Frank Capp's Juggenaut to Play 'Tribute to Count Basie' 5/10

"The Frank Capp Juggernaut Big Band" will perform "A Tribute to Count Basie Featuring Barbara Morrison" Tuesday in the Mid-Summer Nights Jazz Concerts Under the Stars Series at the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center in Leimert Park.

Capp, a famed jazz drummer, founded the 16-piece Big Band in1976 with the late Nat Pierce. He began playing, at age 20, with Stan Kenton in 1951 and frequently worked with Count Basie in their long careers. Capp also has accompanied Peggy Lee, Dorothy Dandridge, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.

"We'll be doing the original Count Basie sound," Capp said. "I have the arrangements right out of his book. I had worked with Count Basie and there was a club in the San Fernando Valley, King Arthur's, running big bands. Nat was a piano player who had worked with Woody Herman and I said, "Let's put our libraries together,' and that's what started Juggernaut.

"We didn't call it Juggernaut originally. Leonard Feather, the great jazz critic, did a review of our band in the Los Angeles Times and referred to us as a juggernaut. We took the name and ran with it. For years, Nat and I just had a lot of fun with some of the top-notch musicians in the country."

Capp's "Tribute to Count Basie" begins a 13-week run every Tuesday with different artists in the park next to Morrison's Performing Arts Center at 4305 Degnan Boulevard, Suite 101.

"What a beautiful way to start the warm months coming in," Capp said. "Let's celebrate life."

Morrison has been featured in over 20 recordings in almost every genre from traditional jazz and blues to gospel and pop.

"I thought I'd give the show a little twist and be a female Joe Williams," Morrison said.

Upcoming shows in the Mid-Summer Nights Jazz Concerts Under the Stars series include "Larry Nash & the Jazz Symphonies" on May 24, "Sax Man Cal Bennett" on May 31, famed trumPeter Nolan Shaheed on June 7 and Lionel Cole, son of Freddy Cole and nephew of Nat King Cole and a former member of Mariah Carey's band.

Discount tickets for the series available for $10 at www.Goldstar.com. Tickets are also available for $20 at www.BarbaraMorrison.com or at the door. For more information, go to www.bmpac.org.

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