In The Swing With Neddy Smith

Norwalk-based jazz bassist, composer, recording artist /producer and PoemAlley member Neddy Smith announces the release of Mood Swing, his latest CD.

As demonstrated through his prior recordings like “Give It Up” and “Liberated Woman” (1982) and the 2008 album, Turnaround, leading his own groups such as TransWave, his Jazz Duo or Trio and Neddy Smith and Friends, or producing jazz music/education festivals, Neddy is undeniably devoted to all aspects of music and the enthusiastic popularization of its varied forms.

The uplifting and subtle melodies of his latest offering, recorded at his own studio, NedGJean International Inc. in Norwalk, will be shared with viewers this Sunday when Neddy and his band perform as part of an interview on Our Lives on Optimum Cable’s News 12.

Neddy’s jazz and blues performances are derived intimately from the cultures of his native Jamaica, as well as from folk/world-music, Afro-Caribbean, Latin, Asian, European, and American classical sources. Mood Swing benefits from Neddy’s admiration for one of his favorite musicians, Thelonius Monk, specifically, “The Little House”, a simple poem he penned.

His band mates include Andrew DeNicola (flute, alto, soprano, and tenor sax), Marcel Blanchet (drum kit on “Mood Swing”), Thomas Ice (keyboard on “Pretty Little Flower” and “The Little House”), Michiro Negishi (multi-keyboard “Wildebeest”, “Mood Swing”). Guest musicians include Willy Dalton (multi-guitars on “Am in Love with You”) and Deborah Hawkins (keyboard on “Am in Love with You").

Click here for additional information and videos representative of Neddy's joyous performance style.

Air Times:

Sunday
January 26, 2014, Midnight and 4:30 PM

Monday
January 27, 2014, Midnight

In Quest of Vision in a Closed Space

Jose Yrizarry will talk and share his work this evening as Curley’s featured reader, drawing from his varied experiences as teacher, counselor, advocate and adventure guide on his journey into the “visionary landscape.”

Three Drops in a Pot (1^st Books Library/AuthorHouse, 2004) and Consumed But Destined to Prevail (AuthorHouse, 2008), his two chapbooks, embody Jose’s positive and resolute explorations in out-of-the-box approaches to the tasking problems of alienation, ideology and discord which needn’t define our affairs as human beings as inextricably as we think they must.