{"id":6962,"date":"2018-01-25T22:03:30","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T06:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6962"},"modified":"2018-01-25T22:03:30","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T06:03:30","slug":"harmonica-player-steals-spotlight-jazz-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/harmonica-player-steals-spotlight-jazz-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Harmonica player steals spotlight in jazz performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernjournal\/files\/2018\/01\/cover_1-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-6954\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2018\/01\/cover_1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2018\/01\/cover_1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2018\/01\/cover_1-768x1152.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stephanie Blair | Staff Writer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under a wash of colored lights \u2014 which would shift throughout the night, from reds and purples to blues and greens \u2014 four men took the Rice Auditorium stage on Jan. 19 for one purpose: to play jazz.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The quartet was composed of: DJ Ginyard on bass; Shedrick Mitchell on keyboard, organ and piano; Nathaniel Townsley on drums; and headliner Gregoir\u00e9 Maret on harmonica. The group were old friends, Maret explained after their introduction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the four were not the only musicians on stage that night. For a few songs before the intermission, the quartet was joined by vocalist Christie Dashiell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAn incredibly talented young woman \u2014 I honestly think she is one the most talented singers of her generation,\u201d Maret said of Dashiell, just before she took the stage. \u201cI feel really honored \u2026 that she accept the invitation and she\u2019s going to be here performing with us tonight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group played songs off of Maret\u2019s newest album, \u201cWanted,\u201d which was released in April 2016. In the performance program, Maret is quoted as saying, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot about this record that is about my past to where I am now. I wanted to acknowledge not just who I am but how I came to be what I am now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of that story is growing up in Geneva, Switzerland to an African-American mother and Swiss father. Part of it is going from studying at the Conservatoire Sup\u00e9rieur de Musique de Gen\u00e9ve to New School University in New York. Part of it is transitioning from a student and a backup musician to taking the spotlight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maret has received praise from critics at The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Zeal NYC and many others for his melodies and ingenuitive harmonica compositions. And critics aren\u2019t the only ones who love him. Though Maret was the focus of the Smith Fine Arts stage on the night of the performance, he\u2019s built a strong career out of working alongside legends both in the jazz world and out: Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, Elton John and Sting, to name a few.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maret\u2019s music is available on iTunes, Amazon, sunnysidezone.com and Soundcloud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contact the author at sblair13@mail.wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephanie Blair | Staff Writer Under a wash of colored lights \u2014 which would shift throughout the night, from reds and purples to blues and greens \u2014 four men took the Rice Auditorium stage on Jan. 19 for one purpose: to play jazz. The quartet was composed of: DJ Ginyard on bass; Shedrick Mitchell on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":6954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}