Imani Winds' CAROLS AS HOME to Air On American Public Media In December

The GRAMMY Award-nominated quintet Imani Winds will be heard throughout North America in the month of December in their new hour-long Christmas special, Carols as Home presented by American Public Media.

The special is slated to air on stations nationwide including WFMT (Chicago), KCUR (Kansas City), WVTF (Roanoke), Public Radio Tulsa, Texas Public Radio, Nebraska Public Radio, Utah Public Radio, WSHU (CT), and Public Radio East and online at Your Classical.

Carols as Home features a modern take on classic Christmas carols, hosted by Imani Winds' founding oboist, Toyin Spellman-Diaz. Toyin coaxes intimate stories of Christmas memories from the members of the ensemble – including Brandon Patrick George, flute; Mark Dover, clarinet; Kevin Newton, horn; and Monica Ellis, bassoon – and illustrates why these classic carols are still essential today.

Audiences will hear many favorite carols updated with the ensembles' own imaginative take. The event marks the first hour-long special dedicated to Imani Winds on American Public Media, and the debut of Toyin Spellman-Diaz as host.

Imani Winds has just received their third GRAMMY nomination for their world-premiere recording of Jeff Scott's Passion for Bach and Coltrane, released on Imani Winds Media in mid-September (this GRAMMY nomination follows their second for the 2021 album Bruits). Imani Winds' founding horn player Jeff Scott's concert-length oratorio, inspired by J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, brings to life the poetry of A.B. Spellman that envisages Bach and Coltrane playing music together in heaven.

Combining classical and jazz musical elements with spoken word, the work encapsulates the spirituality borne from a life lived with a passionate love of music. The poetry was written and is orated by Essence Award-nominated poet A.B. Spellman, the father of Imani Winds' oboist Ms. Spellman-Diaz.

Additional featured performers on the album are the Harlem Quartet, GRAMMY Award-nominated pianist Alex Brown, bassist Edward Perez, and drummer Neal Smith. This marks the fourteenth album in Imani Winds' discography and the first to be released on Imani Winds Media – a company dedicated to assisting musicians of color produce and release recordings, podcasts, and videos. A DVD version of Passion for Bach and Coltrane is set for release in February 2024.

Whether creating the “Carols as Home” concert or presenting works like Passion for Bach and Coltrane, Imani Winds comingles the past with the present with reverence. “We are people in the modern time taking a look at genius,” says Spellman-Diaz. “These are some of the most beautiful works that have ever been created. It is up to us to find out how we as modern folks can take up the mantle and make something that is impactful.”

About Imani Winds

Celebrating over a quarter century of music making, the three-time GRAMMY Award-nominated Imani Winds has led both a revolution and evolution of the wind quintet through their dynamic playing, adventurous programming, imaginative collaborations, and outreach endeavors that have inspired audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

The ensemble's playlist embraces traditional chamber music repertoire and newly commissioned works from voices that reflect historical events and the times in which we currently live. Twenty-six seasons of full-time touring has brought Imani Winds to virtually every major chamber music series, performing arts center, and summer festival in the U.S. They regularly perform in prominent venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center and have a presence at festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chautauqua Institution and Banff Centre. 

Appointed in 2021 as Curtis Institute of Music's first ever Faculty Wind Quintet, Imani Winds commitment to education runs deep. The highly successful Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival launched in 2010, is an annual summer program devoted to musical excellence and career development for pre-professional instrumentalists and composers.

The curriculum includes mentorship, masterclasses, entrepreneurial workshops, community engagement activities and performances, with the goal of fostering the complete musician and global citizen. In 2019, the group extended their mission even further by creating the non-profit organization, Imani Winds Foundation, which exists to support, connect and uplift their initiatives and more.

Imani Winds' travels through the jazz world are highlighted by their multi-faceted association with luminary musicians and composers Wayne Shorter, Paquito D'Rivera and Jason Moran. Their ambitious project, "Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot!" featured jazz songstress René Marie in performances that brought the house down in New York, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Los Angeles and St. Louis.

In 2021, Imani Winds released their 9th studio album, “Bruits” on Bright Shiny Things Records, which received a 2022 GRAMMY nomination for “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.” Gramophone states, “the ensemble's hot rapport churns with conviction throughout.”

Imani Winds has recordings on Koch International Classics and E1 Music, including their 2006 GRAMMY nominated recording, “The Classical Underground”. They have also recorded for Naxos and Blue Note and released an acclaimed arrangement of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring on Warner Classics. They are regularly heard on all media platforms including NPR, American Public Media, the BBC, SiriusXM, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

About A.B. Spellman

A.B. Spellman was born during the Great Depression near Elizabeth City, NC. He was a typical small-town boy who left home for college and never returned. After graduating from Howard University, Spellman attended law school briefly before being dismissed “for a lack of seriousness of purpose,” a fact that his transcript will confirm even today.
 
Spellman moved to lower Manhattan in 1957 to join the poetry scene. He nightly experienced Thelonious Monk's return from exile to the Five Spot and the formation of the quartet that bloomed John Coltrane, the most cathartic event of his life. He soon began writing about jazz, and he found jazz to be a named or unnamed occupant of the lines of his poetry. Spellman produced Four Lives In The Bebop Business, critical biographies of Cicil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Jackie McLean, and Herbie Nichols, (Pantheon) in 1966, and the book has remained continually in print from various publishers since. The poetry collection, The Beautiful Days (Poet's Press) appeared that same year. It took him until 2008 to publish his next volume of verse, Things I Must Have Known (Coffee House Press).
 
In large part this hiatus was the result of his employment at the National Endowment for the Arts, where federal conflict of interest rules forbade publication in the non-profit press. He was at the Endowment for thirty years until he retired in 2005 as Deputy Chairman. They named an award for him: The A.B. Spellman Jazz Master's Award for Advocacy. That's a great gold watch. 
 
A.B. Spellman has been married to the perfect Karen for fifty years. They have two daughters, Toyin the oboist for Imani Winds, and Kaji, a very progressive minister in N.Y.C. His son Malcolm is a screenwriter and show-runner in Los Angeles. He couldn't be more proud.

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