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2021 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival presents: The Marcus Shelby Quartet – “Black Music and Freedom” featuring Tiffany Austin, Darrell Grant, and Carlton Jackson *Portland Premiere* + 2021 Portland Jazz Master Award to Ron Steen
Friday, February 26, 2021 | 8:00 pm
$5
Fri Feb 26 2021
8:00 PM PST (Watch Online 48 hrs)
Jack London Revue – Livestream
529 SW 4th Ave.
Portland, OR 97204
$5.00
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MARCUS SHELBY QUARTET “Black Music and Freedom”
+ Presentation: 2021 Portland Jazz Master Award to Ron Steen
Featuring:
Tiffany Austin vocals
Darrell Grant piano
Carlton Jackson drums
Marcus Shelby bass
The Marcus Shelby Quartet will present a special musical program titled “Black Music and Freedom” featuring original and re-arranged compositions that celebrate how music has been used as a tool for freedom movements throughout US history beginning with the institution of slavery. The repertoire includes songs about Harriet Tubman, MLK, Sojourner Truth, ring shouts, spirituals, early blues, rhythm and blues, and freedom songs.
Marcus Shelby, based in San Francisco, has released 4 big band orchestra recordings and other large scale works that have focused on the lives—past, present, and future—of black people through instrumental and vocal compositions. Recordings and projects include “Port Chicago”, “Harriet Tubman”, “Soul of the Movement”, “Beyond the Blues: Ending Mass Incarceration”, “Harriet’s Spirit” (a children’s opera), and “Transitions” which features a suite that honors Negro League Baseball.
Marcus Shelby and Tiffany Austin have been working together for 10 years and have co-created several “Black Music and Freedom” presentations for schools, libraries, churches, and concert halls. They will be joined by 2 of Portland’s finest musicians—Darrell Grant (piano) and Carlton Jackson (drums). Both have dedicated their life to performing, composing, and championing black music in all of its forms. Marcus Shelby is a regular member of the Portland based group Modern Jazz New Quartet led by Darrell Grant.
Marcus Shelby is an American bass player, composer and educator best known for his major works for jazz orchestra, Port Chicago, Harriet Tubman, Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio. He has led the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra since 2001 and has recorded with artists as diverse as Ledisi and Tom Waits.
He has contributed numerous musical compositions to works created in collaboration with dance ensembles and theater artists ranging from California Shakespeare Theater to Intersection for the Arts.
