Lakeland Jazz Festival 2022 Publicity Materials

Media Resource Website

50th Annual Lakeland Jazz Festival

Double Bill: Diego Figueiredo & Nellie McKay

Big Band Extravaganza

Red Light Roxy

Middle and High School Student
Submissions for Adjudication

Friday, March 18 - Sunday, March 20, 2022

Dr. Wayne L. Rodehorst Performing Arts Center (D-Building)
Lakeland Community College

Select here for tickets

Festival Poster

Lakeland Jazz Festival 2022 Poster

Friday, March 18

8 p.m. Red Light Roxy

Featuring:
Eileen Burns - vocalist
Joe Hunter - piano
Dave Sterner - tenor sax
Daris Adkins - guitar
Demetrius Steinmetz - bass
Holbrook Riles III - drums
and swing dancers!!

$15 general admission; $7 students

Tickets here

Red Light Roxie

Red Light Roxy is a professional band from Cleveland, Ohio that plays an upbeat mix of jazz standards, jump blues, swing, boogie-woogie and a dash of old-school R&B. Its repertoire comes from the Great American Songbook and includes familiar songs made famous by such legendary performers as Ella Fitzgerald, Ruth Brown, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong.

Red Light Roxy has played at the Tri-C JazzFest, Wade Oval Wednesdays, Cain Park, Akron’s LOCK IV, the Shaker Heights Art and Music Festival, Legacy Village, Nighttown, Blu Jazz, the Bop Stop, the Rubber City Jazz Festival and a variety of city summer concerts and swing dances.

https://redlightroxy.com/

Saturday, March 19

8 p.m. Double Bill!! - Diego Figueiredo and Nellie McKay

This year Lakeland Community College is proud to bring you an exciting double bill featuring two young and hip artists on the jazz/pop scene - Brazilian guitar master Diego Figueiredo and vocalist, pianist, songwriter and humorist Nellie McKay.

$25 general admission; $10 students

Tickets here.

Diego Figueiredo

B Diego Figueiredo Credit Thais Pugliesi

razilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo (pronounced “fig-a-ray-doe”) lives in, with and for the music. Some people are simply meant to be musicians. Diego is one. He was born in 1980 in Franca, São Paulo State, and began playing music at four-years old. By the age of 12, he had already attracted a local following, and when he was 15, he was drawing huge crowds around Brazil.

Now, in 2022, he has conquered the world. Diego has recorded over two dozen albums, both solo and in collaboration with others, and constantly tours all over the globe. He can no longer be downplayed as a “rising star” among the world’s great (jazz) guitarists – he is now inarguably among the established elite. His skills on his instrument are matched only by his ability to move freely between styles, and his sublime technique is paired with an exquisite ability to vary his playing so that it radiates with unwavering excitement. His expressive voice on the acoustic guitar draws inspiration from his home country’s rich musical heritage, but he also has a deep knowledge and sense of jazz’s quirkiness as well as the classic guitar tradition. Diego Figueiredo can play whatever he desires.

Diego has released 25 CDs between his releases in Brazil, the European label Stunt Records, and Arbors Records in the U.S. He has played in more than 60 countries. He is the winner of several important competitions including The Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition, and Brazil’s VISA Prize.

Diego has recorded and performed with Brazil’s biggest stars including Gilberto Gil, João Bosco, Roberto Menescal, Toquinho, Fafá de Belém, Angela Maria, Toninho Horta, and several years touring the world accompanying Brazil’s beloved composer and vocalist, Belchior.

For the last 10 years, Diego has spent large swarths of time in North America, performing solo and in duos with the likes of Larry Coryell, Ken Peplowski, John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Chuchito Valdes, Stanley Jordan and Cyrille Aimée.

Diego was officially Nominated for a Grammy in 2019 for his arrangement of a Steven Sondheim song "Marry Me A Little, that was performed with vocalist Cyrille Aimée on her album "Move On."

George Benson says “Diego is one of the greatest guitarists I’ve seen in my whole life.”

Guitar World magazine wrote “Next up was a true virtuoso, jazz guitarist Diego Figueiredo. Yes, we were all mesmerized by his amazing head of hair. But it was his incredibly fluid and natural performance style, his sense of true enjoyment as he dazzled us and his good-natured entertaining approach that truly grabbed us. Wow. I don’t even know what else to say. Seemingly effortless and thoroughly fabulous.”

Jazz critic Ken Franckling writes “The guitarist Diego Figueiredo is a composer, bandleader and player of the highest caliber. He has blended classical and jazz acoustic guitar techniques into something distinctly Diego.”

Pictures
Diego Figueiredo 1 credit Thais_Pugliesi
Diego Figueiredo 2 credit Thais_Pugliesi
Diego Figueiredo 3 credit Thais_Pugliesi
Diego Figueiredo 4 credit Thais_Pugliesi

Videos
Wave
Morena Boca de ouro

https://www.diegofigueiredo.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DiegoFigueiredoOficial/
https://www.youtube.com/c/DiegoFigueiredoguitar

Nellie McKay

Nellie McKay credit Shervin Lainez

Nellie McKay has released seven acclaimed albums, starting with “Get Away From Me” (“a tour de force” – The New York Times), including “Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day” (“among the killer overhauls of American standards” – The New York Times) and “My Weekly Reader,” music of the ‘60s (“..kicks serious butt. The results are beautiful.” – PopMatters), her second collaboration with famed Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. On “Obligatory Villagers” (“a brisk nine-song set that plays like the breathless first act of a stage musical decrying American fascism” – SPIN), local Poconos hometown jazz greats Bob Dorough, Phil Woods and David Liebman contributed their exceptional talents.

