Freda Payne Wows Crowd At CD Release Party

By Darlene Donloe

Freda Payne took the stage and wowed a packed and celebrity-peppered crowd that gathered for her joint CD release party and birthday celebration Friday night at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood.

The room was filled with well wishers, family and friends that included her sister, Scherrie Payne, James Pickens (Grey’s Anatomy), actresses Beverly Todd, Marla Gibbs and Angela Gibbs, Motown execs Iris Gordy and Karla Gordy-Bristol and her self-professed first boyfriend Quincy Jones, who went on stage to wax nostalgic of Payne’s notable talents.

“She’s always been a good singer and she’s always been beautiful,” said Jones.

 

Freda Payne and Quincy Jones

Still a stunner with flawless skin and envious curves, Payne’s nearly two-hour set was not only impressive, it proved she’s a skilled jazz and torch singer.

The balance of her set was filled with songs from her latest CD, Come Back To Me Love (her first for Mack Avenue’s Artistry Music imprint).  The CD, featuring 14 songs, marks a return to the big band and strings-laden classics from her mid-`60s beginnings with Impulse! and a return to her hometown of Detroit, which Payne affectionately called, “the big D”.

 

Freda Payne

The appreciative crowd, which broke out into a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday, came to not only support the songstress, but to hear what new musical offerings she had up her sleeve. A true veteran who lights up the stage, Payne, dressed in a long, brown sparkly gown, didn’t disappoint. Accompanied by a six-piece band that included Grammy winning jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe, Payne opened with the ditty, You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To.  She also sang Haven’t We Met, Whatever Happened To Me, Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry, The Island, I Should Have Told Him, Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most, I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water, Lately, You Don’t Know, Midnight Sun, Save Your Love For Me and Come Back To Me Love – all from her current CD. The album features six selections penned by Gretchen Valade and Tom Robinson of Mack Avenue Records, as well as eight selections of golden favorites. In addition, during the concert, she also let loose a short version of Sweet Georgia Brown.

But the crowd was waiting with bated breath for her to sing her signature song, her most successful record, the Top 5 1970 hit, Band of Gold which, ironically, garnered her a gold record.  The crowd clapped, swayed and sang along as if the song was an old friend.

Dan Siegel Releases First Project In Five Years

 

Dan Siegel

Having recorded a catalog of Top 10 albums in a vivid spectrum of jazz hues with topflight musicians for 35 years, Dan Siegel only emerges when he has something engaging to say with his poetic piano and crafty keyboards. Back with his first new statement in five years, Siegel’s DSM record label will release Indigo on October 14, a set comprised of ten new compositions that he wrote, arranged and shared production chores with Grammy-nominated bassist Brian Bromberg.    

On his 20^th album, Siegel creates right up the spine of the jazz dichotomy allowing the melodies, improvisational soloing and grooves to unfold and flourish unencumbered by restrictive genre borders and polarizing labels. His cerebral compositions traverse the expansive jazz terrain, but do so with heart rendering them instantly accessible. The keyboardist has a gift for writing inviting, emotionally-evocative material that connects soulfully.     

"My tendency is to overwrite, which can make it challenging for the listener," said Siegel, who was born in Seattle and raised in Eugene, Oregon. "I believe the emotional allure of the music on this album, Indigo, transcends its compositional complexity."

The beating heart and soul heard on Indigo in part comes from the live production tracked in the cozy confines of Bromberg’s home studio in the valley just over the hill from Los Angeles. Siegel and Bromberg have an easy rapport and level of trust that dates back several decades from playing and recording together. Bromberg’s 300-year-old acoustic bass provides the rhythmic bottom end on tracks anchored by the deft drum beats from Yellowjackets veteran Will Kennedy. Bob Sheppard plays a prominent role using a variety of saxophones and impassioned play to echo Siegel’s piano and keyboards leads as well as emote his own scholarly theses. Allen Hinds and Mike Miller are afforded ample room to dispense thoughtful guitar riffs and do so with finesse. Lenny Castro’s percussion and Craig Fundyga’s vibraphone embellishments add texture, color and shadow in all the right places while two different horn sections appear on a total of six tracks providing power and depth. The cumulative result of such masterful players animating Siegel’s poignant piano pieces is a warm and plush album that will be serviced for airplay at straight-ahead jazz (full album) and contemporary/smooth jazz outlets (title cut).       

