Veronneau, a jazz quartet fronted by French-Canadian vocalist Lynn Veronneau brings the sparkling sounds of Bossa Nova and the recent documentary, “Bossa Nova: the Brazilian Music that Charmed the World” to the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday May 23 at 8:00 p.m. The concert is part of the Mainstay’s “The Byrd Series: A Celebration of Charlie’s 90th.” Admission is $20. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
In 2012, Veronneau released the recording “The Jazz Samba Project,” a tribute to the 1962 smash hit by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz “Jazz Samba.” The Byrd/Getz recording brought Brazilian bossa nova and its legendary composers Tom Jobim and Joao Gilberto to world-wide attention. It rose to #1 on the Billboard pop chart, the only jazz recording ever to do so, and remained there for 70 weeks.
In researching material for “The Jazz Samba Project” and its extensive liner notes, the members of Veronneau interviewed people associated with the recording, including Charlie’s brother, the late Joe Byrd, researched and gathered photos and other archival material. At some point, guitarist Ken Avis, a member of the band realized the material was too valuable to sit on a shelf after their recording project was done. He recruited the writer and filmmaker Bret Primack to produce a documentary, “Bossa Nova: The Brazilian Music That Charmed the World.” The film had its world premiere last year at Strathmore, the performing arts center in North Bethesda, MD.
Avis said recently that once they started on the project and the film, “The whole thing has been a story waiting to happen. It was a bit of a dream — wouldn’t it be great if we could pull all these things together? Every door I knocked on, people answered it, and the wind was in the sails.”
At The Mainstay, the group will perform a concert set and show the film.
Veronneau is ideally suited to celebrate the samba and bossa nova. The group’s first recording, “Joie de Vivre” (Joy of Living), included bossa nova, samba, Gypsy Jazz and swing tunes collected from around the world.
The group is fronted by French-Canadian vocalist Lynn Veronneau with her gentle, warm, compelling voice, love of powerful melodies, sophisticated sense of phrasing and heartfelt focus on the story. The group also includes her husband Ken Avis, the British guitarist and former lead singer for the Otis Grand blues band and guitarist and composer David Rosenblatt who was classically trained in Brazil. For this concert, they will be joined by Bruno Lucini, percussionist for Origem a Brazilian jazz group based in Washington, DC.
The world renowned and Annapolis-based jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd was an early supporter of the Mainstay and helped expand the Mainstay’s reputation as a premier venue for jazz.
Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
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