FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2010

Contact: Troy Burton
Executive Director
Office: 410-225-3130
Fax: 410-225-3139 Fax
Email: eubieblake@rcn.com

BALTIMORE, MD – The Eubie Blake Center will honor international recording artist Ethel Ennis in an exhibit, "Memories of Ethel's Place" from Thursday, March 18, 2010 to Saturday, May 1, 2010. Photographs, films, memorabilia and other items will be on display.

Ethel Ennis is an internationally jazz artist, entrepreneur, cultural ambassador, and civic activist. She performed in and around Baltimore throughout her childhood and teens, but her music career took off in 1958 when Benny Goodman selected her as the female vocalist to tour with his “all-star band” throughout Europe, culminating at the Brussels World's Fair. Ennis set a precedent when she sang the national anthem a cappella at Richard Nixon's inauguration and she continued to perform at the White House throughout Nixon's and Carter's presidencies. 

In 1984, Ennis opened Ethel's Place, a venue for nationally-known, and occasionally, local jazz performers. The club broadcast live shows on public television across the country on New Year's Eve in both 1985 and 1987. Ethel performed with Joe Williams, Ray Brown and Milt Jackson, Phil Woods, Gerry Mulligan, Toots Thielemans, Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Turner, and Stephane Grappelli in these memorable broadcasts. In 1988, Ennis and husband Earl Arnett made the difficult decision to sell Ethel's Place in order to “devote their creative energies to words and music.”

The month long celebration continues Women's History Month with its third annual concert and conversation, titled “Women in Jazz: The Feminine Perspective,” celebrating and remembering the achievements of women in music featuring Sandy Asirvatham, piano/vocal Amy Shook, bass Rhonda Robinson, flute/vocal Gabrielle Murphy, saxophone and Frank Russo, drums on Sunday, March 28, 2010 4:00 PM. Admission is $10 per person.

This program will pay homage to key figures of a vibrantly prolific jazz culture nurtured in Baltimore and beyond from the early 20th century to present. Camay Murphy, retired director of the Eubie Blake Center and daughter of jazz legend Cab Calloway, will reminisce about her multi-talented aunt Blanche Calloway, who by anyone’s standards was a fascinating woman. One of the most outstanding African-American women of her era (1920-40), Blanche was the first black woman bandleader to take an all-male band on a musical tour through the south, and also broke through many color/gender barriers during her lifetime.

"The primary goal of 'Women in Jazz: The Feminine Perspective' is to enable women to actively participate in the public discourse about Baltimore’s music industry’s past and present,” says Troy Burton, Executive Director of The Eubie Blake Center. “The dynamic history that is unveiled during the concert, coupled with the opportunity to give women a platform to share jazz experiences, make this annual event uniquely exceptional.”

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For more than three decades, the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center has sought to bring creative expression and urban consciousness to Baltimore through visual and performing arts education and development opportunities for children, youth and adults in our community.

The Eubie Blake Center’s Summer Cultural Arts Program for Youth program provides special opportunities for students, grades 4- 12, to develop their interests and abilities in vocal music, jazz workshop, dance, theatre, drama and the visual arts. For three weeks, youngsters work with professional teaching artists to rehearse and present a final musical production. Students are challenged to produce a complete product in three weeks, which will be presented to a public audience. They are trained to use higher level thinking skills in order to master this task.

The program encourages youngsters to concentrate, focus, persevere and finally to reach success. Last year, students demonstrated independent thinking generated by the program. Several students met independently every morning before class to compose and perform original musical scores.

The 2009 Summer Arts Program at the Eubie Blake Center had 50 youth enrolled for classes in musical theatre workshop (vocal music, drama, and dance), jazz workshop and visual arts. The musical theatre workshop presented a closing performance “Alice in Harlem” at The Baltimore Theatre Project. The visual arts students presented in the Eubie Blake Gallery an exhibition “Memories of Us.” The jazz workshop students produced a five-song CD.

The fee for each student to attend this summer gifted and talented session is $450 for the three weeks.  In many cases, the parent could only afford to pay $50 of the tuition; even though quite small, they were still able to make some financial investment.

