UWG
News Item
Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
ucm@westga.edu
Gary Motley Trio performance
January 20, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - Atlanta’s premiere jazz band The Gary Motley Trio, voted by Creative Loafing readers as the Best Jazz Artist/Band in 2001, will perform with featured artist Veronica Tate at the University of West Georgia Townsend Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 8 p.m.
Motley
began a career in music at a young age, and began to develop an appreciation
for jazz in his teenage years. Making jazz his life’s work, Motley
has been able to perform with all the greats of the jazz world ranging
from Dave Brubeck to Clarke Terry.
“Pianist
Gary Motley swings with the sensibility of Wynton Kelley,” praised
Downbeat Magazine.
As an accomplished jazz pianist and composer, Motley has been acknowledged
as a notable performer in many theatre productions. He has recorded music
with Whoopi Goldberg for the Broadway production of Ma Rainey’s
Black Bottom and served as a pianist and conductor for the Alliance Theater’s
production of Blues in the Night. Motley has also collaborated with Kenny
Leon, Phylicia Rashad and Phyllis Stickney as music director for the 2003
True Colors Theater Company gala.
In recognition of his talent, Motley has been honored with awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Soapstone Center for the Arts, the Great American Jazz Piano Competition and the American Composers Forum.
Veronica Tate will accompany the Gary Motley Trio in the West Georgia performance. Tate is a graduate of the University of Alabama and is an accomplished vocalist who began singing professionally in Fairbanks, Alaska. She has performed with Tommy Stewart’s Magic City Orchestra, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame’s Heritage Jazz Combo and the Alan Knieter Orchestra.
As a new and viable young jazz artist, Tate has been influenced by great female jazz legends such as Sarah Vaughn and Etta Jones. She has been featured on the Birmingham Heritage Band’s recording Birmingham is Our Home and on the CD, The Good Life, with the Gary Motley Trio released May, 2001 and Keypers released in 2002.
Ticket prices for the Gary Motley Trio and Veronica Tate West Georgia performance are $7 for adults, $5 for seniors, $3 for children and $5 for UWG students. For more information, contact the Townsend Center for Performing Arts at 770-836-6694 or visit its website at www.townsendcenter.org.
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