Alive After Five

Efrat and Friends (February 22)
East Tennessee native Efrat (Shapira) is a singer, composer, arranger and an extraordinary violinist. In her original songs, she incorporates blues, R&B, soul, rock, and a touch of swing into jazzy jams. Long-time Alive After Five fans will remember her for her performances with Tennessee Schmaltz and her own band, Efrat’s Jam. Now based in New York City, Efrat performs regularly with her jazz combo, her string quartet, and as a guest with different artists and studio recording sessions.
www.efratmusic.com

Stacy Mitchhart and Blues U Can Use (March 8)
*Saturday Night Special Show*
$20, $16 General Admission • $18, $14 with Membership or student ID
We are very pleased to welcome back for his 4th appearance at KMA Stacy Mitchhart, who has built a worldwide fan base thanks to phenomenal live performances, national television exposure, radio airplay, and loyal enthusiastic fans. His masterful guitar work and strong vocals have been the driving forces behind his successful career. He has won numerous industry awards, released 7 CDs and 1 DVD/CD, and holds 13 major endorsements. Stacy Mitchhart actively tours the US and abroad. Stacy Mitchhart and his seven-member band held court as the house band for Nashville’s famed Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar on historic Printer’s Alley for over 8 years and now perform regularly at B. B. King’s Club in Nashville. Always “dressed to the nines,” the flamboyant entertainer won the 2003 Albert King Award for Best Guitarist at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and virtually every Blues award there is in Nashville. He has toured internationally and has had numerous television appearances on PBS, TBS, HBO, and Monday Night Football.

Jenna and the Joneses (March 21)
Voted Knoxville’s Best Blues Band in the Metro Pulse Reader’s Poll for the past two years, Jenna and The Joneses’ repertoire also includes funky soul, jazzy R and B, and Latin rock. Jenna Jefferson, the vivaciously charismatic vocalist and conga player, leads this dynamic 6-member band. They have performed at the Hard Knox Blues Bash on Market Square, the Knoxville Civic Auditorium, Lenoir City’s “Rockin’ the Docks,” the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, and many nightclubs in the area, and were a big hit at two of the New Year’s Eve parties at KMA.
www.jennaandthejoneses.com

Philippe LeJeune (March 28)
French pianist Philippe LeJeune is a perfect example of the mixture of jazz and blues which was an especially important strain in the jazz tradition. The young pianist attended a 1968 concert by master boogie-woogie and blues pianist Memphis Slim, and immediately put an end to his classical efforts and began teaching himself the blues, scouring local record shops for recordings by boogie-woogie greats. In 1980 he cut an album titled "Dialog in Boogie" as a piano duo with Memphis Slim who had been a Parisian citizen since 1962. LeJeune's powerful, accurate left hand and graceful melodic interpretation on the right hand create the power of a syncopated freight train. His repertoire ranges from classic barrelhouse boogie-woogie piano to Duke Ellington and Horace Silver tunes as well of Benny Carter and Milt Jackson. Philippe LeJeune has released five CD's in the United States and regularly tours here, performing at major music festivals.
www.philippelejeune.com
*Co-presented by Andrew “Jazzman” Smith

Hector Qirko Band (April 4)
$8 General Admission • $4 with Membership or student ID
Formed in 1985, the Hector Qirko Band has been one of Knoxville’s most popular bands for over twenty years. Their music has sometimes been described as “World Blues” because they tend to throw into the mix a lot of other styles of music, including Latin, jazz, country, and even the occasional polka. But the blues - electric, Chicago-style blues in particular - are at the core of what they do. In fact, Hector moved to Knoxville from Chicago where he played slide guitar with the legendary Lonnie Brooks Band.
www.hqband.com

Wendel Werner and The House Band (April 11)
$9 General Admission • $5 with Membership or student ID
One of Knoxville’s most talented keyboard players, Wendel Werner is well known here at Alive After Five, performing as a duo with saxophonist Terry Schmidt and leading a quintet backing up singer Sharon Mosby. With his latest project, he will add his vocal talents and bring his big blues band featuring several back-up vocalists for an evening of downhome blues and full tilt boogie.
www.wendelwerner.com

The Jeff Coffin Mu’tet with Mitch Rutman* (April 18)
$10 General Admission • $6 with Membership or student ID
Leading the Mu'tet is Grammy winning saxophonist Jeff Coffin (of Bela Fleck & The Flecktones). Known for sometimes playing two saxes at a time, Coffin explores with a fire not often seen in today's music world. Jeff started the Mu'tet to explore a wide variety of music and to continually "mutate" the sound and dynamic of the band. A regular "who's who" of players like Jeff Sipe, Chester Thompson, Pat Bergeson, Chris Thile, Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, Alana Rocklin, Doug Belote, Tyler Wood, Mark Feldman, Adam Nitti, Felix Pastorius, Futureman, Kirk Whalum and other world class musicians have performed or recorded with the Mu'tet. Stylistically, the Mu'tet pulls from "Second Line" New Orleans grooves to swampy funk tunes, mixed meter Zappa-esque tunes, East Indian modalities, reggae and inside out Ornette Coleman tunes...
"Jeff Coffin continues to turn heads as one of the most impressive saxophonists in modern jazz...some amazing compositional skills... The end result is nothing short of glorious, a must hear." Todd S. Jenkins - ALL ABOUT JAZZ.
www.jeffcoffin.com
* Made possible by a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.

