Diedre Murray
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Diedre Murray
Diedre Murray is an American cellist and composer specializing in jazz and musical theater. She also works as a record producer and curator. As a performer she has worked with Leroy Jenkins, Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson, Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, James Brown, Julius Hemphill, Fred Hopkins, Jason Kao Hwang, and Archie Shepp, in addition to leading her ensembles, and has appeared on over 50 recordings as a cellist, composer, arranger and/or producer. A native of New York, Murray received a B.S. degree from Hunter College in ethnomusicology,and studied at the Manhattan School of Music. Career Early composing for theater or music productions: a score for the inaugural concert at the Danny Kaye/Sylvia Fine Playhouse entitled "Five Minute Tango", performed by the Manhattan Brass Quintet; ''The Conversation'' for the Seattle-based New Performance Group at the Walker Art Center in Minnesota for the Music in Motion program; ''Flashes'', a structured improvised colla ...
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Prophecy (Fred Hopkins And Diedre Murray Album)
''Prophecy'' is an album by bassist Fred Hopkins and cellist and composer Diedre Murray. It was recorded in August 1990 at RPM Studios in New York City, and was released by About Time Records in 1998. On the album, Hopkins and Murray are joined by guitarist Brandon Ross and drummer Newman Baker. Reception In a review for AllMusic, Thom Jurek called the album "a knotty, steamy, smoky ride through the various entanglements associated with a jazz ensemble whose principals are all string players," and wrote: "The compositions here may be by Murray, and her cello is everywhere, but the depth of feeling and closeness of the ensemble are evidenced here by the gigantic presence of Hopkins, a musician who believed that what made music go from one person to the next was the simple transference of emotion." Glenn Astarita of ''All About Jazz'' described the album as "a wonderfully exciting recording," and remarked: "Besides the abundance of twists, turns and surprises, there are many cohesiv ...
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Laurie Carlos
Laurie Dorothea Carlos (née Smith; January 25, 1949 – December 29, 2016) was an American actress and avant-garde performance artist, playwright and theater director. She was also known for her work mentoring emerging artists in the theater. Early life Born on New York City's Lower East Side, Carlos' father, Walter Smith, was a drummer for blues and R&B acts including B.B. King, Bo Diddley and Jackie Wilson. Her mother was an exotic dancer.On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century
by C. Carr, Wesleyan University Press, 2012, page 164.
At the age of 14 Carlos saw

Black Saint Records
Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz. History Black Saint was established in 1975 by Giacomo Pelliciotti and devoted to recording avant-garde musicians who might not have an opportunity elsewhere. In 1979, a sister label, Soul Note, was established as a home for artists who, while being no less creative, might be considered slightly closer to the mainstream. The labels specialize in avant-garde jazz stemming from the free jazz tradition. Some of its roster of artists were members of the Chicago-based music association Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the St. Louis-based multidisciplinary arts collectives Black Artists Group and the Human Arts Ensemble. The company was based in Tribiano, Italy. Many of the recordings were made in Milan, as the performers passed thro ...
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Firestorm (Diedre Murray And Fred Hopkins Album)
''Firestorm'' is an album by cellist Diedre Murray and bassist Fred Hopkins. It was recorded at East Side Sound Studio in New York City during July 1992, and was released later that year by Les Disques Victo. Reception In a review for AllMusic, François Couture wrote: "Murray favors a written-down approach; her compositions lay out melodies, phrases, and sections, but also include lots of improvisation and time stretching, and they require the kind of underlying complicity very few are capable of... Strings in jazz... don't have to sound pompous: When freed from all clichés, they can lie somewhere between jazz and classical, while being pledged to neither of them." David Grundy, writing for ''Point of Departure'', praised the track titled "Dedicated to Wilbur Little," commenting: "Murray plays the melody over Hopkins' arco counter-figurations: an ecstatic yet restrained chorale. Murray's slides and slurs exemplify the cry of the string while her horn-like phrasing, carefully wei ...
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Lilly Awards
The Lilly Awards are an American awards ceremony recognizing extraordinary women in theatre. An annual celebration is held in New York to honor female writers, composers, directors, designers, producers and advocates. Some men have also been awarded the Miss Lilly, a prize in recognition of their advocacy for women in a male-dominated industry. Named after Lillian Hellman, the Lilly Awards were founded in 2010 by the playwrights Julia Jordan, Marsha Norman and Theresa Rebeck. Marsha Norman is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony-award winning playwright, whose work includes the book of the musical ''The Color Purple'' and book and lyrics of ''The Secret Garden''. The Lillys promote the work of women in theatre by partnering with the Dramatists Guild to produce The Count, the first study of its kind to measure the data of the theatre industry and investigate the lack of gender parity in American theatre. Between 2011-2014, in a study sampling 2,508 productions in American theatres, only 22% of ...
