Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation Is coming to The Winter Jazz Festival at The Sheen Center, NYC

Gerald Clayton, six-time GRAMMY-nominated pianist, composer, and bandleader, was commissioned by Duke University in 2016 to make a "tribute to the Piedmont blues — a musical style defined by ragtime rhythms, fingerpicking guitar, and understated vocals twinned with searing lyrics — that grew up around the tobacco warehouses of Durham in the 1920s and ‘30s, when the Bull City was the largest cigarette manufacturer in the world. Though the most famous exponents of the Piedmont blues — Blind Boy Fuller, Reverend Gary Davis, and Etta Baker — have passed, a few musicians still keep the tradition alive."

The final product, Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation, which features text and lyrics by Jaymes Jorsling,  is a live mixed-media concert that delves into the history, artistry, and enduring impact of the Piedmont blues. The show has been touring the world and will be at the Sheen Center on January 11, 2020. Click here for tickets and more information.