She has won a Theatre World Award for her portrayal of Polly Peachum on Broadway in “The Threepenny Opera,” performed onscreen in the films “P.S. I Love You” and “Downtown Express,” and her music was used in “Rumor Has It,” “Monster-in-Law,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Gasland,” “Last Holiday” and “Private Life.”

McKay co-created and starred in the award-winning off-Broadway hit “Old Hats” and has written three acclaimed musical biographies – “I Want to Live!,” the story of Barbara Graham, third woman executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin, “Silent Spring: It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature,” an exploration of environmental pioneer Rachel Carson, and “A GIRL NAMED BILL – The Life and Times of Billy Tipton,” named one of the Best Concerts of 2014 by “The New York Times.” Her latest lady bio is “The Big Molinsky – Considering Joan Rivers” (“unpredictable, thrilling…sardonic wit..” – The New York Times).

Nellie’s music has been heard on “Mad Men,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “Weeds,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “NCIS”, “Nurse Jackie” and “SMILF,” and she has appeared on TV shows including “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Conan,” “Ferguson” and “The View.” Nellie has made numerous radio appearances on NPR’s “Mountain Stage,” “A Prairie Home Companion,” “eTown,” and “Marion McPartland’s Piano Jaz.”. The Chase Brock Experience produced a ballet of her third album, “Obligatory Villagers,” and she contributed the forward to the 20th anniversary edition of “The Sexual Politics of Meat.” Her writing has also appeared in “The Onion,” “Interview” and “The New York Times Book Review.”

A recipient of PETA’s Humanitarian Award and the Humane Society’s Doris Day Music Award in recognition of her dedication to animal rights, Nellie is an annoyingly vocal advocate for feminism, civil rights and other deeply felt progressive ideals. She is currently part of the campaign to get horse-drawn carriages off the streets of New York City. She would like to be friends with Russia, the country with the most nuclear weapons in the world. We must all be very kind to one another.
“Thanks to (McKay), the Great American Songbook has a living, breathing present as well as a glorious past” – Boston Globe

“McKay comes on as a Harlem Holly Golightly, a social activist with a disarming mastery of pop vernacular.” – Los Angeles Times

“…a sly, articulate musician who sounds comfortable in any era” – The New York Times

“..ambitious, intriguing and clever..” – Billboard

“..funny and touching, ceaselessly clever and scarily talented.” – The New Yorker

Videos
In a Sentimental Mood
Early Autumn
Willow Weep for Me

Photos
PROMO PHOTO A: CREDIT- SHERVIN LAINEZ
PROMO PHOTO B: CREDIT- SHERVIN LAINEZ
PROMO PHOTO C: CREDIT- SHERVIN LAINEZ

www.nelliemckay.com
https://facebook.com/nelliemckaymusic
https://twitter.com/nellie_mckay

Sunday, March 20

4 p.m. Big Band Extravaganza
Featuring the Lakeland Civic Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of Ed Michaels, and the Kent State University Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of Bobby Selvaggio.

Tickets here.

$10 general admission, $7 students

The Lakeland Civic Jazz Orchestra is under the direction of Ed Michaels and will present a tribute to Chuck Frank, founder of the Lakeland Jazz Festival, with premier of an original composition written by Len Orcino.

The Kent State Jazz Studies Program fosters a "real world" atmosphere, promoting the development of fundamental skills in Jazz. The Kent State Jazz Orchestra performs a diverse set of music, from the traditions of Black American musicians to the breadth of Jazz around the world today.

Middle and High School Submitted Performances & Adjudication

List of performing schools - coming soon

In all other years, performances and adjudication are done in person at Lakeland Community College. This year, students have been directed through their band directors to submit a recording of themselves for adjudication. Students have been directed to learn one or more choruses to the song “Broadway Street,” or they may submit original compositions based on the 12-bar blues format.

New this year, HS and MS Band Directors will be able to submit one video performance of their respective ensemble for an adjudication.

All submissions are being adjudicated by members of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra (web).

Students will receive a certificate of participation, along with a written critique to help guide them in their solo improvisation and ensemble efforts. In addition, the top solos will receive an online lesson with one of the adjudicators of their choice, plus a year’s pass for them and three guests to all Arts at Lakeland music & theater performance events.

Jazz Festival Web Site
Lakeland Community College Music Department
Arts at Lakeland
Lakeland Jazz Festival 2022 Media Page
Festival Poster

Acknowledgments
Dr. Morris Beverage Jr., President, Lakeland Community College
Dr. Adam Cloutier, Dean for Arts and Sciences Division
Dr. Matthew Saunders, Department Chair, Music
Jeri Lynn Pilarczyk, Senior Secretary, Arts and Sciences Division
Lakeland Community College’s Marketing & Communications Department

About the Lakeland Jazz Festival
Festival Coordinators:
- Stephen Stanziano, Ph.D. sstanziano@lakelandcc.edu
- Ed Michaels emichaels@lakelandcc.edu

The Lakeland Jazz Festival was founded by retired professor and former music department chair Charles M. Frank. Lakeland's Jazz Festival has remained true to its original mission of instilling the excitement and magic of jazz education to the younger generation of musicians. Over 30,000 middle and high school musicians from throughout the state have participated in this annual jazz festival in celebration of this uniquely American art form, jazz.

Jazz Festival Website