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| Linda Kosut's Tribute to Oscar Brown, Jr. Linda Kosut, best known for her unique interpretations of jazz standards and pop tunes and her evocative and compelling interpretive skill with lyrics, will be at Jazz at Pearl's in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood on Thursday night, November 16, to perform "Long as You're Living, " her joyous and moving tribute to the great Oscar Brown, Jr. She's backed by an ebulliant ensemble featuring pianist/trombonist Max Perkoff, guitarist Randy Vincent, bassist Tom Shader and drummer David Rokeach. What's especially exciting is that for this performance only, Kosut will be joined by Oscar Brown, Jr.'s daughter, Maggie Brown, who is flying out from Chicago expressly to sing several numbers with Linda at Pearl's. Maggie Brown is an accomplished singer nationally and, especially, in the Chicago area. Her acclaimed one-woman show, Legacy, is a musical demonstration/lecture about the history and evolution of African American music. Kosut, with Brown joining her, will perform two shows at Pearl's, starting at 8:00 and 10:00, with doors opening at 7:30. Jazz at Pearl's is located at 256 Columbus Avenue, near the corner of Broadway. Linda Kosut has been performing to steady acclaim on the cabaret scenes of New York and the San Francisco Bay Area for several year. Her 2003 debut solo CD, Life is but a dream, was selected as one of the top female vocalist CDs of 2003 by Stu Hamstra, Cabaret Hotline Online in New York. Kosut recently performed her cabaret show "My Own Kind of Hat!" to excellent reviews at The Gardenia in Los Angeles, The Encore in New York and San Francisco's Plush Room and Octavia Lounge. She has appeared in many other San Francisco Bay Area jazz & cabaret venues including the legendary nightclub The Purple Onion, the Zingari Lounge at The Donatello Hotel, Cosmopolitan Caf, Caf de la Presse, Club Jazz Nouveau and Caf La Note in Berkeley. Now Kosut presents "Long as You're Living, " her tribute to the great Oscar Brown, Jr. Brown was an inspirational and influential composer and playwrite who died last year at the age of 78. Writer Richard Harrington, in his obituary of Brown for the Washington Post, said "Brown's astonishing 1960 debut, "Sin & Soul, " and his 1964 live disc, "Mr. Oscar Brown Jr. Goes to Washington, " are monuments to socially conscious songwriting on a par with the best work of Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott-Heron, who also wrote about the full panoply of black life -- joy, anger, love, frustration, humor -- and helped define Afrocentrism. Brown did it first, in a way that managed to be both entertaining and serious, melding soul, jazz and musical theater into a body of work that always deserved far more recognition than it got." "I grew up on his music, " says Kosut. "When I was 16, I listened to Sin and Soul and Between Heaven and Hell, Brown's first Columbia recordings. I was mesmerized. He acted, emoted and 'ached' through his songs. His lyrics and presentation were penetrating - performing with an artistic intensity that went right through my body." Kosut has been receiving encouragement from Brown's family members and collaborators, as evidenced by Maggie Brown's decision to fly out from Chicago to sing at Pearl's. And singer/songwriter Norman Curtis, Brown's musical collaborator for over seven years, assured Kosut, "I'm sure [Brown] would have been delighted to hear your version of [Brown's composition] 'Dat Dere.'" write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |