A First Look at What's in Store at FestForAll April 30 - May 1, 2011!

Baton Rouge - The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge will present FestForAll - Baton Rouge's premier art & music festival, April 30 - May 1, 2011!   Join us for a full weekend of art and entertainment along North Boulevard and on the grounds of the Old State Capitol and the Shaw Center for the Arts.  The hours on Saturday, April 30 are 10 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. and on Sunday, May 1 are 12 noon - 6:00 p.m.  FestForAll is free and open to all.

 FestForAll 2011 will include:

 Great shopping with over 80 visual artists from over a dozen states!  Shop for pottery, woodwork, stained glass, jewelry, and much more from award winning master craftsmen!

The more you shop the better your chances of winning FestForAll prizes!  Each time you spend $30 with a visual artist, enter to win prizes by bringing your receipts to the Visitor Information Booth.  Prizes courtesy of Country Roads Magazine and the Arts Council.

Great music!  Line-up includes:

Herman Jackson & his Big Band (Jazz/R&B)
Special Sunday in the Park performance at FestForAll!
Presented by the Arts Council and 225 Magazine 
Outstanding Jazz drummer who keeps wowing crowds. Herman has made several appearances at renowned festivals like the Berlin, Pori (Finland), Monteaux, Perugia, Nice and North Sea Jazz Festivals, in addition to annual performances with the Herman Jackson Ensemble at New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Jackson has performed and/or recorded with Clark Terry (formerly of the Tonight Show Band), Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderly, Al Green, Alvin Batiste, Ellis Marsalis, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, B. B. King, Stanley Clark, Willie Nelson, Branford Marsalis, Professor Longhair, Chuck Berry, Eartha Kitt, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Huey Lewis, Percy Sledge, Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, Wynton Marsalis, and many others...

Jackson was a member of the jazz trio voted most outstanding at the National Jazz Festival held in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center.  The National Endowment for the arts awarded him three travel study grants to further his professional career and perfect his craft, whereby he studied at Berkeley School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts with noted jazz great Alan Dawson; and in New York with Mel Lewis of the famous Thad Jones - Mel Lewis Big Band. Currently, he serves as head of the Percussion Department and Assistant Jazz Band Director at Southern University of Baton Rouge. He also finished an album with his brother, Randy Jackson of "American Idol", entitled "Randy Jackson's Music Club".

The Bedlamville Triflers are a rockabilly trio from Baton Rouge featuring Shawn Roux (lead vocals and lead string picker), Brian Akers (upright bass and backup vocals), and Greg Guffey (drums and backup vocals). A blend of old school authentic rockabilly, and a faster modern revved up version of the classic sound, the Triflers are sure to get your foot tapping. "A lot of people don't know what it's all about, so we say come see us and when we get a couple of songs in, their feet are tapping and they are moving around, It's just pretty infectious music."

The members of the Bedlamville Triflers are all big fans of modern rockabilly but their roots stem from listening to the legends of the past and connecting to the genuine lifestyle of the music.  "Rockabilly is unique, and that era with the cars, the style, those are good things that shouldn't be forgotten. Especially the music, because it's such a blend of American culture, with its old Country, its rock and roll, its blues, and its hillbilly music all wound up." - Guffey

Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca - (soukous Congo rumba - a mix of Cuban, salsa, and Pan-African style)

Ricardo Lemvo has established himself as a pioneer with his innovative music. Lemvo's blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms with pan-African styles (soukous, Angolan semba and kizomba) has been described by the Los Angeles Times as "seamless and infectious."

This Congo-born artist of Angolan ancestry is the embodiment of the Afro-Latin Diaspora which connects back to Mother Africa via the Cuban clave rhythm. Lemvo is truly multi-cultural and equally at home singing in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Lingala, and Kikongo.

Since forming his Los Angeles-based band Makina Loca in 1990, Lemvo has refined his craft and vision, raising his joyous voice with strength, singing songs that celebrate life, and most importantly, inspiring his audiences to let loose and dance away their worries.

Through the years, Lemvo has performed countless shows in many festivals, night clubs, and Performing Art Centers throughout Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Australia. Giving him the ultimate form of respect, his songs have been performed and recorded by such artists as Colombia's Joe Arroyo, Orquesta Revé from Cuba, and the Russian band, Tres Muchachos.