Siegel inked his first record deal in 1979 with Inner City Records, which issued his debut disc, Nite Ride, featuring guitar great Lee Ritenour. Siegel’s sophomore session, “The Hot Shot,” went No. 1 on the Radio & Records chart and spent ten weeks in the Top 10 on the Billboard jazz chart. A couple years later, Siegel moved to Los Angeles to focus on composing film and television scores. Subsequently, he signed with Epic Records and altered his sound from fusion to collections that spanned contemporary jazz, electronic, world beat and R&B. Over the years, he has played and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Boney James, Larry Carlton, Joe Sample, Ernie Watts, John Patitucci, Bela Fleck and Ottmar Liebert in instrumental settings; Glenn Frey, Chaka Khan, Berlin and Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind & Fire) in the pop world; and amassed an array of television and film credits that boasts Oscar-winner The Usual Suspects. For more information, please visit www.DanSiegelMusic.com.

The songs contained on “Indigo” are:

“To Be Continued”

“By Chance”

“Indigo”

“Beyond”

“Far and Away”

“If Ever”

“Spur of the Moment”

“First Light”

“Consider This”

“Endless”

'A Walk Among The Tombstones' Opens Sept. 19

By Darlene Donloe

Liam Neeson is good at being badass. In his latest film, A Walk Among The Tombstones, out Fri., Sept. 19, Neeson, who flexed his muscle in Non-Stop and the Taken franchise, continues his tradition of kicking ass and taking names.

A thriller, A Walk Among The Tombstones is based on Lawrence Block’s bestselling series of mystery novels.  In the film Neeson plays Matt Scudder, an ex-NYPD cop who now works as an unlicensed private investigator who has his own set of rules.

This detective drama begins when Scudder, a recovering alcoholic who quit the force after a horrific accident, reluctantly agrees to help a heroin trafficker (Dan Stevens) hunt down the men who kidnapped and then brutally murdered his wife.

This creepy mystery begins to unfold as Scudder discovers the men he is after may be serial murderers.

Putting his street smarts into play, Scudder makes his way through the backstreets of New York to try to find the men before they can kill again.

 

Liam Neeson and Brian Astro Bradley

While doing some research at the library, Scudder, who doesn’t like computers, meets a young homeless kid named TJ, played aptly by Brian Astro Bradley (Red Band Society, Earth to Echo).  TJ becomes Scudder’s partner in crime – helping him to flush out the bad guys. Bradley, who has some choice dialogue in the film, is a gem on screen. He and Neeson, who has proven over and over again that he’s a true action star, have some true chemistry.

This movie is creepy. This movie is a bit spooky. This movie is terrifying. This movie is good. 

The characters are wicked and the storyline is depraved. It’s a hard film to watch.

Neeson has a quiet strength about him in this film. He’s not outwardly badass, he oozes badass. Neeson has mastered the ability to lay back in the cut waiting for his moments.

David Harbor and Adam David play the villain/kidnappers in the film. They are frightening and eerie. The characters they play get off on cutting up women’s bodies and stuffing them in plastic bags. In the beginning, the women are alive and see and feel the terror. One of the scenes in a van is just horrific.

 

Liam Neeson 

What’s glaring it its omission is the lack of roles for women in this film. The women play the victims, but not one woman has any significant dialogue. There are lines here and there, but it’s yet another telltale sign of women being edged out. Other than that, the movie works.

A Walk Among The Tombstones (Universal), written and directed by Scott Frank (The Lookout), stars Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Sebastian Roche, Mark Consuelos, Whitney Able, Ruth Wilson, and Boyd Holbrook.  The film is based on the novel by Lawrence Block. It is produced by Jersey Films’ Danny DeVito, Double Feature Films’ Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, Exclusive Media’s Tobin Armbrust and Cross Creek Pictures’ Brian Oliver. It is executive produced by Kerry Orent, Adi Shankar, Tracy Krohn, John Hyde, Nigel Sinclair and Guy East.

