Today at 11 p.m. on KUVO/89.3 FM, a public-radio station that specializes in jazz and blues, singer Rene Marie will perform live for Denver Public Schools music students as part of a KUVO/DPS partnership program. However, the station's press release makes no mention of the reason many, if not most, members of the general public know Marie's name: her decision to sing a version of what's known as the "Black National Anthem" in place of "The Star Spangled Banner" at a State of the City speech last July. Thanks to the focus placed on Denver by the build-up to August's Democratic National Convention, Marie's decision was quickly transformed into a culture-war football, which District 6 councilman Charlie Brown booted around during an appearance on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News staple, The O'Reilly Factor. Neither O'Reilly nor Lucy yanked it away...
Given Marie's audience for the broadcast, it's no surprise that KUVO didn't highlight the "Anthem" brouhaha -- and she's too gifted a vocalist to be defined by the controversy anyhow, as she'll do doubt prove during April 16-18 performances at Dazzle and an April 19 gig at the Jefferson Unitarian Church prior to a string of dates at Dizzy's Room at New York City's Lincoln Center and stops in Brazil and Mexico. No reason to debate that on Fox News.
Click "Continue" to see a video of Marie's State of the City song and the KUVO release.
Rene Marie and Denver Public Schools students together in KUVO's Phyllis A. Greer Performance StudioIn the third of four programs for the Denver Public Schools/KUVO Partnership, vocalist Rene Marie, will perform live on April 14th, 2009 at 11am in the KUVO Phyllis A. Greer Performance Studio. Her audience will be Denver Public School music students!
Known for her dedication to music education as well as composing, arranging, recording and live performance, René is looking forward to interacting with Denver Public School students and many up and coming young jazz talents.
Rene is currently on her 2009 world tour, "Voice of My Beautiful Country." The tour will include three evenings at Dazzle in Denver on April 16, 17 and 18, as well as a performance in Golden at the Jefferson Unitarian Church on April 19. She will appear with her touring band at Dazzle. For the performance at KUVO she will be accompanied by pianist Jeff Jenkins and bassist Mark Diamond.
A portion of the performance will be broadcast 'live' on KUVO at 89.3 FM, on 89.7 in Breckenridge as well as streamed worldwide via KUVO's stream at www.kuvo.org.
KUVO and the Denver Public Schools invite you to tune in for this celebration of music education and the jazz arts on April 14th at 11:00 AM. This performance will be hosted by Mid-morning Jazz host Susan Gatschet-Reese, and attended by both jazz vocal and instrumental students from across the city.
For more information about all of Rene's activities, including music performances, recordings, compositions, live theater, film, music education and community service, you can visit her website at www.renemarie.com.
The DPS/KUVO partnership brings DPS jazz music students together with public radio and jazz professionals. Previous performances and interviews have included the Latin Jazz band of Janine Santana and guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg.
