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Karen A Gahagan
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Salem State’s Center for Creative and Performing Arts invites audiences to enjoy the exceptional sounds of the Joel LaRue Smith Trio on February 28 at 7:30 pm in the university’s Recital Hall, 71 Loring Ave. The ensemble’s performances feature a rich blend of Jazz and Afro-Caribbean rhythms and harmonies, with Joel LaRue Smith on piano, Yoron Israel on drums, and John Lockwood on bass. Tickets are available at salemstatetickets.com. $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and free for students with a valid ID and people under 18. Advance registration recommended due to reduced seating capacity.
The concert will feature Jazz standards including works by Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, and Cole Porter along with original compositions by Joel LaRue Smith. His music often combines infectious Cuban dance forms such as timba mambo, songo, Mozambique, cha-cha and rhumba with compelling bebop, hard bop and swing melody lines. This music will ignite the passion for anyone to dance and give each listener great melodies to sing and remember.
Joel LaRue Smith is a pianist, composer, arranger, producer, and educator. He has toured extensively, performing Jazz, classical, gospel and Afro Cuban repertoire, throughout the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean. His debut CD, “September’s Child”, features seven original Afro-Cuban Jazz compositions. Downbeat magazine describes his March 2017 CD, “The Motorman’s Son”, as “a vibrant, powerful and hard-grooving release”.
Joel LaRue Smith has performed with Tito Puente, Mario Bauza, Kenny Burrell, Tony Bennett, Jerry Gonzalez, Ron Carter and many more Jazz luminaries. He has been the Director of the Jazz Orchestra & Jazz Studies at Tufts University since 1997. Mr. Smith is a 2019 winner of the Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation for his Afro Latin Jazz suite, “Pasajes”. His upcoming book on improvisation, “Jazz: Then, Now, Tomorrow”, is scheduled to be released in September 2022.
This program is part of Salem State's 2022 Black History Month programming.