Tag Archives: South on Main

Anat Cohen kicks off Oxford American 2015-16 Jazz Series at South on Main tonight at 8

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oa jazz AnatTonight at 8pm, the Oxford American magazine welcomes Anat Cohen to the South on Main stage to kick off the OA Jazz Series!

Doors open at 6:00 PM, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time. This series is made possible by presenting sponsor, the UCA College of Fine Arts & Communication. Additional partners include The Summer Foundation, Arkansas Arts Council, Capital Hotel, Piano Kraft, Rosen Music Company, and FM-89.1 KUAR.

Tickets are $20 (General Admission), $30 (Reserved), and $32 (Premium Reserved). View the South on Main reserved seating map here. Please take a look at this very important ticketing and seating information before purchasing your tickets.

Clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. Anat was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised into a musical family. She began clarinet studies at age twelve and played jazz on clarinet for the first time in the Jaffa Conservatory’s Dixieland Band. At sixteen, she joined the school’s big band and learned to play the tenor saxophone; it was this same year that Anat entered the prestigious “Thelma Yellin” school, where she majored in jazz. After graduation, she discharged her mandatory Israeli military service duty from 1993-1995, playing tenor saxophone in the Israeli Air Force band.

The Jazz Journalists Association has voted Anat as “Clarinetist of the Year” eight years in a row, and she has topped both the Critics and Readers Polls in the clarinet category in DownBeat magazine every year since 2011. That’s not to mention years of being named “Rising Star” in the soprano and tenor saxophone categories in DownBeat, as well as for “Jazz Artist of the Year.” In 2009, ASCAP awarded Anat a Wall of Fame prize for composition and musicianship, among other honors.

In March 2015, Anzic Records releases Luminosa, her seventh album as a bandleader. Luminosa sees Anat play singing, dancing originals, interpret Brazilian classics by the likes of Milton Nascimento, and even re-imagine electronica as acoustica with an ingenious arrangement of a Flying Lotus tune. Luminosaencapsulates the description Jazz Police offered of Anat in full flight: “She becomes a singer, a poet, a mad scientist, laughing—musically—with the delight of reaching that new place, that new feeling, with each chorus.”

Tonight’s Oxford American Local Live – Heather Smith Band at 7:30pm at South on Main

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llsom heatherTonight at 7:30pm, this week’s installment of Local Live features the Heather Smith Band!

Presented by the Oxford American magazine, Local Live showcases the best of local and regional music talent and is always free and open to the public. Call ahead to South on Main to make your reservations and ensure a table: (501) 244-9660. Local Live is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Ben and Jane Hunt Meade.

Heather Smith Band, a Little Rock based jazz/pop group, is set to release Stay Away Love, their first full-length album of original songs on May 9. The band originally formed in 2013 and is comprised of Heather Smith (lead vocals), Wythe Walker (keyboard, guitar, harmonica, vocals), Ray Wittenberg, (drums), Bill McCumber (bass), John Gaiser (electric guitar), and Matthew Holland (keyboard).

When asked to describe their genre of music, Smith is hard-pressed. “While we are heavily influenced by jazz of the 1940s and 50s [Rosemary Clooney and Peggy Lee], we also have some definite pop influences; specifically in our contemporary lyrics and the twenty-first century stories we tell in our songs,” Smith said. “It’s sort of a hybrid of jazz and pop that’s timeless with a specifically vintage feel, but also distinctly modern.” Smith and Walker co-wrote all the songs using Smith’s autobiographical lyrics. “All of our songs are based on actual experiences in my life, the good, the bad and the inevitable heartbreaks,” Smith admits sheepishly, “It’s wonderfully cheap therapy.”

Tonight at 10, Bijoux & LoVe Theory at South on Main in a Late Night Concert

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bijoux.jpg.190x140_q60_cropSouth on Main welcomes Bijoux & the LoVe Theory tonight for a Late Night Concert.  Doors open at 4:00 PM, show begins at 10:00 PM. Wristbands can be purchased for $15 after doors open.

Bijoux—a native of Little Rock – is a sultry soul singer adept in various styles. The daughter of West African parents, Bijoux grew up in a household exposed to differing genres of music including folk, classic rock and roll, makossa, country, and R&B. Her jovial spirit, endearing vocals, vibrant entertaining, and musical versatility make her concerts engaging and fun.

Tonight at 8 at South on Main, the Oxford American presents Pokey LaFarge

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OA SOM PokeyThe Oxford American magazine is excited to welcome Pokey LaFarge to the South on Main stage! Pokey is kicking off our 2015 – 2016 Concert Series as part of the Archetypes & Troubadours sub-series. Doors open at 6:00 PM, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time.

The concert starts at 8pm.  This series is made possible in part by the generosity of The Summer Foundation.

