On Friday, September 17th, Penn Valley Metropolitan Community College will be hosting a 3-hour jazz event, from 6pm-9pm on the Penn Valley campus at Linwood, between SW Trafficway and Broadway in Kansas City, MO. The event is free of charge and open to the public.
The concert features trumpeter Chalis O’Neal, who will be releasing his first recording this fall. Pianist Charles Williams, who has several recordings to his credit, is a mainstay on the Kansas City scene, and a regular member of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra.
The highlight of the evening is a performance of Lisa Henry. The Herbie Hancock Institute says, on their website https://hancockinstitute.org/meet/lisa-henry/ that vocalist Lisa Henry, is dynamic vocalist with a combination of swingin’ cool and down-home class. A Kansas City native, she began by singing gospel music in the Baptist church. By age 12 was singing the music of Billie Holiday and Miles Davis.
Lisa Henry was a winner of the 1994 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition and was later named an International Jazz Ambassador to Africa. She toured Chile, Argentina, and Peru with the Institute in 1998. In 2006 she participated in a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of India, and in 2007 she performed for an esteemed presidential dinner at the White House celebrating the Institute’s 20th Anniversary.
Over the past 25 years, Lisa Henry has toured the globe, sharing the stage with such artists as Kenny Barron, Kenny Garrett, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Ingrid Jensen, Kevin Mahogany, TS Monk, Lou Rawls, Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry, and Bobby Watson. Her latest recording, Live from 18th and Vine, has received critical acclaim.
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