Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Multi-Grammy® Award Winning Blind Boys of Alabama Perform Gospel Inspired Holiday Program with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the Kimmel Center on December 9
November 30, 2007

Multi Grammy® Award winning Blind Boys of Alabama perform the soul-stirring holiday gospel concert "Go Tell It On the Mountain," sharing the stage with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the Kimmel Center on Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 8pm. A staple in the music industry for performing traditional gospel since the 1940’s and 1950’s, the Blind Boys of Alabama reinvented itself in 2001 with the release of three consecutive Grammy®-award winning albums that rewrote traditional Southern gospel to include greater blues, soul and folk influences. The group was recently presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the legendary Stevie Wonder at the 34th Annual Vision Awards in June 2007. Their performance includes a line-up of holiday selections, classic hits, as well as a sneak peak of their upcoming January 2008 release of Down in New Orleans. Fellow New Orleans natives the Dirty Dozen Brass Band will also perform selections from their latest CD, a re-telling of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, the band’s interpretive and powerful response to Hurricane Katrina.

This concert is the eleventh concert in the World & Pop Series scheduled for the Kimmel Center Presents 2007/2008 season. The next concert in the series will be Gerald Veasley’s Jazzy Christmas at the Kimmel Center on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 8pm.

Tickets for the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band are $35, $42, $50 and $60, and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.

A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.

The Blind Boys of Alabama—four of whom are legally blind—first formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939, and today, founding members Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter are joined by more recent arrivals Bishop Billy Bowers, Joey Williams, Ricky McKinnie, Bobby Butler, and Tracy Pierce. In 1992, the group earned their first Grammy® Award nomination for their album Deep River, which featured a transcendent version of Bob Dylan's "I Believe In You." The Blind Boys then set off a winning streak of three consecutive Grammy® Awards for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album with their 2001 release Spirit of the Century, the group's best-selling album to date; followed by Higher Ground (2002), and their first Christmas CD, Go Tell It On the Mountain (2003). The Blind Boys were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and presented with the Dove Award for Higher Ground as the Best Traditional Gospel Album, during the 34th annual Dove Awards sponsored by the Gospel Music Association in 2002.

The Blind Boys’ 2006 release Atom Bomb, the GMA Music Awards’ Traditional Gospel Album of the Year, showcases their most adventurous foray into pop music yet, featuring loops, raps and roaring blues riffs. While the sound of traditional soul gospel is still unmistakably at its core, Atom Bomb, the group's latest release, includes an exuberant version of the Fatboy Slim/Macy Gray tune "Demons" and Norman Greenbaum's gospel-rock classic "Spirit in the Sky."

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band has recorded with artists from Dizzy Gillespie to Elvis Costello. Throughout the course of the group’s career, they have revitalized the once stagnant tradition of New Orleans brass bands to include a flourishing new generation of young brass musicians, each bringing their own interpretation to the form. The band collaborated with jazz innovator Jelly Roll Morton for the album Jelly (1993), and reinterpreted the hymns and parade songs of the Crescent City second-line bands for the 2004 release of Funeral For A Friend. In 2006, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s interpretation of Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Going On was re-released under the same album name. The new recordings are infused with the powerful feelings resulting from the band’s own experiences with Hurricane Katrina, the subsequent massive flooding and the devastation of their homes and communities.

Kimmel Center Presents 2007/2008 season is sponsored by Citi. Support for the Mellon Jazz Series comes from The Bank of New York Mellon. The Great Orchestra Series is supported by ARC Wheeler. Additional support is provided by the University of Pennsylvania Health System and American Express. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Mellon Jazz, Mellon Jazz Up Close and World & Pop.

The Kimmel Center also receives support from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The William Penn Foundation, The Wachovia Foundation, Verizon Foundation, PNC Foundation, The Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and the Philadelphia Music Project and Dance Advance, Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trust administered by The University of the Arts. In-kind support is generously provided by Deloitte. NBC-10 is a Media Partner for Kimmel Center Presents, and additional media sponsors include WDAS, WRTI, WJJZ, Afro-Pop, WXPN and WXPN's Kids Corner 20th Anniversary.

Free in the Plaza programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from Wachovia Foundation.

KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS SPONSORED BY CITI

Sunday, December 9, 2007 | 8pm
Verizon Hall
World & Pop Series

Blind Boys of Alabama

Tracy Pierce, bass
Caleb Butler, rhythm guitar
Joey Williams, lead guitar
Eric (Ricky) McKinnie, drums

Clarence Fountain, vocals
Jimmy Carter, vocals
Bishop Billy Bowers, vocals
Ben Moore, vocals

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Gregory Davis, trumpet & vocals
Roger Lewis, baritone & soprano saxophone
Kevin Harris, tenor sax
Terence Higgins, drums
Kipori Woods, guitar
Efrem Towns, trumpet, flugelhorn
Julius McKee, sousaphone
Revert Andrews, trombone

FREE AT THE KIMMEL:

Sunday, December 9, 2007 | 6:30pm & 10:30pm
Commonwealth Plaza Stage
Dwight James Trio

> index of news releases
> For more information, and to request high resolution images for press use, please send us a message online.