Straight Ahead
Detroit-based Straight Ahead, whose first album "Look Straight Ahead" was named one of the "hottest LPs" of 1992, will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Hall Auditorium. The event is part of the 1993-94 Lyceum Series.
Tickets are $5 for adults; $3, senior citizens by request; and $2 for children 3-12. Students are admitted free with ID. General admission tickets will be available at the door.
Straight Ahead's performance mixes vocals and instrumentals, originals and standards. Their music reflects influences ranging from gospel and soul to African, Caribbean, and classical.
Keyboardist Eileen Orr says the group at first had reservations about its potential for success. "When the idea came up to form Straight Ahead, we were all a bit hesitant at first," she recalls. "But it didn't take very long for our peers in Detroit to realize that there's a real special chemistry that happens in this group. We all really like each other, and it makes playing and recording a real groove."
Band members blend a variety of backgrounds. Lead vocalist\flutist Cynthia Dewberry, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, is influenced by gospel and soul sounds. Violinist Regina Carter, who attended Boston's New England Conservatory, Michigan's Oakland University, and the Detroit Community Music School, mixes classical training with a love for African and Asian "world beat" music.
Keyboardist Eileen Orr, a graduate of Michigan's Wayne State University, developed an affinity for Caribbean rhythms during an extended stay in the Dominican Republic. Bassist Marion Hayden-Banfield, whose father also was a bass player, brings a traditional jazz background to the mix. And drummer Gayelynn McKinney, also a graduate of Oakland University, brings to the group a love of fusion jazz.
Their combined styles deliver the kind of music that a New York Daily News reviewer says is "a jazz fan's dream of how music should be interpreted--with humor, technique, yet a jazzy, swinging feel."
For more information about the program, contact Brenda Neubauer at 325-3228.