Jazzanooga announced today that Avery Sunshine will appear at the annual music festival, scheduled for April, 2014. Scheduled during Jazz Appreciation Month, April, Jazzanooga draws fans from all across the region for a month of excellent, intimate performances, educational opportunities and good times.
Atlanta based, Avery Sunshine has a voice rooted in gospel; she reaches deep into that cornucopia of style and sound and sings a song that articulates the complexities of life with luminous insight. Fluent in many languages from soul, jazz and house to classical and hip-hop, with vocals and lyrics that are thick and strong yet jazzy-smooth, coined ‘jazzgosoul’ by a personal friend, it’s easily recognized that Avery*Sunshine has been singing all her life.
Avery Sunshine will open for internationally acclaimed jazz vocal star Gregory Porter on April 27.
Some critics are inspired to comment on Porter as a new “king’ of jazz,” and a “leader of the pack,” a performer of extraordinary presence who has been compared with the greatest of the greats, such as Joe Williams, Nat Cole, Donny Hathaway, and Marvin Gaye. As musically solid as his recordings are and as powerful and honest as Porter’s magnificent voice is, it may just well be the brilliance of his poetry and the unguarded depth of his emotional delivery that is most fueling his rapid rise to fame. An internationally renowned, multiple Grammy nominated, jazz vocalist, this will be Mr. Porter’s first performance in Chattanooga. Tickets: http://chattanoogaonstage.com/events/jazzanooga-2014-gregory-porter/
The Jazzanooga weekend of jazz includes a reception at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, an exhibit of jazz photography, a day of jazz and blues at various Martin Luther King Boulevard venues and opportunities to mingle with regional jazz fanatics. A limited number of Jazzanooga JAM Passes, which offer patrons, VIP access and priority seating to all festival events and both headline concerts, are available at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-jazzanooga-jam-pass-tickets-9912119416
Jazzanooga, started in 2010 as a one-day community festival and has grown to a month-long celebration that celebrates and promotes Chattanooga’s extraordinary jazz heritage. The festival is supported by the Benwood Foundation and the Lyndhurst Foundation. Event sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, visit www.jazzanooga.org.