|
TUSCALOOSA--They’re not only nightclubs. They’re also late-night
laboratories where musicians are constantly experimenting with the sounds that
characterize jazz and blues.
You’ll have a front row seat in such a lab in
November when APT presents
4th
& 23rd, a music series videotaped at a club on 4th Street and 23rd
Avenue in Tuscaloosa--the heart of the city’s bustling warehouse club
district.
4th & 23rd premiered in February
2001 and will return to APT in November 2001.
"We wanted to showcase the innovative, entertaining, and energetic
artists who are playing Alabama’s clubs, and we think this series is a great
venue for them," says producer Dwight Cammeron.
4th & 23rd features The Guy Smiley Blues Exchange; guitarist Gary
Edmonds; blues harp player Topper Price; and Juice, a New Orleans band that
plays a psychedelic gumbo of jazz, rhythm and blues, and funk.
"Some of the bands may not be household names yet," says
Cammeron,
"but they’re on their way."
 "We wanted to capture the environment that creates this music,"
Cammeron says. "The interaction between the artists and the audience is
important. So this isn’t antiseptic and lifeless music that comes out of a
studio. It’s a performance that unfolds in front of our cameras."
You hear the expected and unexpected at 4th & 23rd, from jazz
standards to original compositions that don’t conform to the limits of Top 40,
two-and-a-half minute songs. Along with the usual guitars and keyboards, you’ll
see flutists, horn players, and turntable scratchers.
|
|
"These bands bring a lot of variety to this series," says
Cammeron.
"It’s kind of like an Austin City Limits for Alabama’s jazz and
blues scene. Only there aren’t any limits here."
  
Here’s the schedule for the series:
 |
November 2nd: The Guy Smiley Blues Exchange, a seven-piece band which
The
Nashville Scene describes as "a wicked cayenne-spice mix of brassy
salsa, New Orleans jazz, P-funk, and cocktail exotica." |
| November 9th: Blues guitarist Gary Edmonds. |
 |
 |
November 16th: Topper Price, the charismatic blues harp player and vocalist,
performs in this homegrown Alabama music series. |
| November 23rd: Juice, a band critically acclaimed for its psychedelic mix of
funk, blues, second line, jazz and classic New Orleans rhythm and blues,
performs in the Tuscaloosa nightclub. |
 |
 | November
30th: Selections from The Guy Smiley Blues Exchange,
Gary
Edmonds, Topper Price, and Juice. |
Visit the
4th & 23rd Nightclub
in downtown Tuscaloosa, Alabama. |
TV broadcast made possible by
Buffalo Rock,
your local Pepsi-Cola bottler. |
was produced by:
The
University of Alabama Center for Public Television
|
