The GROW UP SWINGING concert series is designed to expose young people to jazz played in a live setting.
GROW UP SWINGING
CONERT SERIES
Jazz pianist Mboya Nicholson has a way with inspiring youngsters about music. The Grow Up Swinging Concert Series uses jazz, the music of swing rhythm to inspire students about creativity and individuality. Performing the music of jazz legends like Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, Thelonious Monk and others, Mboya explains and entertains as he inspires his listeners. Mboya shows kids it's alright to be optimistic; it's okay to be passionate about freedom of expression. Jazz is ultimately a"Welcome" set to music and 'welcome' is the goal of Grow Up Swinging.
CONCERTS:
AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
SCOTT JOPLIN & THE RAGTIME MASTERS
As the Victorian Age came to a close the affinity for a new music had been evolving. African Americans married rhythms from Africa and musical forms from Europe, resulting in Ragtime. The most celebrated champion of this new genre was Scott Joplin. Pianist Mboya Nicholson opens this man's anthology, providing stories and illuminating the context around which Joplin composed. Nicholson also performs the works of lesser known greats like Tom Scott and Tom Turpin. Listeners will hear how marches became ragtime and learn what it was like as the music world changed at the turn of the century.
BLUES
HUMANITY'S HUE
The blood-type of jazz is the blues and Mboya Nicholson is familiar with it in its many variations and disguises. In this concert, children will hear the foundation of the blues form and listen to what different composers and musicians have done to the form, weaving variations into it. As we stomp, shuffle, boogie and slow-drag our way through this style, students will learn the timelessness of the blues.
NEW ORLEANS
ALWAYS MODERN
It is well known that New Orleans is where jazz became what it's listeners know and love. And there is no question that much of North American popular music is due to tonal and rhythmic discoveries in the Crescent City. What might surprise listeners is the diversity of sound in New Orleans. In this concert, Mboya Nicholson demonstrates this diversity in the Big Easy' jazz scene. Performing the music of composers from Jelly Roll Morton to Harold Battiste and Ellis Marsalis, Nicholson covers the specturm, striding across the jazz timeline, persenting music that belies its era. Kids will hear how time and place fall away, because classic music can speak for any generation. After all, New Orleans is always modern!
MONK WALKS IN
Thelonius Monk. That's all one needs to say, even when describing a style. Say "Monk" and right away, people think about the unusual harmonies, clever melodies and indiviuality. Using Monk's and other pianists styles of playing, Mboya Nicholson will show how something that seems complex is usually simple in its essence. Young listeners will hear the continuum. Nicholson illustrates this, demostrating how Monk utilized earlier styles like stride piano and merged them with his own distict sounds. They are sounds that can only be described as...well...Monk!
ELLINGTON & BASIE
THE MUSIC OF THE DUKE & THE COUNT
Here Ye Here Ye, come and hear the music of two men who took the blues tradition and swing and spoke with different musical dialects. The results were blood relatives of course, since the ingredients were the blues and swing, and the outcome was jazz. Pianist Mboya Nicholson will show audiences how Edward "Duke" Ellington and William "Count" Basie took popular songs and the blues and fashioned their own styles. Listeners will hear how two men from the same generation, working in the same genre, molded differing sounds. This concert features the different tonal "signatures" of both men who wanted their listeners to feel uplifted through swing.
NOT JUST SITTING PRETTY
THE MUSIC OF MARY LOU WILLIAMS
No one ever questioned Mary Lou William's abilities at the piano. Mboya Nicholson will perform her works to show us why. William's skills as a composer demonstrates why jazz music transcends gender, generation or racial polemics. Audiences will hear her challenging pieces and learn how revered she was as a pianist and educator as Nicholson talks about her life, the rich musical environment around her and the influence she had on so many musicians.
GERSHWIN TO BERLIN
TIN PAN ALLEY AND POPULAR SONG
In the first half of the 20th Century the Brill Building in New York was where any aspiring composer wanted to be. This was the "factory" where music was made and hits were developed. Jazz musicians would put their stamp on such works and make them indellible. In this concert, Mboya Nicholson focuses on the music of such lumiaries as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller and many more.