East Tennessee Jazz Orchestra (April 25)
$9 General Admission • $5 with Membership or student ID
Making its 7th AA5 appearance, the East Tennessee Jazz Orchestra was organized in 1998. The orchestra brings together excellent musicians, who generally play in other venues with different groups and provides them the opportunity to explore their own compositions and arrangements and the vast repertoire of the classic big jazz band.

Dos de Mayo, Caribbean Night featuring the Carib Sounds Steel Band (May 2)
$9 General Admission • $5 with Membership or student ID
With roots running deep into the Caribbean and branching out all over the world, steel drum music is a fresh sound that is captivating audiences everywhere, and the Carib Sounds Steel Bandis one of the best at delivering that sound. The musical arranger and director is Vere Henry from the Caribbean island of Antigua. He and fellow bandmember, Esmond Edwards, another native Antiguan, introduced steel drums to East Tennessee in 1982 when they played with The Gemonites Steel Orchestra and entertained millions at the World's Fair in Knoxville. The music of Carib Sounds will move you into that "island attitude", and you will feel the cool breeze of the tradewinds and the warmth of the white sandy beaches as you limbo to hot Calypso and Soca beats or rock to the pulsating rhythms of Reggae and other arrangements.
www.caribsoundsteelband.com

Five Star Iris (May 9)
$9 General Admission • $5 with Membership or student ID
This Atlanta-based pop/rock band has been compared to Collective Soul and Matchbox Twenty, while U.K.-based Classic Rock magazine describes the quartet's sound as "glorious, modern melodic rock that U2 would be proud of having recorded." Five Star Iris combines a shimmering guitar sound with lush harmonies and the soaring voice of lead singer Alan Schaeffer to create a rootsy modern rock with a lot of soul. In addition to touring all over the Southeast and Midwest, they have entertained the troops in the Middle East, Italy, Iceland, and at the Pentagon. In 2005, they won the United Kingdom Songwriting Contest. This is a band to keep your eyes on because they could break out in a big way, and you can say you saw them here at Alive After Five.
www.fivestariris.com

Hokum’s Heroes (June 13)
$10 General Admission • $6 with Membership or student ID
Hokum's Heroes play early 20th century pop, twining together the roots of early Jazz, Country Blues, Ragtime, Folk, Vaudeville, Hokum, Gospel, Stringband, Jug Band and Gin House Blues while rendering the result with spontaneity, modern sensibilities and a big backbeat. Its various members have worked on the frontlines of some of America’s best music, having performed and recorded with 1920s-30s stringband legend Howard ‘Louie Bluie’ Armstrong (appearing with him in the PBS documentary "Sweet Old Song"), Morphine, Jim Kweskin, Tarbox Ramblers, Either Orchestra, Michael Hurley, Gunther Schuller and many others, at venues as diverse as The Montreal Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, The Boston Folk Festival, The Country Music Hall of Fame, and The New York City Blues Festival, garnering praise from the New York Times, Boston Magazine, The Boston Music Awards and more along the way. A Hokum’s Heroes performance offers a glimpse of a time before record stores and radio stations divided music up - when blues, rags, folk, jazz and more sat side by side on the shelf as popular songs. Though such a day is long gone, Hokum’s Heroes is intent on keeping it’s spirit very much alive. Just a few things that have been written about the group &/or its members:
"Tenderly, like a whisper, they began to play, feeding off each other, growing more confident with each note. There was nothing else just then, only the music, sweet as evening breeze, heartwrenching, pure ... this was the moment we had traveled so far to find ... " - The Boston Globe
“ . . . the essence of unaffected musical storytelling . . . ” - Nat Hentoff
“ . . . sweet, effortless, old-timey . . . ” - The New York Times
“ . . . graced with a deep stylistic understanding of the early era of recorded pop . . . a gorgeous, fun sound . . . ” - The Boston Herald.
www.myspace.com/hokumsheroes.com

Alive After Five is presented by

 

 

 

 

 

Express Passes for Alive After Five are available. An Express Pass holder may bypass the line at the ticketing desk and enter the Great Hall directly.

For more information contact Michael Gill, Alive After Five coordinator, at 865-934-2039, or mgill@kmaonline.org.