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Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the American Theatre Wing. As the Tony Awards cover Broadway productions, the Obie Awards cover off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions. Background The Obie Awards were initiated by Edwin (Ed) Fancher, publisher of ''The Village Voice,'' who handled the financing and business side of the project. They were first given in 1956 under the direction of theater critic Jerry Tallmer. Initially, only off-Broadway productions were eligible; in 1964, off-off-Broadway productions were made eligible. The first Obie Awards ceremony was held at Helen Gee's cafe.Aletti, Vince"Helen Gee 1919–2004" ''Village Voice'' (New York City), 12 October 2004, accessed on 21 November 2013 With the exception of the Lifetime Achievement and Best New American Pl ...
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Aaron Davis Hall
Aaron Davis Hall is a performing arts center in Manhattan, New York City in the neighborhood of Harlem. Aaron Davis Hall was founded in 1979 and is located on the campus of the City College of New York, between West 133rd and 135th Streets on Convent Avenue, one block east of Amsterdam Avenue. and is the northern extension of Morningside Avenue beginning at 127th Street. It consists of the Marian Anderson Theatre, named after the American contralto, and Theatre B, a black box theatre. In 2007, it was among over 530 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. History In 1974, the City College announced plans for the $5.3‐million Aaron Davis Hall, which would house the school's Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts. The Aaron Davis Hall was opened in 1979 with a concert by many notable artists such as Mikhail ...
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Lynn Nottage
Lynn Nottage (born November 2, 1964) is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play ''Ruined'', and in 2017 for her play ''Sweat''. She was the first (and remains the only) woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times. Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship and was included in ''Time'' magazine's 2019 list of the 100 Most Influential People. She is currently an associate professor of playwriting at Columbia University and an artist-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory. Early and personal life Lynn Nottage was born on November 2, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother Ruby Nottage was a schoolteacher and principal; her father Wallace was a child psychologist. She went to Saint Ann's School for elementary school, and graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. While in h ...
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Carl Hancock Rux
Carl Hancock Rux () is an American poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, recording artist, journalist, curator and conceptual installation artist working in text, dance, ritualized performance, audio, video, and photography. Described in the NY Times as "a breathlessly inventive multimedia artist" focused on "art, race, memory and power", Rux is the author of several books including the Village Voice Literary Prize-winning collection of poetry, '' Pagan Operetta'', the novel, ''Asphalt'', and the OBIE Award-winning play, ''Talk'' and five albums. He appears as a frequent collaborating artist, most notably on Gerald Clayton's album ''Life Forum'' (Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and as co-author of the staged incarnation of ''Steel Hammer'' by Julia Wolfe, the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-nominated work, created with Anne Bogart. Rux is the author/performer of the Lincoln Center commissioned experimental short poetic film The Baptism', a tribute to civil rights activist ...
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The Best Of Both Worlds (musical)
''The Best of Both Worlds'' is a musical with book and lyrics by Randy Weiner, music by Diedre Murray, and additional scenes by Diane Paulus, loosely based on William Shakespeare's '' A Winter's Tale''. Productions The show played off-Broadway at the Women's Project Theatre. Directed by Diane Paulus, it featured sets by Mark Wedland, costumes by Gabriel Berry, and lighting by Kevin Adams. This production played from December 2, 2004, to January 2, 2005. ''The Best of Both Worlds'' also played at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts from November 21, 2009 to January 3, 2010. References Best of Both Worlds americanrepertorytheater.org #Rizzo, FrankBest of Both Worlds ''Variety''. Dec 7, 2009. #Cambridge NewsAmerican Repertory Theater Presents Best of Both Worlds ''American Towns''. External links The Best of Both Worldsat the Internet Off-Broadway Database The Internet Off-Broadway Database (IOBDB), also formerly known as the Lortel Archives, is an ...
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Kathryn Walker
Kathryn Walker is an American theater, television and film actress. Biography Walker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wells College in Aurora, New York, and was a Fulbright Scholar in music and drama. Walker's career began on the off-Broadway New York stage with her performance in ''Slag'' in 1971. On Broadway she appeared in ''The Good Doctor'' (1974), ''A Touch of the Poet'' (1977), ''Private Lives'' (1983) and ''Wild Honey'' (1986), among others. She also has been a sporadic presence on daytime drama, including ''Search for Tomorrow'' and '' Another World'', and received an Emmy award for her outstanding performance as First Lady Abigail Adams in PBS's 13-part epic miniseries ''The Adams Chronicles'' (1976). On film, she has co-starred or played secondary femme roles in ''Blade'' (1973), '' Slap Shot'' (1977), ''Girlfriends'' (1978), and ''Rich Kids'' (1979), and she also played John Belushi's wife in the dark, oddball comedy '' N ...
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Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly he ...
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