On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likeable), O (oh, yeah) and E (excellent), A Walk Among The Tombstones gets an E (excellent).

Race Relations and Identity Tackled In 'Bulrusher'

By Darlene Donloe

Who are you really?

Most people take for granted the knowledge or who they are and where they come from. But for some, knowing who they are, is a painful mystery – that when unraveled could be more raw than the unknown.

Take Eisa Davis’ Bulrusher, currently enjoying its Los Angeles premiere at the Skylight Theatre.  This drama, laced with comedic moments, is a hefty look inside the world of an 18-year-old multiracial orphan girl named Bulrusher (Bianca Lemaire), who is growing up in a predominantly white California town with no knowledge of where she comes from.

Yes, she’s heard stories of being abandoned by her mother. She’s heard stories of how her mother set her adrift in the ocean. She heard stories about how a man named Logger (Joshua Wolf Coleman) found her, saved her and gave her to a quiet, lonely school teacher named Schoolch (Warren Davis), who was willing to raise her. She’s heard the stories, but none of them fulfill her primal, human need to know who she is and where she comes from.

Bulrusher’s world changes forever when a black girl named Vera (Chauntae Pink), from Alabama suddenly appears with a secret of her own and conjures feelings within Bulrusher that she’s never known.

 

(l-r) Warren Davis, Heidi James, Joshua Wolf Coleman, 

(seated) Patrick Cragin, Bianca Lemaire and Chauntae Pink

But who is Bulrusher? The story of her self-discovery is told in the poetic language of Boontling and set in a rural town along the Navarro River. In tune with her inner being, Bulrusher, as a clairvoyant, has the power to see the future through water that someone has touched. The power and her vague background have made her someone of an outcast in the city and given her a reputation of being a witch. None of that bothers Bulrusher who is surprisingly self-assured even though she doesn’t have a clue about her ancestry.

Boontling is a regional jargon from Northern California.  The language adds flavor to the show.  For instance, sex is referred to as ‘heel scratchin,’ while dancing is referred to as ‘hobbin.’  Of course, unless you’re familiar with the terms beforehand, it can leave the audience clueless.

Bulrusher, which means ‘foundling or illegitimate child’ in Boontling, is a play about identity laced with the reality of race relations.  It’s the west vs. the south, black vs. white, men vs. women and the plight of Native Americans.  It’s even about sexuality with possible incest thrown in. It’s all encompassing and delivered in a way that is palatable, but too drawn out.

Eisa Davis has crafted an emotional and gut-wrenching play, which was a 2007 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Davis, who was born in Berkeley, Calif., is an actress and singer as well as a playwright. She is also a niece of activist Angela Davis. Character driven, the play, directed by Nataki Garrett doesn’t have any bells and whistles – it draws purely on the words and the performances, which are impressive all around.

Garrett uses every inch of Hana Sooyeon Kim’s moveable set.  The characters flow in and out of scenes with ease – all the while moving pieces to set up the next scene change. It works. The fluidity of the direction enhances the watery elements presented throughout the production. 

Derrick McDaniel’s lighting is like an additional character. It not only sets the mood, it engulfs the stage taking to audience on a journey into the tiny town. Kudos to David B. Marling on his exceptional sound design.

All of the elements come together to make Bulrusher, which comes in at more than two hours, a lovely, but long evening of entertainment.

 

(l-r) Chauntae Pink, Heidi James and Bianca Lemaire 

 Bulrusher, written by Eisa Davis and directed by Nataki Garrett, stars Bianca Lemaire, Chauntae Pink, Joshua Wolf Coleman, Heidi James, Patrick Cragin and Warren Davis. 

*Actor Bert Emmett played Schoolch during the Sunday, Sept. 14 matinee.

On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likeable), O (oh, yeah) and E (excellent), Bulrusher gets an E (excellent).

Bulrusher, Skylight Theatre Complex, 1816 ½ North Vermont, L.A.; 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun. through Sept. 28; $30; 213 761-7061 or skylighttix.com.

Cicely Tyson Honored At First Ladies High Tea

(l-r) Founder Lisa Collins of First Ladies High Tea, First Lady Isabella Drake (Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church), Tony and Emmy-winning actress Cicley Tyson, First Lady Myesha Chaney (Antioch Church of Long Beach), who also stars in VH1’s Preachers of L.A. and First Lady Debra Williams (McCoy Memorial Baptist Church).

