Saturday, September 17th at 6pm is the date to save for an evening of jazz presented by the United Negro College Fund’s (UNCF) annual benefit concert event. This year’s musical guest star is veteran jazz saxophonist Alfonzo Blackwell. The event is held annually to sponsor young adult’s college education from the New Jersey area. Tickets are on sale now. Please contact the New Jersey region chapter of the UNCF at (973) 642-1955 or ashley.lemon@uncf.org
The “Evening of Soulful Sophisticated Jazz” event will feature a lot of favorite hit songs written and performed by veteran modern contemporary jazz recording artist Alfonzo Blackwell. It will also feature his debut presentation of John Coltrane’s “Impressions”. Alfonzo Blackwell’s stage performance shows fuse a soulful blend of contemporary jazz, straight-ahead traditional jazz, R&B, soul, reggae, gospel and funk. This is a must-see and hear concert event of 2011 to get your jazz fix and support a great cause in the process.
Alfonzo Blackwell was born in Brooklyn, NY. The native New Yorker grew up in the borough of Queens, a hot-bed residence for many Jazz Giants in our esteemed musical history. He learned to play the piano by ear at the tender age of six. Later, he picked up the saxophone at age eleven and never put it down. He started composing his original material in middle school and then went on to study at the Performing Arts H.S. (portrayed in the motion picture and TV series FAME) in NYC. He continued his music education at Queens College Aaron Copeland School of Music and Five Towns Music College in Long Island, NY. After college, he landed a residency at a popular jazz/R&B hot spot which propelled him to sign his first record deal. His debut was in 1995 with the release of “Let’s Imagine” and he has garnered several top 10 radio hit singles to his credit over the span of his sixteen year recording career thus far.
Blackwell is a well accomplished saxophonist who also plays the piano, bass, guitar and drums and is an esteemed bandleader. He writes, composes, arranges, produces, engineers, mixes and performs live instrumentation on most of his original music recordings. Alfonzo Blackwell has recorded and/or performed with various leading artists and entertainers such as Gladys Knight, The Whispers, Roy Ayers, Mary J Blige, Faith Evans, Brian McKnight, Omar Hakim and Freddie Jackson to name a few.
Call the UNCF office at (973) 642-1955 or e-mail at ashley.lemon@uncf.org now, to send young adults to college. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”. Every concert sale and donation goes directly to support this cause.
