Why am I writing about a jazz vibraphonist on a Black rock blog? Because Cecilia Smith is my homegirl.
My fellow Cleveland native is premiering her commissioned piece, Crossing Bridges at the Tri-C Jazz Festival tomorrow night, which will be the culmination of a year of work and preparation. For those of you not familiar with Cecilia and her work, she is one of the leading four-mallet vibraphonists in the world. Seriously. And she's a killer composer: Among the several projects to her credit, she scored the soundtrack to my wife's film, Naked Acts.
Crossing Bridges is Joyce Award-winning multimedia piece shaped from stories submitted by students. The work uses video, music and spoken word to explore issues of identity and the collective human experience. She's assembled a great lineup of musicians to perform with her and it includes:
- Cecil Bridgewater – Trumpet/Assistant Conductor
- Bill Pierce – Soprano Sax
- Carlton Holmes – Piano
- Kenny Davis – Bass
- Freddie Bryant – Acoustic Guitar
- Ron Savage – Drums
- Ron McBee- Percussion
- Rock Wehrmann – Synth/Keyboard
- Tony Pulizzi – Electric Guitar
The show starts at 8pm, tickets are $20 and it's one night only. If you're in Cleveland or have people there who enjoy great music, please go and/or encourage others to do so.
Additional links:
- "Crossing Bridges" on the Tri-C Jazz Fest page
- Cecilia Smith's official site and MySpace page
- Tri-C Jazz Festival
