James Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.
Alabama has played a central role in the development of both blues and country music. Appalachian folk music, fiddle music, gospel, spirituals, and polka have had local scenes in parts of Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute's School of Music, especially the Tuskegee Choir, is an internationally renowned institution. There are three major modern orchestras, the Mobile Symphony, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra; the last is the oldest continuously operating professional orchestra in the state, giving its first performance in 1955.
KMOJ, 89.9 FM, is a community-oriented station located in Minneapolis, Minnesota airing a predominantly urban adult contemporary format. Currently, KMOJ's studios are located on West Broadway Avenue in Minneapolis, while its transmitter is located in Arden Hills.
Doug Lawrence is a jazz tenor saxophonist from Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The Carver Theatre, now formally known as the Carver Performing Arts Center, is a theater located in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. In its days as a motion picture theater, it was best known as a place where African-Americans could see first-run movies; during that time, only whites were allowed in most theaters because of segregation laws.
Sixwire is an American country music group from Nashville, Tennessee. The group consists of Andy Childs [lead vocals, guitar]], Steve Hornbeak, John Howard, Steve Mandile, and Chuck Tilley. The band's name references the six strings on a guitar. Sixwire recorded one album for Warner Bros. Records in 2002, and charted two singles on the Billboard country charts, including the No. 30 "Look at Me Now". Five years later, they placed second on the talent show The Next Great American Band, and served as the house band on Can You Duet, another talent show.
The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame All-Stars is a working jazz ensemble, featuring some of the finest jazz musicians Alabama has to offer. This group is the faculty of the Jazz Education Department of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and the faculty of the Fun With Jazz Educational Program, begun through the Alys Stephens Center (2006), and now administered by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (2007). Through these educational programs, the AJHoF Allstars, directed by Ray Reach, seek to fulfill a mission "...to foster, encourage, educate, and cultivate a general appreciation of the medium of jazz music as a legitimate, original and distinctive art form indigenous to America. Its mission is also to preserve a continued and sustained program of illuminating the contribution of the State of Alabama through its citizens, environment, demographics and lore, and perpetuating the heritage of jazz music".
The Magic City Jazz Orchestra (MCJO) is an American jazz ensemble which was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of the SuperJazz Big Band by Birmingham, Alabama jazz pianist and vocalist Ray Reach. The mission of the group is to "...perform and record big band jazz music written by well known but under-recorded jazz artists."
Henry Panion, III is an American composer, arranger, conductor, educator, and Professor in the Department of Music at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Steve Sample Sr. is a bandleader, arranger, composer and jazz educator now residing in Bellingham, Washington. For more than 30 years, Sample was a professor in the Music Department of the University of Alabama, where he directed the Jazz Ensembles and taught music theory, arranging and jazz related courses. Sample trained many notable jazz musicians during his long tenure at Alabama, including Gary Wheat, Birch Johnson, Kelley O'Neal, Chris Gordon, Mervyn Warren, Cedric Dent, Beth Gottlieb, Mart Avant, Dick Aven and Ray Reach. He is respected by his peers as one of the finest jazz educators in the United States. On September 26, 2008, Sample was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame for his contributions to jazz education.
Neil McLean is an American saxophonist now residing in Tyler, Texas. As a member of the Henry Kimbrell Group, Ray Reach and Friends, the SuperJazz Big Band and the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, he worked with numerous notable performers, including Dionne Warwick, Ella Fitzgerald, Ernie Watts, Lou Marini, Ellis Marsalis and many others. For many years, while residing in Birmingham, Alabama, Neil established himself as one of the premier saxophonists in the Southeast. His arrangements for the SuperJazz Big Band are among the finest performed by that venerable ensemble.
The W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars is a group of jazz musicians who play annually at the W. C. Handy Music Festival in Florence, Alabama. During the last week of July each year, these musicians travel from all over the United States to gather in Florence and perform in various combinations. In addition to performing jazz, members of the W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars serve as the resident faculty of the W. C. Handy Jazz Camp, also teaching the "A B Cs of Jazz, Blues and Beyond".
The "Fun With Jazz" Educational Program is a program of jazz educational concerts and demonstrations developed by Ray Reach and sponsored by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
UAB SuperJazz, Featuring Ellis Marsalis is a CD, recorded in 2001 by the SuperJazz Big Band of Birmingham, Alabama with guest piano soloist Ellis Marsalis. The recording, produced by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) faculty members Ray Reach and Henry Panion, is a compilation of musical selections recorded in concert at the Alys Stephens Center on the campus of UAB. The album was mixed at the UAB Recording Studio. Recording engineers for the project were Blake English and James Bevelle. Remix engineers were James Bevelle and Ray Reach.
