Western Swing Dance with Carolyn Martin

Friday, Feb. 24, 7:30pm
Western Swing Dance with Carolyn Martin from Nashville and Way Out West
@ Suite 147 in Plaza Palomino
$15 advance, $18 door, $10 student ticket – current student ID required for each ticket – limit 1 per ID.

Born in Texas, Carolyn Martin grew up listening to Bob Wills and dreaming of singing in a Western Swing band.

Today she is a 2011 Texas Western Swing Hall Of Fame inductee and was named Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year in 2008 and 2010. Her CD, Swing, was nominated for the Western Music Association Western Swing Album of the Year. Carolyn’s latest project, Cookin’ With Carolyn, won the WMA’s 2011 Western Swing Album of the year. She is joined by Arizona favorites Way Out West for a fun evening of boot scootin’ Western Swing.

Janiva Magness

Saturday, March 10, 8:00pm
JANIVA MAGNESS
“Stronger For It” CD Release Party
@ Suite 147 in Plaza Palomino
SW corner of Swan & Ft. Lowell Roads.
$20 advance, $23 door

“A superb, powerhouse R&B singer who delivers blues and soul with show-stopping authority” – Los Angeles Daily News

Award-winning vocalist Janiva Magness is among the premier blues and R&B singers in the world today. Her voice possesses an earthy, raw honesty and beauty born from her life experience. A charismatic performer known for her electrifying live shows, Magness is a gutsy and dynamic musical powerhouse. She received the coveted 2009 Blues Music Awards for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year (she is only the second woman to ever win this award, Koko Taylor being the first) and for Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The Year, an honor she also received in 2006 and 2007. She has received eleven previous Blues Music Award nominations. USA Today declared, “Magness is a blues star,” and The Philadelphia Inquirer said, “Magness sings superb, potent soul-blues with a scorching intensity.”

Johnny Rawls

Friday, March 23, 7:30pm
JOHNNY RAWLS from Mississippi
@ Suite 147 in Plaza Palomino
Soul and Blues from the Chitlin’ Circuit
$15 advance, $18 door. $10 student ticket – current student ID required for each ticket – limit 1 per ID.

“He’s a master bluesman and a master soulman.” Tallahassee Democrat

This kind of Soul and Blues is rarely heard outside of Chicago or the deep south. Now it comes to Tucson when Johnny Rawls brings the sound of the juke joints and blues clubs of the Chitlin’ Circuit to Rhythm & Roots’ Suite 147 in Plaza Palomino. His roots are Gospel and Soul in the tradition of Joe Tex and Otis Redding. Born in Columbia, Mississippi, Johnny Rawls took up the guitar at age 12 and by the time he was in his teens was backing singers like Joe Tex and Z.Z. Hill. He went on to play with Little Milton and BB King. He has recorded 13 albums. His 2007 release entitled Heart and Soul won “Best Soul Blues Album of the Year” from the Blues Foundation. Come hear why The Charlotte Observer called Rawls a “Mississippi soul-blues man who wows crowds with his smoldering vocals and guitar style.”

Jessica Fichot

Friday, March 30, 8pm
JESSICA FICHOT from Paris
French Chanson and Gypsy Jazz
@ Suite 147 in Plaza Palomino
$18 advance, $20 door. $10 student ticket – current student ID required for each ticket – limit 1 per ID.

“Her sound is cosmic cabaret, a delicious blend of acoustic styles.” - San Francisco Chronicle

L.A.-based chanteuse, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jessica Fichot is a lot like her hometown of Paris: French at heart, but with a soul that’s truly international. Drawing from her multi-ethnic French / Chinese / American upbringing, her music fuses styles and languages, taking the listener on a journey out of the French chanson tradition, into the lands of gypsy jazz, Chinese folk music and into the wilderness of her imagination.

Armed with four languages and an array of instruments (including the trumpet, clarinet, sax, guitar, bass and toy accordion), Jessica’s music bridges past and present styles, evoking an ageless quality accentuated by her soft, pure vocals.

Taj Mahal

Thursday, May 24, 2012 – 7:30pm
Rhythm & Roots and the Fox Tucson Theatre welcome
TAJ MAHAL
@ Fox Tucson Theatre - 17 W. Congress
Tickets $28 – $58
Tickets go on sale Wednesday December 14th here:
Tickets at Fox Box Office or call 547-3040.

Composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Taj Mahal is one of the most prominent and influential figures in late 20th century blues and roots music. Though his career began more than four decades ago with American blues, he has broadened his artistic scope over the years to include music representing virtually every corner of the world – west Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Hawaiian islands and so much more. What ties it all together is his insatiable interest in musical discovery. Over the years, his passion and curiosity have led him around the world, and the resulting global perspective is reflected in his music.

Taj’s prolific career includes 50 records, including two Grammy winners, Señor Blues (1997) and Shoutin’ in Key (2000)

“I didn’t want to fall into the trap of complacency. I wanted to keep pushing the musical ideas I had about jazz, music from Africa and the Caribbean. I wanted to explore the connections between different kinds of music.” – Taj Mahal