Musicians on Tour in Washington, D.C.

 

Connick Jr. is a pianist and singer-songwriter who started playing publicly music at the age of five. When he was nine, Connick Jr. performed a piano concerto with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. He started recording music with a local jazz band at the age of ten. After moving to NYC to study at Hunter College and Manhattan School of Music where he signed with Columbia Records and released his first self-titled album in 1987. Connick dedicated the album to his mother and the track “Sunny Side Of The Street” is dedicated to his tutor James Booker. His next album 20 was released the next year and mainly consisted of covers of traditional pop songs. The album peaked at no. 6 on Billboard’s Top Jazz chart. These two albums added to Connick’s reputation and won him his next big opportunity: the chance to record a soundtrack for the famous film When Harry Met Sally… (1989). The soundtrack won Connick his Grammy Award for Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance for his contribution. Watch Connick perform live at the Concert Hall Kennedy Center on November 21, 2022, at 8:00 pm.

Leven Kali

Kali was born to musician parents in Holland but was raised in Santa Monica, California. He started playing in a jazz band as a drummer when was young. Leven was introduced to the music industry through a string of singles that he released online. After that, he garnered more attention by collaborating with artists such as Playboi Carti, Drake, and Ty Dolla $ign among others. His music is hard to be classified into one genre but his influences mainly include R&B, hip-hop, and rap. He has also been credited on Beyoncé’s 2022 album Renaissance as a cowriter and coproducer. The Levin Kali tour called the Let it Rain tour was announced in April and Washington D.C. is one of its stops. Watch Kali perform live at the Union State on November 15, 2022, at 8:00 pm. 

Catherine Russell

Catherine Russell is a jazz and blues singer who started her career as a background vocalist in the early 1990s after she was invited to tour with Donald Fagen from the band Steely Dan. She continued to tour with bands that mainly dabbled in the rock, blues, jazz, and gospel genre. She even toured with David Bowie for two years not only as a background vocalist but also contributed on several occasions on the guitar, keyboard, and percussion. Russell started her solo career after signing a contract with Harmonia Mundi and her first album Cat was released in 2006. The success of her next six albums allowed her to transition from a background vocalist to a successful solo jazz musician in her own right. Russell was nominated for a Grammy twice in the Best Jazz Vocal Album Category for her albums Harlem on My Mind (2017) and Alone Together (2019). She will be performing at Blues Alley on October 22, 2022, at 7:00 pm as part of the Catherine Russell tour.

Author Name Barkat Dhanji