Lemvo's five CDs, Tata Masamba, Mambo Yo Yo, São Salvador, Ay Valeria! and Isabela have been acclaimed by print and broadcast media worldwide. The Beat Magazine named Tata Masamba the CD of the year for 1996. The Miami Herald called Mambo Yo Yo "a treasure trove." São Salvador reached #2 on the European World Music chart for May 2000. The New York Post described Ay Valeria! as "celestial, highly idiosyncratic," and the New York Times proclaimed Isabela, a "most notable" World Music CD of 2007.

Lemvo has been the subject of various radio and television programs including BBC Radio, Radio France Internationale, Radio-Télévision Belge, National Public Radio, CBS Sunday Morning, NBC Today Show, CNN World Beat, National Geographic World Music, Rádio Nacional de Angola, and Televisão Pública de Angola. Ricardo Lemvo leaves an indelible impression with any and all who hear his music or see him perform.

Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band(Cajun)
Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band - Winner at this year's 53rd Annual Grammys for Zydeco/Cajun Grammy for his album Zydeco Junkie. One word to describe the swampdelic sounds of Chubby Carrier and Bayou Swamp Band? FUN - Pure Louisiana zydeco fun with a hot sauce chaser. Anybody who has doubts about the accordion as an instrument will be swayed the right way with Carrier's passion and fire on the instrument.

The Carriers are one of the great musical families in Louisiana. There are traditional roots in Chubby's zydeco, but he expands the sound for all ages. Live and in studio he's taken songs like B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby," Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round in Circles," The Who's "Squeeze Box", War's "Cisco Kid" and the Grateful Dead's "Fire On The Mountain" and dragged them through the swamp with beautiful results. It's adding Louisiana spice to popular tunes that help Carrier build the bridge between Zydeco and the rest of the world. Chubby Carrier and The Bayou Swamp Band is one of the most energetic groups around.       

Jace Everett (Country/Blues) is Indiana-born and Texas-raisedand is an Americana Blues singer/songwriter whose song "Bad Things" is played during the HBO True Blood opening title montage. This song was Grammy nominated in 2009 and 2010 as part of the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture or Television for True Blood Volumes I & II.  Everett's music evokes the complex and vividly emotional works of Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Jim Morrison and Marvin Gaye, among others, precisely because it so plainly springs from the same sources of inspiration, contradiction and risk.

The Michael Foster Project (Funk/Soul/R&B)
This Baton Rouge based soulful group brings funk and R&B music to another level. The Michael Foster Project is a collection of talented funk masters and is gauranteed to make you get up!

The leader of this multi-genre group, Michael Foster attended Southern University where he was a member of the "Human Jukebox" (S.U. Marching Band). Foster's band-mates, many of them also music teachers and band directors, got together at Southern. "We met at the department of music," Foster says, "and in the Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity." Foster says he was introduced to the funky grooves of brass jazz by his old roommate at Southern, Julius McKee. "We were both sousaphone players," Foster says, "He was from New Orleans, and he introduced me to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. We used to sit in our room listening to those tapes until they wore out." The listening sessions paid off. The Michael Foster Project's debut release, "Kick Some Brass" was voted "Best New Brass Band or Performer," after the release by OFFBEAT Magazine's "Best of the Beat" awards. In addition, one of the tracks recorded ("Chicken Grease") was included on WWOZ's "Sounds of New Orleans" compilation CD 13, in the Spring of 2000.  

Michael Foster's work with his group has earned him recognition by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, as their Arts Ambassador. He has gone into school systems around the south talking to young students about the importance and traditions of jazz music, as well as inspiring them to practice and keep the music alive. Over time the Michael Foster Project has had a plethora of talent to perform with, as members of the group. The Michael Foster Project cuurent line-up consists of Rod Jackson (alto sax), Steve Lands (trumpet), Chancelier 'Xero' Skidmore (auxiliary percussion), Terrance Taplin (trombone), John Gray (trumpet), Chris Lee (drums) David Harris (trombone) and Michael Foster (bass and tuba). The Michael Foster Project has also joined the Continuum Music family. Discography includes: "Kick Some Brass" - Rampart Records "Weapons of Brass Destruction" - Continuum Music/Big Bell Music. Always a great time they're another FestForAll 2011 band, you don't want to miss!

