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Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
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Gwen Hughes and the Retro Jazz Kats to perform
February 3, 2003
CARROLLTON, GA - Atlanta vocalist and Grammy entrant Gwen Hughes, voted by Creative Loafing readers as the Best Jazz/Swing artist in 2000 and 2002, will once again perform her smooth, sultry jazz with a blues and folk infusion at the University of West Georgia’s Townsend Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m.
Hughes
and her band, the Retro Jazz Kats, headline the jazz scene in Atlanta
and beyond, from The Red Room in New Orleans to The Continental in New
York City. Known throughout her native Atlanta and the Southeast as a
vivacious jazz vocalist, Hughes boasts a powerful, yet sensual, voice
guaranteed to warm up the coldest winter night.
Hughes and the Jazz Kats have been one of Atlanta’s premier swing bands for more than a decade, and in 1998, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution declared, “Gwen Hughes was swinging before swinging got cool.” Borders Books and Music adds, “The South’s sexiest songstress and her killer band are as irresistible as gravity.”
Hughes released two new CDs, Lost and Found and The Misplaced Martini, in 2001. Lost and Found is a blend of jazz, bluegrass and folk sounds that received a 2002 Grammy nomination. A collection of originals, it captures the passion, gratification and yearning cycle of life.
“I embrace yearning,” says Hughes, “it’s what inspires me, drives me and, as I privately observe, drives everyone around me. If we are all living lives of quiet desperation, then let’s enjoy the ride!”
One of Lost and Found’s hits, “Light of the City,” beat 100,000 entries to become a Top Ten Finalist in the Best Female Jazz Song category of the Just Plain Folks Awards, which is a spinoff of cdbaby.com.
The award will be presented in March 2003 in Los Angeles.
The Misplaced Martini was recorded in one night at the Sambuca Jazz Café in Atlanta without overdubs, charts or negations. The CD’s live rendition of Peggy Lee’s “Fever” by Hughes and the Retro Jazz Kats charted for three weeks in 2001-02 on the international web site www.swingTop40.com, the Internet’s only swing chart site. An edited version of “Fever” has been in rotation regularly for the dancers at Johnny’s Hideaway and the The Mariott at Perimeter Mall.
Hughes’ first CD, Torch Life, was included in initial voting for the Grammys in 1997 for Best Jazz Female Recording and Best Jazz Performance.
The full complement of the Retro Jazz Kats is 14 musicians whose combined experience encompasses gigs in clubs from New York to Miami, orchestras in Georgia and Washington, D.C., original music for the Olympic Games and backup work for rhythm and blues acts, as well as performances as the Retro Jazz Kats all around Atlanta and the nation. The four Jazz Kats who will perform at the Townsend Center’s Jazz Café will be pianist Gary Motley, director of Emory University’s jazz combos and fresh from an appearance with saxophonist Joe Lovano, Neal Starkey on the bass, Keith Runfola playing the drums, and accomplished Norwegian jazz instrumentalist Terje Johanssen on the trumpet.
Hughes will be taking her music overseas this spring to kick off Belleville’s “Artist’s Weekend” in Paris, France, on May 23 and move on to perform at China’s Dounggaug Resort in June. The international performance builds on touring Hughes started in 2002, with performances in Istanbul, Turkey, and a booking in southeastern China.
“With so much of the world to see and with music as my passport,” says Hughes, “what’s the point in staying home?”
Ticket prices for Hughes’ West Georgia performance are $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and UWG students, and $3 for children. For more information, contact the Townsend Center for the Performing Arts at 770-836-6694 or visit its web site at www.townsendcenter.org. For more information about Hughes or to hear sample songs from her CDs, visit www.gwenhughes.com .
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