Jazz Ain't Dead

WHO is Jazz Ain't Dead?

Produced by Candice Michelle Franklin, Jazz Ain't Dead® is a young urban jazz music and dance collective that performs house, acid, funk, and soul songs with an urban jazz sensibility. Featuring live dancers, singers, musicians, and live DJ, Jazz Ain't Dead's signature sound is taking popular classical jazz standards and re-igniting them into house, acid jazz, funk, and soul. Also in repertory are contemporary and Nu Jazz covers, original works, and straight-ahead classics.

Jazz Ain’t Dead’s principle music arrangements are composed by Chris Rob, musical arranger John Legend and Kanye West among others and current musical director of Roberta Flack. Additional music arrangements are by jazz pianist, Lenny Underwood (Whitney Houston, Madonna, Common, Faith Evans), Donald Hayes (Beyonce, Usher, Chaka Kahn, Stevie Wonder), and Marcus Bell/Bellringer Productions (Def Jam, Interscope, Warner Brothers, MCA, Sony, Virgin Records, Arista), with Mansa Gory (Horn Arrangements for JAD). Choreographer for Jazz Ain’t Dead® is Candice Michelle Franklin (SHAKTI, BLACK TAXI, BRASCO, MACY GRAY). Musical Director for Jazz Ain’t Dead® is Lafayette Harris (Broadway -Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk, Color Purple).

Jazz Ain’t Dead® has performed at the Apollo, MTV’s Live Listen to the Beat Series, BAM Cafe, Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, Jazzmobile, Harlem Shrines Jazz Festival, Joyce SoHo, the Iridium Jazz Club, the Paradise Theater, the Kumble Theater, the Bowery Poetry Club, Southpaw, DNA, Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, Jordan’s Lounge, Sage Theater, The Player’s Club, Rush Arts Gallery, Therapy Bar, and other live music clubs as well as numerous private events and galas. Jazz Ain’t Dead® also partners with Mo Beasley’s UrbanErotika, lending musicians and dancers for their monthly UrbanErotika Juke Joint series, performing choreographed features with poets and live music as well as non-choreographed/unscripted, completely improvised jam sessions for both dancer and musician. During the Summer, Jazz Ain't Dead dancers teach for the Joffrey Ballet Jazz and Contemporary Summer Dance Intensive and, during the year, choreographer, Candice Michelle Franklin, is on faculty teaching advanced jazz to their elite dancers in the pre-professional trainee program. In addition, Jazz Ain’t Dead® has shared its love of dance with the community by teaching the art of Jazz dance to elementary school-aged children, through Ready, Set, Learn, LLC, a summer day camp and after school program providing free to low- cost activities for children living in the Bronx Housing projects of New York City. In the future, Jazz Ain’t Dead® hopes to extend our commitment to community programs like Ready, Set, Learn by providing music lessons as well.

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