1998-2015.
Lisa has been consistently recognized in the DownBeat Critics Polls and in 2016, she won the annual in the ‘Rising Star’ category for baritone saxophone and continues to poll each year. She also received Australian Arts Council grants to study with Steve Coleman (1993) and Lee Konitz (1997). Her recording ‘Round Tripper’ received 4 stars in Downbeat, JazzTimes and a 4.5-star review on allaboutjazz.
Parrott was an integral part of the creative jazz scene in Sydney from 1988 until 1995, leading and co-leading bands with bassist Cameron Undy. In 1993, in NY, the band Nude was formed along with Carl Dewhurst and Louis Burdett. They toured Australia for over a year playing original harmolodic, electric jazz. Parrott also contributed to the music of Jackie Orsczacky, James Morrison, Ten Part Invention, and Paul Grabowsky’s Australian Art Orchestra.
Lisa has toured and played in all 50 U.S states and all over Europe, including major jazz clubs and festivals and Carnegie Hall. Lisa’s playing has been featured on over 30 albums as a leader and side person and she cites her biggest musical influences as being Bernie McGann and Ornette Coleman.
In 2020, Lisa was chosen to receive a Chamber Music America grant for her new New York septet project ‘We Love Ornette’, that includes workshops with drummer and son of Ornette, Denardo Coleman, and a recording scheduled for early 2022.
TOMAS RODRIGUEZ
Acoustic and Electric Guitars
Tomas Rodriguez is a New York City-based guitarist.
He has developed a unique repertoire for guitar performance rooted in his Spanish ancestry and guided by the diverse styles of music that have inspired him. These include the folk music of Galicia, Spain, and Venezuelan harp masters Juan Vicente Torrealba and Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté.
Rodriguez’ own compositions draw on these influences, displaying an engaging groove, touching harmonies and a mesmerizing exploration of the guitar’s African and Latin American heritages. In addition to solo concert work, he also performs in duos with the Gambian kora master Salieu Suso and jazz cellist Barry Kornhauser.
Performance highlights include the International Festival of the Guitar in Lima, Peru, the Brooklyn Museum, Merkin Hall, and Trinity Church in New York City, as well as the New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts (NJPAC), the World Expressions Series at Boise State University, and the University of Virginia.
Tomas has commercially released three full-length albums: Guitarra de mi Alma, Dialogue, and most recently, Ruminations.
A dedicated music educator, Rodriguez runs a unique honors-level guitar program for young people in Brooklyn, using African, Latin, Flamenco, Jazz and Classical styles to teach beginners to advanced students.
Tomas Rodriguez is a member of Local 802 AFM, ASCAP and The Guitar Foundation of America.
ERIC SALAZAR
Violin
Eric Salazar began his musical studies on the clarinet at the age of seven with Frantz Mathurin, and switched to violin eight years later.
Eric holds degrees in Architecture from USMA, Music Education from Universidad Nacional de Panama, Violin Performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and Berklee School of Music.
Eric pursues an active performing career in orchestral, solo, and chamber music, performing classical, world music, and Latin/ jazz. He is also involved with the administration of music programs. Eric believes in teaching violin and viola “from the heart” and developing the student’s technique and artistry in a positive manner. He has extensive experience in Suzuki and traditional teaching methods for violin, viola, and improvisational techniques.
Eric has taught at Queensboro Community College Outreach programs, the Brooklyn Conservatory, Plainfield Adult HS, and at P.S. 140 -- The Duke Ellington School, among many others, through non-profit organizations that bring performers into classrooms where children have had very limited access to music and music education. He also serves as a coach and musician for the NYC Children’s Theatre Company.
Eric's lectures and performances include the Ethnoise workshop at Chicago University, Shawnee State University, the NY Vision Festival and the United Nations. He has performed at the Kaplan Penthouse and Bruno Walter Auditorium in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and functions throughout New York, as well as elsewhere in the United States and internationally (Columbia, Panama, Canada). Performances have been with the Summit Symphony (viola), the Garden State Philharmonic, the Pan-American Symphony, St. Greg’s Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Panama, the SGI East Region Symphony Orchestra, the Leon Lacey Inner Voice Orchestrated Inspirational Gospel Ensemble, Buster Williams, Ray Delgado’s Salsa Project, Orquesta Tipica Novel, and most recently with Son del Monte (Cuban Charanga ), Tor Snyder’s Irrepressible Spirit, and Jason Hwang’s Strenuous River Improvising Orchestra.
His recent performances at Jazz @ Lincoln Center were with Gospel Diva Kim Burrell. He has also performed for Hezekiah Walker and T.D Jakes. He is a member of Camerata Washington Heights, the Ureuk Symphony Orchestra, and performs with Ray Chew at his Carnegie Hall Night of Inspiration. In December, 2009, Eric Salazar made his singing debut as the “Dragon” in John Rutter’s The Reluctant Dragon (New York).
BABA SELAH ERIC SPRUIELL
Percussion
A lifelong Brooklyn resident, Baba Selah Eric Spruiell is a vocalist, Percussionist, Bassist, Actor, Writer, and Social Activist.
A performer since childhood, Baba Selah has shared the stage with Roy Ayers, Amiri Baraka, The Last Poets, Pharoah Sanders, Bobbi Humphrey, Leon Thomas, Kool and The Gang, Harry Belafonte, Judy Collins, Paul Winter, among others. The venues he has played include Carnegie Hall, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Apollo Theatre, and Lincoln Center.
He has played with OBB-The Owens Brothers Band since 2013.
For many years a Youth Advocate, Baba Selah enjoyed the challenges of working with juveniles and is proud of having worked with some of the toughest in the country. Politically minded, Baba Selah is also a human rights activist and has had the privilege of organizing his community in the name of social justice.
Comfortable within a wide range of musical idioms, Baba Selah imparts to his audience an aesthetic that is both urban and urbane. His roots run deep into Rock, Soul, Jazz, Spoken Word, Latin, Afrikan, and Stone Cold Blues -- with a topspin of Churning Funk. He tells stories of personal pain and triumph, love and joy, sex and spirituality, and the everyday struggles of hard knocks, making a living, and creating a life. A work in progress, Baba Selah makes music for grown-ups.
VIOLIZZY
Violin
Violizzy (Liz Taub) is a fiddler/singer/songwriter with numerous bands (including Bluestone 739, The Val Kinzler Band, Steven Blane, Lucas Rotman, Bob Tellefsen). Violizzy has earned her reputation as an eclectic artist, able to play any genre from country to classical. Her base is New York City but she has performed all over the world, from Jerusalem, Israel, to Vancouver, Canada.
She’s been a member of the UNSCR Symphony Orchestra and the Queer Urban Orchestra, showcasing her refined training as a violinist. As a singer-songwriter, Violizzy has expanded her musical community, bringing together friends and other musicians to perform her original songs. She loves to collaborate with others. Her projects include songs that send a message to the world that we must act NOW to preserve our planet and protect the environment, as well as people we love. Violizzy is also a member of the People’s Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle and the New York City Labor Chorus, performing for special events such as rallies, parades & choral extravaganzas.
Violizzy believes that music can healing. She utilizes music in her work as a healer and Reiki Master, using Reiki, essential oils, and music to help clients, family, and friends. She is the President on the Board of Directors of Performance Wellness, Inc., a non-profit organization that trains and works with people who want to learn The Dr. Louise Montello Method of Performance Wellness.
Liz is a client of ARTivistUS, Chris Oledude's new social media company.
Learn more about Liz at www.violizzy.com.
French Horn: Thanks to a new friend, Justin Mullens!
Guitars: Special thanks to Tomas Rodriguez, who had to pick up multiple roles when COVID knocked out our other guitarist.
Percussion: Thanks to my brother from another mother, Baba Selah!
Viola: Thanks to my new soul sister, Pam Hamilton!
Violins: Thank you to my new friend, Eric Salazar, and to my friend and client, Liz Taub (Violizzy).
P.P.S. - The first 200 people who purchased a ticket will be receiving a free Oledude Birthday gift!