Jake Smith (Soul/Rock)
Hailing from the jazz and blues-influenced swamplands of southern Louisiana, New Orleans native Jake Smith delivers both spirit and soul. Jake offers a fusion of soulful, groove-based pop that blends seamlessly together to create a sound reflective of the richness and eclecticism of New Orleans. Influenced by everything from the classic sounds of Ray Charles to current artists like John Mayer and Ray LaMontagne, Smith possesses the musical chops to perform convincingly as a solo singer-songwriter, as the leader of a funky acoustic trio or in his favorite light, the frontman to a dynamic band of energetic Louisiana allies.

Henry Gray and the Cats (Blues) - Living Legend & Bluesman
"Henry Gray is one of the leading blues men performing in the world today. His piano and voice are in top form as he boogies, shuffles, strides and plays straight 12 to the bar blues. He is the most authentic and last remaining Louisiana piano player in the tradition of Lil' Brother Montgomery, Champion Jack Dupree & Tuts Washington." -Jerry Brock, Grammy Winning Producer

Henry Gray was born in 1925 in Kenner, Louisiana. Within a few years, his family moved to a small farm in Alsen, Louisiana a few miles north of Baton Rouge. It was here that Gray began to demonstrate his talent on the piano at the age of eight.

Henry served several years in the army during World War II in the South Pacific. On a many occasions, Henry entertained troops with a piano and his singing. He fondly recalls those moments as they were breaks from the stress of being a war-time soldier.   

Henry arrived in Chicago in 1946 and for the next twenty-two years, Henry played and/or recorded with many notable players and innovators of the blues. In 1956, Howlin' Wolf asked Henry to join his band. Henry did and remained Wolf's main piano player until 1968. During the fifties and sixties,  Chess records employed Henry many times as side man on their recordings.  Also, he can be heard on many of J. D. Miller's Louisiana Excello blues  recordings in the fifties and sixties.

The following is a list of  blues artists that Henry has worked and/or  recorded with in his career: Robert Lockwood Jr., Billy Boy Arnold,  Morris Pejoe, Muddy Waters, Johnny Shines, Abe Locke, Hubert Sumlin,  Lazy Lester, "Little" Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller),  "Homesick" James, Jimmy Reed ( including a Carnegie Hall concert), Jimmy  Rogers, Elmore James (with him the night he died), "Snooky"  Pryor, Koko  Taylor, Otis Rush, "Little" Milton, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Raful Neal,  Kenny Neal, Taj Mahal, BB King, Tabby Thomas, Larry Garner, Moses  "Whisperin" Smith, Silas Hogan, Guitar Kelly, Washboard Sam, and Guitar Slim.  

During the last thirty years, Henry has been  performed at virtually all New Orleans Jazz Festivals, two Chicago Blues festivals (1987 & (1989), the Montreal Jazz Fest  (1988),  nearly every Baton Rouge Blues Festival since its inception,  the San Francisco Blues Festival, Memphis's W.C. Handy Blues Festival  Blues Festival, several Festival Internationals (Lafayette, Louisiana),  the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the King Biscuit festival  (Helena, Arkansas), and many other festivals around the United States.

Henry received a Grammy nomination for his work on TelArc  Records' 1998 release "A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf". Also, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones invited Henry to play at Jagger's 55th birthday bash in Paris in '98 along with a few other blues legends. In the summer of '99, Henry joined Marva Wright and her band for a 30-day Louisiana music European tour produced by Blue House Records. Henry Gray and the Cats will continue "keepin' the blues alive" according to God's plan.

David Egan & Buddy Flett (Blues) 
"David Egan has that rare ability from a songwriter to put the listener 'in the moment' along with the songs.  His takes on everyday slices of life are priceless...  highly recommended!"  Music City Blues / MusicCityBlues.com - Nashville, TN - Don Crow, January 2009

Blues Revue - Feb 2008 - by Tom Hyslop
"David Egan is blues, straight up and down.  Nothing to hide, no false impressions, You Don't Know Your Mind is as straight forward as it gets...  perfect for blues fanatics everywhere." - jsitop21.com

Buddy Flett is part of a long Shreveport tradition of guitar wizards - Leadbelly, for instance,  James Burton (creator of the Suzy Q lick, sideman to Elvis and Ricky Nelson) and lately, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who counts Buddy as his mentor and one of his guitar heroes.

"Flett's six-string work sounds like the missing Louisiana link to Elmore James and Muddy Waters" -Scott Jordan, Gambit Weekly, New Orleans.

Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble - Curley Taylor was born and raised in Louisiana and has been playing music all of his life.  By the age of 25, Curley had played drums for some of Louisiana's finest legends including: CC Adcock, Steve Riley, John Hart, "Lil" Bob of the Lollipops, and his uncles, "Lil Buck" Senegal and Wayne "Blue" Burns.  Floyd's Record Shop, Louisiana's oldest record store talks about Curley's music by saying "...it's filled with touching songs that are good for the soul & keep you dancing even after the music stops." Curley's music is a wicked fusion of Zydeco and R&B that makes for its own original genre.

Phat Hat - Phat Hat's mission is simple: Deep rhythm and soulful goodness with a sound that will keep the dance floor rocking all night long.Phat Hat is a funk/soul band from Baton Rouge. The band's repertoire includes a smattering of the funkiest dance songs from the sixties, seventies and eighties guaranteed to make the music move you!

Performing Arts:

Debbie Allen's original dance production: All the Right Moves - Don't miss this chance to see amazing talent as Baton Rouge dancers celebrate "Bollywood," Classical Tap, Ribbon Work, Fairy Land Ballet and Hip Hop in this original Debbie Allen production. Performances taking place FestForAll weekend at the Manship Theatre: 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 30 & 3:30 & 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1. (Performances also scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28th and 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 29th) Tickets will be available through the Manship Theatre 225-344-0334.

N'Fungola Sibo Dance & Drum Company - N'Fungola Sibo celebrates African culture through traditional West African dance & drum performances. These talented performing artists promote positive energy, character and ethnicity, using African song, drum, dance, and folklore.

FestForAll Children's Village:

FestForAll's Children's Village iscoordinated by the Junior League of Baton Rouge, will feature musicians, puppeteers, storytellers, jugglers, magicians, stilt walkers, and lots of hands-on art activities! Kids can partake in over a dozen hand-on art activity stations and watch fun and entertaining stage performances on the Children's Village Stage.  FestForAll's Children's Village will take place on the grounds of Louisiana's Old State Capitol.

New this Year:

Spring Art Walk on Saturday, April 30 from 3-8pm.  Art will be displayed inside downtown businesses. Coordinated by the Downtown Development District as a part of FestForAll.

Velo des Artes Bicycle Ride - Take a tour of public art in downtown Baton Rouge and surrounding neighborhoods on Sunday morning, May 1st before riding to FestForAll as it opens at 12 noon. The Velo des Artes Bicycle ride is coordinated by the Baton Rouge Advocates for Safe Streets (BRASS). Anyone who rides a bike to the fest can conveniently park at the BRASS bike corral while they enjoy the festival.  Plus: Learn about bike safety and etiquette from the fine folks with the Capital Region Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Campaign.

Country Roads American Gothic Photo Booth - Sign up for Country Roads This Week e-blast and become a piece of classic art by having your picture taken at FestForAll. These souvenir photos will be accessible after the festival at www.countryroadsmag.com. Silly and artful props provided!

 FestForAll Costume Contest - Get yourself gussied up and strut your stuff; trophies awarded for best costumes as decided by festival judges. Costumes that celebrate art, culture, Baton Rouge, and Louisiana encouraged. Register to participate beginning Friday, March 18 at www.artbr.org.

FestForAll is a showcase for all the great things that are going on in Baton Rouge. It is a chance for families to come downtown and eat, play, dance and shop. Children and adults can experience visual arts, music, and dance in a wonderful festival atmosphere. FestForAll celebrates the creative energy of our great community.

Special thanks to FestForAll sponsors including the Office of the Mayor-President; Louisiana Office of Tourism, Office of the Lt. Governor, Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism; Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau; All Star Automotive; People's Health; PreSonus; Capital Region Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Campaign; Junior League of Baton Rouge; Coca-Cola; Entergy; and Mockler Beverage Company.

FestForAll - a Baton Rouge tradition since 1974 - is free & open to everyone. FestForAll has a distinguished 30+year history garnering a reputation as one of Louisiana's finest art and music festivals.

History
FestForAll has a distinguished 30-year history garnering a reputation as one of Louisiana’s premier arts events attended by thousands. FestForAll was begun in 1973, at the request of the Mayor’s office, to celebrate our community’s cultural diversity through the arts. In 2003 after a brief hiatus and in response to public demand, this most popular Baton Rouge festival returned under the direction of the original presenter, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge.

FestForAll Music CDs
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