Vocalists Ledisi, Samara Joy, and More to Perform at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival This Week

George Benson, Billy Eckstine and Phyllis Hyman, are but a few of the extraordinary singers that had roots in Pittsburgh and enriched the vocal jazz tradition. The vocalists who will sing at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF), which runs from September 16-18, will expand and extend on the legacy of their Steel City forebears.

Laurin Talese, (Taste of Jazz, Friday, September 16, 9:30 pm, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, 980 Liberty Ave.)

Cleveland chanteuse/composer Laurin Talese was a winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, albeit in 2018. She's performed with Patti LaBelle, Christian McBride, Gregory Porter and Robert Glasper, toured as a cultural ambassador with American Music Abroad, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and released her debut album, Gorgeous Chaos in 2016. Classically trained at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a graduate of Philadelphia's University of the Arts, Talese performed her composition This Love, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin in 2021. This year, her latest work, Museum Of Living Stories, was commissioned by Chamber Music America. With a voice that's light as a feather, Talese's vocals, dance and trance in any musical genre.

Aymée Nuviola and Gonzalo Rubalcaba Band, (Saturday September 17, 3:30 pm Highmark Stadium, Station Square, 510 W Station Square Dr.)

Cuba boasts an impressive collection of exceptional female vocalists, from Celia Cruz and Merceditas Valdés to Omara Portundo of the Buena Vista Social Club, Havana vocalist/actress Aymée Nuviola is the next step in that highly esteemed lineage. The multi Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning Nuviola is the first female to lead a Cuban timba band. She grew up in a family of musicians, classically trained and well-versed in her homeland's myriad Afro-Cuban and Latin American musical genres from the rumba, bolero, bossa nova and salsa, and Nuviola's recordings reflect that dancing diversity. In recent years, she's formed a partnership with the Grammy Award-winning pianist/composer, Gonzalo Rubalcaba. With Rubalcaba at her side Nuviola will perform selections from their critically-acclaimed 2020 CD Viento y Tiempo (Wind and Time), Rubalcaba's and Nuviola's musical look back to the Cuba of their childhoods, a kind of time traveling in tempo.

Vanisha Gould, (Taste of Jazz - Friday, September 16, 9:30 pm, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, 980 Liberty Ave. and Saturday, September 17, 4:45 pm Highmark Stadium, Station Square, 510 W Station Square Dr.)

Hailing from Simi Valley, CA, where she started singing at the age of four, vocalist/songwriter Vanisha Gould moved to New York City in 2015 to pursue her music career. She performed at some of the major venues in the city including Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smalls, and The Jazz Gallery. Inspired by artists like Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Joni Mitchell, Carmen McRae and Ella Fitzgerald, Gould has created her own sound as a composer and bandleader drawing from jazz, rock and folk traditions. She's worked with the J.C. Hopkins Biggish Band and Emmet Cohen, among others. Her 2021 recording, In Her Words, is a collaboration with vocalist Lucy Yeghiazaryan playing standards and original compositions and is an exploration of the interior lives of women. When she brings her quartet to the Pittsburgh stage, you'll hear an artist who beautifully balances intimacy and intensity.

Samara Joy (Sunday, September 18, 2:15 pm, Highmark Stadium, Station Square, 510 W Station Square Dr.)

The 22-year-old, Bronx native Samara Joy has been a fan favorite on the club/festival circuit ever since she won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition. She's blessed with a cool and caressing Jeanne Lee-like contralto, enriched by the gospel heritage she inherited from her parents and grandparents, and honed in Fordham High School for the Arts' jazz band and SUNY-Purchase's jazz program. Joy comes to Pittsburgh supported by pianist Isaiah J. Thompson, bassist Felix Moseholm and drummer Evan Sherman, performing selections from her forthcoming CD, Linger Awhile. The phrase "catch a rising star," has never been more appropriate.

Ledisi (Sunday, September 18, 7:15pm, Highmark Stadium, Station Square, 510 W Station Square Dr.)

Born in New Orleans and raised in Oakland, Ledisi's vivid and Grammy Award-winning vocals equally draw from the blues and Afro-Caribbean moods and grooves of the Big Easy, and the R&B and funk from the Bay Area. That means that she can deliver a command performance anytime, anywhere. The recipient of three Soul Train Awards and a multiple NAACP Image Award nominee, Ledisi is also an actress, starring in the film Remember Me: The Story of Mahalia Jackson, and she portrays Gladys Knight in the upcoming film, Spinning Gold: The Story of Casablanca Records. Her nine records, from her excellent 2007 release, Lost & Found, Ledisi Sings Nina, her heartfelt tribute to Nina Simone, and her 2021 release, Live at the Troubadour, span the gamut of modern music, including straight-ahead, quiet storm, soul, gospel and blues. Ledisi's name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba, and she will bring everything when she comes to the Highmark stage.

Maysa Leak with Incognito (Sunday, September 18, 8:45 pm, Highmark Stadium, Station Square, 510 W Station Square Dr.)

From their debut in 1979, the British, acid-jazz ensemble, Incognito, led by composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick, created an infectious blend of jazz, disco, funk and soul, R&B and pop genres that still moves and grooves four decades later. The Grammy-nominated, Baltimore-born vocalist and Morgan State University alumnus Maysa Leak, who once sang backup for Stevie Wonder, joined the group in the early 1990's, moved to London in 1982, and it was a match made in heaven. With Maysa on vocals, the group's fiery version of Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing," and the soulful ballad, "Deep Waters," became hits, and she recorded seven albums with the group. She's also recorded 14 albums as a solo artist since 1995, including her 2007 recording, Feel the Fire, featuring the music of Peabo Bryson, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and the Commodores. Leaks' gospelized jazz vocals will reunite with Incognito at the festival and take the Highmark stage to the next level.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for Ron Carter Foursight at the AWAACC on Friday, September 16 start at $55, and are available for purchase here. Tickets for A Taste of Jazz, starting at $47.25, are available for purchase here.

One-day Jazz Fest passes for Saturday or Sunday are available starting at $45, and two-day Jazz Fest passes are available starting at $85 for performances taking place at Highmark Stadium. For more details, and to purchase tickets, please follow this link.

Student one-day passes for $30 and two-day passes for $55 will be available for purchase in-person at the venue, as well as $12 tickets for children (ages 4-12) and free Lap Passes for children under 3. These tickets must be purchased in person at the Highmark Stadium box office.

ABOUT CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation's oldest and largest financial institutions, with $226.7 billion in assets as of June 30, 2022. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a full-service customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 3,300 ATMs and more than 1,200 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers a broad complement of financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. More information is available at www.citizensbank.com or visit us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

ABOUT August Wilson AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER

The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a non-profit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh's cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 119,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today. http://www.awaacc.org

Don't miss the Highmark Blues & Heritage Festival, also produced by AWAACC, September 14-15 at Highmark Stadium. For more information, including the daily schedules, go to http://blues.awaacc.org.

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