Singer Alva Anderson and pianist Frank Duvall played an eclectic set at Wild Common restaurant last Sunday to start off Charleston Jazz’s Eight Days of Giving campaign to raise awareness of the group’s presence in the community as an institution of entertainment, education and outreach.
Zero Restaurant will close the series Nov. 14 with a jazz dinner at 6 p.m., featuring vocalist Zandrina Dunning and keyboardist Stephen Washington.
Wild Common dinner attendees heard a little bit of everything, from Brazilian music and world folk to jazz standards and renditions of Ella Fitzgerald, plus an original jazz waltz written by Anderson, “Sunday Song.”
Anderson, a New York City transplant, got her introduction to the Charleston music scene several years ago performing at Colour of Music Festival and is currently a fixture at Forte Jazz Lounge’s first Fridays.
“It’s really a crowning achievement, the fact that Charleston, like New Orleans, [are] places in America where jazz had its beginnings,” Anderson said. “Jazz in America gestated here, and in New Orleans, Harlem, Kansas City and Chicago.”
“I’ve been to Senegal, West Africa, Switzerland and Italy, and you will find a jazz club where people are listening to Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Bennie Goodwin, Ella Fitzgerald — it’s quite a testament to America.”
Drummer Ron Wiltrout, saxophonist Brent Swaney, bassist Brett Belanger and keyboardist Geoffrey Dean also played last Sunday, Nov. 7, at Xiao Bao Biscuit as part of the dinner series.
Tickets for the Nov. 14 dinner are available through Charleston Jazz.
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