Tag Archive for: Downtown Durham

Sonic Pie Productions Presents Free Concert November 23: Blues Guitarist Jontavious Willis

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(Durham, NC) Durham-based concert production and curation company Sonic Pie Productions presents Blues guitarist and songwriter Jontavious Willis Saturday, November 23, 8:30 p.m. This concert, at Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, is free and open to the public. 

28 year old Grammy-nominated Blues musician Jontavious Willis is resolved in his mission: to reinvigorate today’s Blues with the spirit of the past. Inspired by a time when the Blues were plentiful and rhythm reigned supreme, Jontavious leverages his unique sound—a synthesis of his rural Georgia heritage and reverence for traditional Blues—to get the world dancing again. Jontavious and his band perform original, toe-tapping tunes in the style of Delta, Piedmont, Texas, and Gospel Blues. Dynamic vocals, technical prowess, and an abundance of Southern charm keep Jontavious sending jolts of vitality through the Blues community. 

“That’s my Wonderboy, the Wunderkind. Jontavious is a great new voice of the 21st century in the acoustic blues” says American legend and mentor Taj Mahal. Joyous and resonant, Willis’ brand new album, West Georgia Blues, is an invitation to everyone out there—whether Blues aficionado or just passing through the genre—to connect with the very universal emotions captured through the Blues. Entirely self-produced, the album comprises fifteen original songs that tackle time-honored themes from heartbreak and loneliness to celebration and self-discovery. 

How does Jontavious connect as a young black man in the 21st century with the music first recorded in his great-great grandfather’s youth? “In some aspects the same problems of those days are still occurring. Out of all the current music I connect with the blues the best. The same blues songs of the Jim Crow era can still be sung today. The songs about getting mistreated and abused are still fights we battle daily” he says.

Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, at 310 E. Main Street, in the heart of downtown Durham, North Carolina is one of Durham’s newest intimate music venues and cocktail bars. Ample parking in the adjacent lot is free. This is a general admission event, with a combination of seated, standing and dancing room. Doors open at 8 p.m. Though admission is free, you must reserve a ticket at https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/59475083/jontavius-willis-presented-by-sonic-pie-productions-durham-missy-lanes-assembly-room-venue

This project is supported by the Durham Arts Council’s Durham Culture & Arts – Invest to Restart.

Durham, North Carolina-based Sonic Pie Productions, founded in 2013, creates community and commerce via curated concert bookings, consultation and sound production services. For more information visit www.sonicpieproductions.com.

Sonic Pie Productions Announced As Missy Lane’s Assembly Room Production Crew

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Sonic Pie Productions has been working on an exciting new project–one that will change the landscape of North Carolina and the south’s music scene: Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, Durham, North Carolina’s newest music venue at 310 E. Main Street, opens next month and Sonic Pie Productions will serve as the venue’s production management and front of house sound engineer crew.

What to know:

  • This intimate venue will focus on Black American Music.
  • Missy Lane’s is owned by Durhamite Cicely Mitchell.
  • Most shows are seated with an early 6:30 p.m. curtain and a later 9 p.m. show. Occasional standing room only capacity is less than 230! Tickets: HERE.
  • Members get benefits such as ticket pre-sales, private events, preferred seating.
  • Enjoy a drink or coffee at the beautiful front bar any time.
  • Missy Lane’s Assembly Room mission statement: Our mission is to provide a safe space for people to assemble, socialize and build community.

Just announced: Tickets go on sale tomorrow for boundary-pushing quartet The Bad Plus, playing Missy Lane’s Assembly Room’s inaugural season April 3rd and 4th (after stops in Japan & Sweden.)

Sonic Pie Productions Founder/CEO Tess Mangum says “Missy Lane’s is a long-awaited, much-needed venue about to wrap you in beautiful sound and surroundings. We can’t wait for opening night and years of jazz, latin, gospel, soul and R&B.”

SPP Newsletter: HippieFest, Parade logistics, Mambo, Golden Belt, Drink Local and Shows We Love

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Late FALL still had that summer fun vibe–what’s on the horizon for 2019?
See this covered stage, called SummerStage and a 100+ year-old smoke stack? This is the historic, newly-unveiled Golden Belt Campus in Durham, and a view you can’t see from Main Street. There are residential options, dozens of artist studios inside, Hi-Wire Brewing just opened, parking is plentiful and Cicely Mitchell of So When Do I Clap? is curating this stage next year!
Less than a month after AfroPunk reviewed a video from her forthcoming album, Good Luck America, Kamara Thomas traded her trademark “Cosmic Americana” comfort zone to channel Aretha Franklin last weekend. (Phil Cook’s Given Family/Chosen Family project at Motorco Music Hall.)
Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba open for Weedie Braimah Wednesday, December 12. Click here for $15 tickets to this all-ages 8 p.m. show at Pinhook. Braimah, a phenomenally talented and highly sought-after Djembe Fola whose vision is to build a reverence for folkloric West African music in hopes of it evolving and being placed in the world musical arenas of jazz, funk, fusion, world music, and hip-hop, is a new face of African percussion both nationally and internationally. Kaira Ba is also closing out 2018 with a BANG. They’re playing both the early countdown and late night stage at First Night Raleigh, New Year’s Eve.
Batalá Durham and Paperhand Puppet Intervention led a people’s parade on November 30 from American Tobacco to CCB Plaza to light a huge tree across from the Unscripted Hotel. Downtown Durham Inc. contracted Sonic Pie Productions for a 2nd year, to curate talent, provide sound production services and assist with logistics.
Shows we love/gossip/drink local: did you hear Sam Bush AND Taj Mahal are playing Isis Music Hall in West Asheville? (No, not the same night, silly) It’s a gorgeous, intimate venue.

Do you like to “drink local”? Have you tried Mystic bourbon or Oak City amarettoyet? They’re about $25 a bottle, Triangle-based, hand-crafted and SO good, especially on the 29 degree nights.
Sonic Pie Productions is THRILLED to have signed a 2nd-year sound production services/modular staging contract with Hippie Fest. We’ll be returning to Ohio, South Carolina and Salisbury, NC in 2019!

Third Friday Durham, Durham’s monthly “gallery crawl” continues with a winter branding for January-March 2019. THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR A GREAT 2018!
OTHER UPCOMING SPP CONCERTS & EVENTS