The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is continuing the celebrations of its 75th anniversary by bringing the gritty and heartfelt sounds of Mississippi Delta Blues to the UCD Festival in June, joined by a very special guest.
A collaboration between the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and US-based jazz and blues impresario David O'Rourke, The Delta Blues Project features the music of blues greats, including Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker and BB King, as well as music from those inspired and influenced by the blues, such as Ray Charles and Eric Clapton.
Academy Award winning actor Morgan Freeman will serve as honorary MC for this extraordinary musical collaboration - Freeman is co-founder and co-owner of Ground Zero Blues Club, located in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the proverbial 'Birthplace of the Blues'.
The first half of the concert will feature music by trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, recently voted ‘Trumpeter of the Year’ by the Jazz Journalists Association, and whose acclaimed new album, The Art of Intimacy Volume 2: His Muse, shot to Number 1 in the jazz charts earlier this year.
The second half of the concert showcases music from the Mississippi Delta and features blues vocalist and guitar player Anthony ‘Big A’ Sherrod, a regular performer at Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club, as well as legendary drummer Lewis Nash and award-winning pianist Caili O’Doherty.
Introducing some of today’s finest American jazz and blues musicians to Irish audiences, the Delta Blues Project provides a unique opportunity to hear jazz and blues greats performed in new orchestrations by David O’Rourke - with a bona fide screen legend setting the scene.
The Delta Blues Project is on Sunday June 11th at O'Reilly Hall, UCD, Dublin - find out more here.
