Charenée Wade Quintet: Offering—The Music of Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson HD

Wellesley College’s Music Department would like to welcome Charenée Wade Quintet in Offering—The Music of Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson. Charenée Wade is a jazz vocalist who began singing at the age of 12 and learned from jazz luminaries such as Carmen Lundy and Christian McBride. Her clear voice and impressive technique landed her first runner-up in the 2010 Thelonious Monk competition, and she followed this success with her debut album, Love Walked In. She is an educator who is currently making waves in both jazz and soul/R&B circles. This tribute honors Gil Scott-Heron, who is an important American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, whose collaborative effots with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time. His music influenced and helped engender later American-American music genres such as hip hop and neo-soul. Charenée Wade is the first woman to devote an entire album to the work of blues poet Gil Scott-Heron. The Music Department is exited to present Charenée Wade’s Quintet in light of the current political climate and ongoing discussions around race and class in American culture.