Ritz Theatre, Brunswick, GA: Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds)
February 07 - February 07
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While the entire community is reading To Kill a Mockingbird for The Big Read, GIAHA is proud to present some birds of a different feather! Los Cenzontles (aka The Mockingbirds) is a group of artists that has pioneered the revival of Mexican roots music for almost two decades, promoting cultural expression, pride and understanding. Fronted by three powerful and evocative singing voices and mixing electric bass and drums with traditional Mexican instruments – jarana, vihuela, requinto, pandero and quijada (jawbone) – Los Cenzontles creates a powerful contemporary sound infused with the gutsy soul of Mexico’s rural roots music, a fresh Chicano voice for a new generation.
This performance features four distinct styles of regional Mexican music, each with its unique instrumentation: Traditional Mariachi, Son Jarocho of Veracruz, Tex-Mex Conjunto, and Pirecuas and Sones of Michoacan. You can expect to hear some wonderful original songs by the group members as well.
Los Cenzontles’ gutsy rhythms and delightful voices reinvigorated
my love of Mexican music. – Linda Ronstadt
Lovely vocal harmonies, understated traditional instrumentation,
a repertoire stretching from Aztlan to Veracruz to Cuba to Colombia,
sharp percussion blended with somesharply-executed zapateado footwork,
and outstanding turns on reeds and violin. – Folk Roots Magazine
Ritz Theatre, Brunswick, GA: Rob Denty: Interpreting Mercer
March 06 - March 06
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After a great homecoming in our Jazz in the Park 2008 season, Brunswick native Rob Denty and his Chicago-based quartet come to the Golden Isles once again for this nostalgic tribute to one of the great American singer-songwriters. Savannah’s Johnny Mercer grew up imbued with the music of the South, and over his long career as a composer and lyricist was responsible for such unforgettable hits as One for My Baby, Jeepers Creepers, That Old Black Magic, Moon River and dozens more.
Rob's interest in Mercer has been strongly influenced by their shared southern roots and Mercer's iconic status in our region. In Interpreting Mercer, Rob Denty and his ensemble (consisting of saxophone, piano, bass, and drums) interject their own unique peronalities and influences to bring to glorious life the times and the music of this amazingly talented Son of the South.
Ritz Theatre, Brunswick, GA: Hot 8 Brass Band
March 22 - March 22
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The Hot 8 Brass Band has epitomized New Orleans street music for over a decade. The band plays the traditional Second Line parades, hosted each Sunday afternoon by Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, infusing their performances with the funk and energy that makes New Orleans music loved around the world. The members of the Hot 8 Brass Band were born and raised in New Orleans and many began playing together in high school. What makes the Hot 8 so special are the sounds they coax from their well-loved, well-worn horns. An evening with the Hot 8 is like no other.
Members of the Hot 8 Brass Band have toured in Japan, Italy, France, Spain, Finland, England and Sardinia. The band performs annually at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, world and jazz festivals across the US and Europe, and were featured in the Spike Lee documentary When the Levees Broke. The group has also been part of an important relief project following Hurricane Katrina. SAVE OUR BRASS! is a local grass-roots project that has brought music and instruments to shelters, temporary trailer parks, and communities across the Gulf Coast.
Ritz Theatre, Brunswick, GA: Heartbreak
May 15 - May 23
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GIAHA is proud to present an original production of a play by our very own Rob Nixon, the story of a group of people in a coastal Southern town in the summer of 2001 struggling to come to terms with the topsy-turvy world they’ve created. Loosely inspired by Heartbreak House, George Bernard Shaw's social comedy of English society on the eve of World War I, this modern story looks at similar themes: the follies of humanity and the dangers of a cultured leisure class blind to the possible destruction looming just over its head. But Heartbreak also exhibits a decidely 21st century approach, as it questions how to live authentically in a world where fiction and reality are harder and harder to separate.
This is thoroughly contemporary theater, at once comically absurd and movingly real. Rob’s unique writing voice has been seen and heard on stages throughout the U.S., and we’re thrilled to be presenting his work right here on his home turf!
