Junior Blind of America Archives

THANK YOU TO RADIO EVERYWHERE!

February 9, 2016 by Lisa Hilton

#AntonioSanchez, Carnegie Hall, composer, Gregg August, Ingrid Jensen, jazz, jazz and piano, JazzWeek, JD Allen, Junior Blind of America, lisa hilton, Pepperdine University, piano, Rockwood Music Hall, Rudy Royston, SFJazz, Terell Stafford

Hi There!
Did you enjoy the SuperBowl? I think it’s always more fun to have a closer game – like last year, but the weather in California was spectacular for a February day and I liked GaGa’s arrangement of our anthem too.
Here’s a photo from NYC last month with JD Allen on tenor sax, Ben Williams on bass, Ingrid Jensen on trumpet and Rudy Royston on drums at Carnegie Hall. We had a great time! We had the same band last year but we were lucky to have Ben Williams join us – he’s just terrific and so nice too. Love those acoustics and my big Steinway at Carnegie!

Well Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU radio stations EVERYWHERE for playing NOCTURNAL. Just 2 weeks after our Jan. 22nd release date, we are #20 on the JazzWeek radio chart and being played around the world. We have deep appreciation for this. There is a lot of music out there – mostly from larger labels, so it is a great vote of support to Antonio Sanchez, JD Allen, Gregg August, Terell Stafford and myself that the music is connecting so well. As artists, a lot of our creative work is done in relative isolation and then 6-12 months later you find out if anyone likes what you do, (no instant gratification!), so this has been great news. Stations that we know are playing NOCTURNAL our first couple weeks are listed here (did I miss anyone?) – as well as my Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LisaHiltonMusic. I just got this not from Russ Davis at MOJA RADIO/VOICE OF AMERICA: “You can add the 134 million people who hear JAZZ AMERICA on Voice of America as Nocturnal will be featured with our interview this coming Valentine’s Day weekend!” www.mojaradio.com – WOW! You can also listen here too:

WAER/NY, WBGU/OH, WBLU/WBLV/MI, WCLK/GA, WDNA/FL, WECI/IN, WERU/ME, WFCR/MA, WFMT/CA, WFDU/Jazz& What’s more/NJ, WGMC/NY, WGVU/MI, WHRV/VA, IL, WJSU/MS, WLRN/FL, WNCU/NC, WNMU/MI, WPFW/DC, WPPB/NJ, WQSU/PA, WRIR/VA, WRTI/PA, WSHA/NC, WSNC/WSSU/NC, WTJU/VA, WUEV/IN, WUMR/TN, WWOZ/LA, WWSP/WI, WWUH/CT, WXPN/PA, WYCE/MI, KANU/KANH/KANV/KS, KBEM/MN, KCBX/CA, KCCK/IA, KCSB/CA, KCSM/CA, KEWU/WA, KIOS/NE, KKRN/KWMR/CA, KKUP/CA, KMBH/KMHD/TX, KNTU/TX, KRFC/CO, KSDS/CA, KSJS/KSJD/CA, KTEP/online, KTSU/TX, KUSD/SD, KUVO/KVJX/CO, KUTX/TX, KVNF/KUMT/CO, KXPR/KYJZ/CA, KYGT/CO, 2MaxFm/Australia, ClassicFm/Abu Dhabi, All Jazz Radio/South Africa, AnimaJazz/Italy, Apple Music, Echoes/syndicated, Hawaii Public Radio/HI, Jazz After Hours/syndicated, Jazz from Gallery 41/CA,JazzHappeningNow/syndicated, IO Radio/UK, M3Radio/NY, MOJARadio/syndicated, No Solo Jazz/Spain, Otras Musicas/Spain, Peaceful Radio/Netherlands, Radio Despi/Spain, Radio Jazz/Uruguay, PRX Jazz/syndicated, Radio Swiss Jazz/Switzerland, Radio Valencia/CA, RadioVideoJazz/online, Rhapsody, RTVA/Spain, Soul&Jazz/UK, Spotify, Taint Radio/syndicated, Toppy Jazz/Netherlands, Radio Rick/Netherlands, BO FM/Canada, RLI/Madagascar, JazzCoRadio/Australia, Radio 794/Netherlands, Spectrum Jazz/online, CIWS/Canada, 2RRfm/Australia, Solar Radio/UK, Pacific Jazz, Canoefm/Canada, CFRO/Canada, CUIT/Canada, BBC Radio Stoke/UK, Scotland69fm/UK, 2NVR Australia, O’s Place Jazz, Output Radio/Netherlands, Style Quarterly Radio/online, West Gippsland Community Radio/Australia, …. Thank you all!

-MARCH 4th/Friday/Smothers Hall Pepperdine University/Malibu, CA 8pm 4255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu/   https://pepperdinearts.ticketforce.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=132
-MARCH 10th/Thursday /Junior Blind of America, Los Angeles 4pm Performance for special needs students: 5300 Angeles Vista Blvd. L.A. www.JuniorBlind.org
-MARCH 12th/Saturday/Classic Pianos Portland, 3:30pm www.PortlandClassicPianos.net/events       http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2495400
-MARCH 24th/Thursday/ SFJazz: https://www.sfjazz.org/events-calendar
-APRIL 10th/Sunday/Rockwood Music Hall/NYC 8:30pm: http://www.rockwoodmusichall.com/   https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1090601
Hope you can come out to one of the performances for NOCTURNAL – see ya there!

Lisa

JAM, fires in California…..

