Sable and Holt team up to present music of Blossom Dearie

Blossom Dearie was an iconic jazz pianist, vocalist and composer from the bebop era. With her unique style, she was able to bridge the gap between west-side rhythm and east-side lyrical content. Her career spanned six decades with recordings from 1948 to 2003. She performed in venues from small jazz clubs to concert halls in New York, London and Paris. Her recordings were drawn from the Great American Songbook and some of her songs included “Deed I Do,” “They Say It’s Spring,” “Doop-Doo-De-Doop,” “Tea for Two,” and “Someone To Watch Over Me.”

Sharon Sable began her music career in the late 90’s as a teen pop artist. She recorded with many pop/R&B heavyweights such as Pink, Babyface, and Boyz II Men. Feeling disconnected from the pop music industry of that time, Sable sought out and began to fall in love with all kinds of music, much of it from a different era, including Blossom Dearie. It wasn’t long before Sable began performing with the top jazz musicians in the Greater Philadelphia region, including her husband, multi-instrumentalist E. Shawn Qaissaunee.  

Joe Holt became a full-time musician/pianist in the 70’s as a teenager. He fell in love with the music of another time — the classic jazz era; a unique time when jazz was popular music, and musicians performed songs that spoke directly to people’s hearts. Holt has established himself as both a piano soloist and a collaborator; in recent years, hosting a concert series where he has curated and performed hundreds of collaborative shows.  

As fate would have it, Sable and Holt met at a jazz festival. Their shared love of the genre ultimately led to the collaboration on a Blossom Dearie project, “Once Upon a Summertime.”

The concert, featuring works from their project, will take place on April 21, 2023, at 8 p.m. in the Thorne Performance Hall. General admission tickets are on sale now for $25. All students will be admitted free of charge. All profits will go to MVNU’s Music Department.

To purchase tickets, and learn more about the event, visit concert.mvnu.edu.

Mount Vernon Nazarene University is a private, four-year, intentionally Christian teaching university for traditional age students, graduate students, and working adults. With a 327-acre main campus in Mount Vernon, Ohio, MVNU emphasizes academic excellence, spiritual growth, and service to community and church. MVNU offers an affordable education both in-seat and online to nearly 2,000 students from 25 states and 11 foreign countries.

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