Poets, authors, and jazz for `a little bit of everybody'
August 13, 2006
John Kordalewski and the Makanda Jazz Project will take their music to Roxbury Heritage State Park for free concerts at 2 and 4 p.m. next Sunday.
The performances will feature Kordalewski's arrangement of several of the 400 unrecorded pieces that Boston native Makanda Ken McIntyre left behind when he died in 2001. They will be performed at the Dillaway-Thomas House by a nine-piece tribute band. Roxbury Action Program is sponsoring the concerts.
The band is a tribute to Ken McIntyre, who added Makanda to his name after a performance in Zimbabwe, when a stranger handed him a piece of paper with ``Makanda" written on it, meaning ``many skins" in the Ndebele and Shona languages.
``He was from the South End, more or less Roxbury, and we want this music to have a presence in the community where he came from," Kordalewski said .
The arts are usually reserved for people with money, Kordalewski said, and this free event is an opportunity to get younger generations into jazz music.
``Events like this are important because you are taking the music to the people," he said. ``I like the idea of having it out in the park on a Sunday afternoon where you are going to get a little bit of everybody."
Marjorie Hicks of Roxbury Action Program said the program hopes to make free music and other arts presentations a weekly or monthly feature in her community.
``We are envisioning concerts and poetry on Sunday afternoons, and this may kick it off for the entire year. . . . We will start with this one and see if there is an interest and go from there," she said.
The concert will be paired with the second part of the Harlem Book Fair-Roxbury, which had a low turnout in June because of rain.
The fair will feature poets, authors, free workshops and activities, and a health and wellness pavilion . The fair will run from noon to 6 p.m. at the Dillaway-Thomas House, 183 Roxbury St . The nearest T stop is Roxbury Crossing.
STEPHANIE CONDUFF
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