May 11, 2013 by Lisa Hilton

All, Jazz

hilton, jazz, jazz appreciation month, jba, Junior Blind of America, lisa

20130423-CFH_4510

Hi There!
The photo above was taken at Junior Blind of America last week after my annual performance that I do there. The art on the wall was created by the visually impaired students painting to jazz music after their studies during Jazz Appreciation Month/JAM. The students I am pictured with are from JBA, or their after school program that that provides supervision for students from other schools in the nearby Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. We had a great time – I love to perform for these students and their caregivers. Several of the multi- disabled students even danced a little, and then we had refreshments afterwards. I think their art looks great too!

May brings an early fire season to SoCal this year. We’ve been lucky the last few years to have less fires than most other western states, but we might not be as lucky this year after two years of low rainfall. The Camarillo fire – about 30 minutes from Malibu, CA, has burned over 6,000 acres since starting this morning. If you hear in the news that they have evacuated the Cal State Channel Islands University, you might not be aware that the former name of that school was Camarillo State Hospital where jazz greats like Chet Baker and Charlie Parker once went to sober up from their addictions. Parker even wrote, “Relaxin’ at Camarillo” after he was committed there for 6 months for his heroin addiction in the 40’s. Hopefully they will have the fire contained soon.

“Getaway” our new trio CD is doing very well at radio and we thank you! It is currently on the JazzWeek and CMJ charts, with the favorite tracks being Getaway, Just for Fun and Stormy Monday Blues. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Host Hugh, “The Hurricane,” Carson put on a two and a half hour “Lisa Hilton Retrospective” and interview April 5th at NPR station, KVNF: http://www.kvnf.org/ It was a real delight to hear again recordings with so many great players over the years: Larry Grenadier and Nasheet Waits of course, but also JD Allen, Christian McBride, Jeremy Pelt, Steve Wilson, Lewis Nash, Brice Winston, Bobby Militello – so many great “sidemen” over the years.

New reviews for Getaway:
“With her power trio Hilton enthralls listeners…..”: Accent on Tampa: http://www.accentontampabay.com/index.htm by Melissa Wolcott Martino
“An entertaining journey…. intriguing, sometimes mesmerizing….” Steve Monroe at JazzAvenues.com
“The interplay between these three virtuoso instrumentalists is impressive….”: Music & Media Focus: http://www.michaeldiamondmusic.com
“Intoxicating…impressive….Hilton always offers at least a few surprises…” Mainly Piano: http://www.mainlypiano.com/2013_Reviews/Hilton-Getaway.html by Kathy Parsons
“A kaleidoscope of color….” MuzikReviews.com by Dana Wright

Lastly, if you can get out to any of the May performances they should be fun: http://lisahiltonmusic.com/tour/
May 16 Catalina Jazz Club/Hollywood Doors open at 7pm/8:30 show with Gregg August/bass and Jaimeo Brown/drums
May 17 and 18 The Smith Center/Las Vegas 7pm. also with Gregg August and Jaimeo Brown

Wishing you a great weekend!

Lisa

Winter Weather??

February 8, 2013 by Lisa Hilton

All, Jazz

APAP, Catch NYC, Chris Sholar, Church & State, Fred Hersch, Jaimeo Brown, jazz and piano, Jazz Connect, JD Allen, Julian Lage, Junior Blind of America, MOMA, Steinway Hall, The Smith Center, Top Chef, Vibrato Grill Jazz, Winter Jazz Fest, Zinc Bar, ZMR Awards

At Perkins School for the Blind/Boston. Photo by David Gordon

Hi there!

I have heard the news reports of the super chill happening in the midwest and east, but I’m not feeling that on the west coast – it has been hot, hot, HOT here! It’s really lovely, but running the air conditioning in January just seems silly but it’s over 84 degrees inside! Whew!

Had a wonderful birthday – my favorite card was from a hand made card from Junior Blind of America – very sweet for them to send a card to “Miss Lisa”. I enjoyed family visiting and also a great dinner out in downtown Los Angeles at cool spot Church & State. Then off to NYC for the Jazz Connect, Winter Jazz Fest and APAP convention. It was fun to see so many friends and of course tons of music. I really enjoyed my favorite sax man, JD Allen playing with a great drummer, Jaimeo Brown guitarist Chris Sholar – very interesting project at Zinc Bar. Had my own performance at Steinway Hall, and then caught pianist Fred Hersch with guitarist phenom, Julian Lage right after me. Steinway Hall is such a beautiful and historic building with a domed main floor -it is a treat just being there. Had time to squeeze in MOMA, and a nice dinner at Catch NY trying out Top Chef winner Hung Huynh’s signature scallops and cauliflower dish – yummy!

It was great to find out that “American Impressions” is a qualifier for the ZMR awards for 3 categories: Album of the Year, Best Instrumental/Piano, and Best Contemporary Instrumental. How nice! Please keep me in mind when if you are a voter!

Of course most of my time right now is going into creating new music for a new recording hopefully out in April of this year. It is always a lot of work, yet really my favorite thing to do. Please send good wishes our way. 🙂 I will be debuting/previewing some of the new music this Sunday, Jan 27th at Vibrato Jazz Grill in West Los Angeles: http://www.vibratogrilljazz.com/calendar/index.php . This club, created by Herb Alpert, is very beautiful and well laid out for an intimate evening of music and dinner if you choose. I know it’s not happening until spring, but you might want to plan ahead to go to the recently opened, The Smith Center in Las Vegas: http://www.thesmithcenter.com/events/dates/2013-05-17/ I have heard that this is an amazing new performance venue, so I’m excited to be there Friday and Saturday May 17 & 18 with my trio. If you haven’t been to Vegas for while it might be fun to plan ahead and see the new venue, see other shows and just check out what’s new.

Take care and hope the winter weather gets better!

Lisa