  (l-r) Lisa Collins and Dr. Bobby Jones Jr. (Bobby Jones Gospel)

Photos by: Scott Mitchell

L.A. Focus’ First Ladies High Tea held Sat., Sept. 13, 2014 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills was a tremendous success. Over 1,000 attendees were blessed to witness a dynamic acceptance speech from iconic actress Cicely Tyson after receving the Legacy Award. 

This year’s event was co-hosted by Ambassador of Gospel Dr. Bobby Jones, Jr; BET's "Bobby Jones Gospel" and Dr. Beverly “Bam” Crawford, pastor of Bible Enrichment Fellowship International Church.

The event honored women and First Ladies who have served the communities well, through their activism and charitable contributions. The First Lady Honorees include: Myesha Chaney; Antioch Church of Long Beach, Isabelle Drake, Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church and Debra Williams; McCoy Memorial Baptist Church.

Celebrities that were honored included actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw (best known for her role in Belle), who received the Spirit Award, actress Alley Mills, The Bold and the Beautiful, received the Shining Star Award and music executive Vicki Mack Lataillade, who received the Focus Award. Grammy winning recording artist Smokie Norful and Grammy-nominated artist, Tata Vega, were the featured performers.

About First Ladies High Tea

This afternoon tea is a red carpet affair for the Who’s Who of women in the church and black community, featuring celebrity guests, community leaders and honorees.  In the decade since its inception, the tea has served to inspire women, both young and old, to join forces and create a movement of service towards each other, the communities in which they live and to God.  Past honorees include former California First Lady Maria Shriver, former LA County Supervisor Yvonne Burke, renown vocalist Nancy Wilson, gospel recording duo Mary Mary, TV One founder Cathy Hughes, actor/activist Hill Harper and The Honorable Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California, to name a few.

'Marjorie Prime' Opens At Mark Taper Sept. 21

 

Lois Smith

The world premiere of Jordan Harrison’s “Marjorie Prime” opens at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum on Sunday, September 21, 2014, at 7 p.m.  Directed by Obie Award-winner Les Waters, the profound and engaging new play continues through October 19, 2014. 

The cast of “Marjorie Prime” features acclaimed actors Lois Smith (Tony Award nominated for “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Buried Child”), and, in alphabetical order,  Lisa Emery (who has appeared on Broadway in “Relatively Speaking,” “The Smell of the Kill” and “The Women,” among others), Jeff Ward (who recently made his Broadway debut with “Orphans”) and Frank Wood (Tony Award winner for “Sideman”; recently appeared at the Taper in “Clybourne Park”).

Hudlin To Produce Governors Awards for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

LOS ANGELES, CA — Reginald Hudlin will produce the 6th Annual Governors Awards for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced today.  The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award will be presented to Harry Belafonte, and Honorary Awards will be presented to Jean-Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki and Maureen O’Hara, on Saturday, November 8, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center®.

“With Reggie’s experience, unique vision and immense creativity, the evening celebrating those who have given so much to our industry is certain to be a memorable one,” said Boone Isaacs.

"I’m honored to be working with the Academy again,” said Hudlin.  “The collective impact of this year’s Governors Awards recipients on the evolution of cinema is immeasurable.  I’m a fan of all four of these legends, so producing a celebration of Ms. O’Hara’s performances, Mr. Carrière’s storytelling, Mr. Belafonte’s dedication and Mr. Miyazaki’s magic is a pleasure."

A writer, director, producer and pioneering entertainment executive, Hudlin received a Best Picture Oscar® nomination as a producer of “Django Unchained.”  His feature directing credits include “The Great White Hype,” “Boomerang,” and “House Party,” which he also wrote; he also has directed episodes of such popular television series as “Psych,” “Modern Family,” “The Office” and “The Bernie Mac Show.”  Hudlin recently produced “The Academy Celebrates the Black Movie Soundtrack” concert at the Hollywood Bowl and has executive produced the NAACP Image Awards show for the past two years.  He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild, and serves on the executive board of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

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