Member Profile – Maurice St. Pierre
Music lover, scholar, father of drummer Mark St. Pierre
–By Bob Jacobson
“I play no instrument,” says Maurice St. Pierre, BJA member since 2013, yet music has clearly played a major role in his life. As a youth in British Guiana (which gained independence as Guyana in 1966), he saw a wide range of American artists – Johnny Mathis, Louis Armstrong, Chubby Checker, Cab Calloway, Marian Anderson – and calypsonians from the Caribbean, notably The Mighty Sparrow. | Read more>>
Interview with 15 year old jazz pianist Will Kibel
On March 25, 2020 long-time BJA member and professional woodwind player Seth Kibel live-streamed a concert from his basement with his son Will on piano. This was my first time hearing Will, who did an impressive job accompanying his father and soloing through a wide-ranging repertoire of jazz standards and two of Seth’s originals, including a klezmer tune. | Read more>>
Jazz in Baltimore’s Public Art (part 3)
In part 1 and part 2 of this series we presented jazz-themed art in and around the Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts & Entertainment District and Billie Holiday-themed art in Upper Fells Point. Here are more pieces of jazz-themed art from other locations around Baltimore City. | Read more>>
Jazz in Baltimore’s Public Art (part 2)
As we reported in the May 2014 issue of the BJA newsletter, on April 5, 2014, between 600 and 800 people turned out for the celebration of Billie Holiday sponsored by the Upper Fells Point Improvement Association. The community organization had secured a $30,000 grant from PNC Bank and spent the funds on art work celebrating the singer on the very block where she grew up, the 200 block of S.Durham | Read more>>
Jazz in Baltimore’s Public Art (part 1)
Baltimore City has hundreds
of murals, with local and world renowned jazz figures appearing in dozens of
them. As you will see in this three-part series, jazz is also represented in
other forms of the city’s public art.
One of the two major clusters of jazz-themed public art is the newly-designated Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts and Entertainment District. | Read more>>