Tickets are $17 (General Admission), $22 (Reserved), and $25 (Premium Reserved). View the South on Main reserved seating map here. Please take a look at this very important ticketing and seating information before purchasing your tickets. Full season ticket pricing and options are also available in a consolidated format, here.

St. Louis-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Pokey LaFarge draws from a deep well of American musical traditions to create distinctively personal music that’s timeless rather than retro, transcending the confines of genre in a manner that reflects the artist’s openhearted attitude. Incorporating elements of early jazz, ragtime, country blues, Western swing, and beyond, LaFarge has created a vibrant, deeply expressive body of work that embodies an expansive musical vision and vivid storytelling sensibility that are wholly his own. He’s also earned a reputation as a tireless and uniquely charismatic live performer, winning a loyal international fan base that regularly packs his rousing, celebratory live shows.

Pokey LaFarge’s latest album, Something in the Water, was released in April 2015. Something in the Water finds the artist doubling down on his established creative strengths, expanding and deepening his musical reach on such new originals as the wry, rollicking title track, the swaggering ragtime workout “Wanna Be Your Man,” the infectiously jazzy “Underground,” the evocative instrumental “Cairo, Illinois,” the exotic ballad “Barcelona,” and the swinging album-closer “Knocking the Dust off the Rust Belt Tonight,” whose witty lyrics underline the album’s proudly Midwestern sensibility.

Tonight’s Oxford American Local Live at South on Main – Marcella & Her Lovers

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llsom marcellaTonight at 7:30pm at South on Main, join the Oxford American magazine for this week’s Local Live concert.  This week it features Marcella & Her Lovers! As always, Local Live is free and open to the public. To guarantee a table/seat for this popular series, call ahead at (501) 244-9660. Local Live is made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Ben and Jane Hunt Meade.

Whether arcing the curve of the highest golden high, or lighting the depth of the lowest blue low, the music and voice of Marcella Simien and her Lovers can take you there, to that magic spot where time slows down, worry and concern retreat, and everybody feels fine, primed and ready for an unforgettable time.

Like savoring the flavors in a dish made by a master chef, one detects in Simien’s music subtle yet devastating touches of the Memphis and Muscle Shoals sounds infused with the fingerprint of her Creole ancestors—that now laughing, now sighing Zydeco accordion and exhortations shouted in Creole French.

Throughout, Simien’s voice, an instrument fierce and galloping with dignified pleading, floats above the music’s cradled melee like a night star, fondly reminding us of a mysterious past while at once exciting us with the romance of the uncertain future.

An eclectic mixture of the dark magic of Louisiana swamps and the angelic grind of Memphis soul, Marcella’s repertoire spans Stax classics to wall-of-sound pop unforgettables.

Learn more at: marcellaandherlovers.com

Tonight at 6 at South on Main, Clinton School & Oxford American present “Jazz: Integrated Art in Segregated America” symposium

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alvin02sm.jpg.190x140_q60_cropThis evening at 6pm at South on Main, Oxford American in partnership with the Clinton School of Public Service presents “Jazz: Integrated Art in Segregated America,” a symposium and panel discussion surrounding music and race.

The discussion will be led by Dr. Jackie Lamar, Professor of Saxophone at University of Central Arkansas’s College of Fine Arts and Communication. A jazz performance will follow the panel discussion. Thanks to sponsors Clinton School of Public Service, UCA College of Fine Arts & Communication, Piano Kraft, Rosen Music Company, and Arkansas Arts Council for helping make this event possible.

Featured panelists include Little Rock-based singer Irene Crutchfield; bassist Bill Huntington (born, New Orleans, LA); drummer Alvin Fielder (pictured), based in Jackson, MS; and bassist London Branch, also based in Jackson, MS. The symposium event is free and open to the public. South on Main’s doors open at 5:00 PM. with light food and drinks available for purchase.

At 8pm, the Oxford American presents jazz ensemble The Southeast Quartet at South on Main. This event is $10 regular, or $5 students/artists payable in cash at the doors on the night of the show.

Guido Ritchie and Steve Hudelson at Local Live tonight

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llsom s gTonight at 7:30pm at is this week’s installment of Local Live concert series at South on Main.  The artists tonight are Guido Ritchie and Steve Hudelson!

Presented by the Oxford American magazine, Local Live showcases the best of local and regional music talent and is always free and open to the public. Call ahead to South on Main to make your reservations and ensure a table: (501) 244-9660. Local Live is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Ben and Jane Hunt Meade.

Guido Ritchie and Steve Hudelson have been performing together as a duo for over twenty years, presenting some the finest jazz Arkansas has to offer. They first began playing together in the early 90’s where they were both music majors at UALR. Hundreds of gigs in restaurants, private parties, and concert stages later, Ritchie and Hudelson have honed their unique trumpet and guitar pairing into a beautiful and exiting sound. Recently, both musicians were added to the Arkansas Art Council’s Arts on Tour roster.