The Maryland State Department of Education in the past has provided support for this program with a $25,000 grant to cover program expenses. In the summer of 2009 the Maryland State Department of Education cut all funding for summer programming leaving The Center to its own resources for maintaining a summer program for youth

Historically jazz singers have always sung repertoire that transcended musical genres. Singer Maysa does just that every time she steps to the microphone. Maysa is a true original. Blessed with a remarkably beautiful and instantly recognizable voice, the vocalist possesses the ability to know just where to take a song and what to do to unearth the heart of it and drive it home. The songbird, who was a member of Stevie Wonder’s Wonderlove and who was the lead vocalist for the celebrated British jazz/funk group Incognito, has just nabbed a Soul Train Award for “Soul Approved Underground Singer.” For Maysa, singing is truly a labor of love. “I love singing for people and I love helping people get through life’s hard times and celebrations,” confesses the powerhouse vocalist.

On Maysa’s new and fourth Shanachie Entertainment recording, A WOMAN IN LOVE, the refreshingly honest singer explores the many sides of love with a sublime set of eleven tracks that range from classic jazz repertoire to Maysa originals and the more bluesy side of jazz and R&B. “This CD is special tome because I have always wanted to go back to my roots and training as a jazz singer,” says the Baltimore native. “I was trained to sing everything, so I always will. I came up with the concept of mixing the old with the new because I love jazz, soul and R&B so much that it's all one thing to me.” Maysa has studied the great jazz vocalists and come up with her own unique style but within her own voice it is apparent that she has drawn influence from luminaries like Sarah, Ella, Billie, Betty and Dinah.

If you have ever seen Maysa in concert then you know it is an unforgettable experience. She has a magnetic presence onstage and is not afraid to take chances musically and personally. She is open and honest. This spirit permeates every note on A WOMAN IN LOVE.Highlights include a funktified version of the Thelonious Monk classic “’Round Midnight” and a hauntingly beautiful take on the timeless Bergman/Legrand ballad “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life.”  “‘Round Midnight’ is my favorite Thelonius Monk tune,” shares Maysa. “I feel every word of those lyrics. I have lived it,” says Maysa. She adds, “‘What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life’ is a beautiful song and the lyrics are wonderful. The melodic structure is very challenging and it kicked my butt!” 

Also included on A WOMAN IN LOVE is a sultry duet with the iconic Will Downing called “Love Theory” which Downing co-wrote with Maysa and Chris ‘Big Dog’ Davis. Maysa also pays tribute to the‘King of Pop’ with the Rodney Temperton hit “Lady In My Life” from Michael Jackson’s seminal THIRLLER album.  Then there is the free-flowing and Latin-tinged “Am I Wrong (For Lovin’ You)” co-written by Maysa and keyboardist Chris“Big Dog” Davis who also co-produced the CD with Maysa. “Flora Purim and the Brazilian ‘Maysa’ started my love of Latin music which will always be a part of my songwriting,” says the singer. There is also a steamy version of the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins hit “I Put a Spell on You.” Maysa confides, “’I Put a Spell on You’ is just HOT! It reminds me of New Orleans. The beautiful, warm and humorous singer also does a stellar version of “Willow Weep for Me,” which she transforms into an up-tempo bluesy romp. “It is a masterful union of melody and lyric,” says Maysa of the Ann Ronell standard. “It's amazing how one singer to the next can make it dark and moody or lighthearted and hopeful. My approach comes from my own experience with heartache, and I took the ‘I'm slightly pissed off, but I'm okay route!’” The Edward Heyman and Victor Young composition “When I Fall in Love” is probably one of the most recorded jazz songs by jazz vocalists but yet Maysa finds a way to make it her own and bring new meaning to the song. She shares, “I'm still hoping for that feeling to become my reality.”

Maysa concludes “To my family old and new, this project, A WOMAN IN LOVE is classic Maysa.  Whether I write new songs or sing old ones, you will get my heart and soul and my very best, every time.  I'm blessed to sing for you. We are now at a crossroad in the music industry. We are about to return to the truest form of the art of music. No more fake singing or playing. If you don’t practice and don't have the chops or if you believe that your beauty or booty is gonna swing it for you, think again babyeeee!! And please find another job! Real Music is back!!”