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| PineCone & Town of Cary present The Monitors The Monitors are an outstanding musical ensemble with a half-century of history! During that time they have performed at concerts, Mardi Gras, Hawaiian Luaus, wedding receptions, proms, cabarets, street festivals and more. They have been the back-up band for celebrity artists such as Otis Redding, Millie Jackson, Major Lance, Faye Adams, Joyce Thorne, Connie Harvey, Maceo Parker and Milton Bulluck. They provided the opening concert for international stars Ray Charles and Roberta Flack, and Flack used to be the lead singer with the group. They were the featured guest with the Barton College / Wilson Symphony Orchestra and they recently completed a tour in North and South Carolina with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. Bill Myers is the group's leader and last original member still with the group - he plays piano, saxophone, flute and vibes, in addition to directing, arranging and composing music. Other band members include Sam "The Man" Latham on drums, Gerald "Bishop" Hunter on guitar, Jerome Morgan on bass, Clark Mills, Jr. on piano, Robert "Dick" Knight on trumpet, Fred Moye on tenor saxophone, Donald "King Tuck" Tuckson on alto saxophone, Willie Dupree on baritone and Mollie Hunter on vocals. Myers co-founded the band with Cleveland Flow in 1957 - their goal was to be able to perform a wide array of music for any occasion. To this day, Meyers directs, arranges and composes for the group. He is featured on the African-American Music Trail in Eastern North Carolina, and his life story was featured on NPR. Knight played first trumpet with James Brown. He also performed full time with Otis Redding and played back-up for artists such as Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Rufus Thomas, Patti LaBelle and many others. Gerald Hunter taught himself to play guitar and toured across the country with gospel and R&B groups, including Bill Moss and the Celestials, James Brown and others. He is also a professional clothes designer and tailor; The Monitors sometimes wear some of his designs! Dupree has produced two CDs and has plans for many others; he also plays on TV and radio stations across the country. Tuckson has been playing music professionally since high school, and he has toured with the Clarence Carter Review, Candi Staton and several other groups. Moye is a composer and arranger who now lives in Kinston but spent much of his life performing in and around New York. Lathan is an in-demand musician whose voice sounds similar to Louis Armstrong. Lathan traveled the world with James Brown and can be heard on many of Brown's CDs; he also played with the Lyold Price band. Vocalist Mollie Hunter has roots in gospel music. She began singing in the Holy Temple Holy Church Choir when she was 10 and was president of the youth choir at age 13. Morgan's roots are also in gospel, as he started performing with a gospel group his parents created and went on to perform with a variety of quartet groups and R&B groups. Meyers, Knight, Gerald Hunter and Lathan are featured on the African-American Music Trail in Eastern NC; The Monitors and the Music Trail were featured in the June 2010 issue of Our State Magazine. "I want it to remind people of the music, of the history of the music and the musicians who made the music, " Myers said of the trail in the Our State article. "I think that's one of its purposes. True, it's only going through a few counties right now, but there's a great deal of history there." The African-American Music Trail travels through eight eastern North Carolina counties: Edgecombe, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Nash, Pitt, Wayne, and Wilson. Like the Blue Ridge and Smoky mountains, whose cultures have both been shaped by bluegrass music, eastern North Carolina has its own rich and distinctive musical heritage. Sparked by gospel rhythms heard in countryside churches and nurtured in front porch blues jams and tobacco field chants, that heritage influenced a number of predominantly African-American musicians, from funk legends Maceo and Melvin Parker, who grew up in Kinston, to jazz great Thelonious Monk, who spent his early childhood in Rocky Mount. From the 1920s through the 1960s, the area was a hotbed of musical activity, including the formation of The Monitors. PineCone is thrilled to shine the spotlight on some of the music traditions of Eastern North Carolina Piedmont by presenting The Monitors right here in the Triangle. This concert is free and open to the public, so make plans to spend the afternoon soaking in some fresh air, sunshine, and traditional jazz music performed by one of North Carolina's own musical treasures! PineCone presents a variety of free concerts each summer in partnership with Wake County towns. Currently, PineCone has partnerships with the Town of Cary and with the Town of Wake Forest. Find out more about other upcoming free performances by visiting http://www.pinecone.org. PineCone and the Town of Cary continue to present free concerts in the summer in Cary's picturesque Sertoma Amphitheatre in Bond Park. These concerts are free and open to the public. The rain site for these concerts is the Kiwanis Shelter, also located in Bond Park. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Jazz News :: home page |