joan collaso and the family: jazz in my soul
Saturday, September 23
TIME: 1:30-2:30PM
VENUE: wagner stage. MIDWAY PLAISANCE at South WOODLAWN AVE.
Woman (Joan Collaso) standing against a white background wearing a flowy multi-colored dress and pointing her right index finger forward.
JOAN COLLASO
The love of jazz was instilled in Chicago native Joan Collaso when she was a young girl sitting with her father, listening to his favorite music. Her church roots and early experiences in music and theater still run deep.
Today, Collaso’s artistry is internationally celebrated. Her credits include her own productions and performances, live and recorded supporting vocals for top artists, and film and television appearances. Over the years, her voice has been featured on numerous radio and TV commercials, and she has performed supporting vocals in concert for musical giants like Stevie Wonder, George Duke, Gerald Albright, Kem, Valerie Simpson, Patti Austin, Al Jarreau, and Aretha Franklin. She’s opened for Jeffrey Osbourne and India Irie, and performed her one-woman show, A Tribute to Nancy Wilson and Shirley Horn, at the DuSable Museum in Chicago and in Las Vegas.
Collaso’s awards include an Emmy, a Jazz Institute of Chicago Walter Dyett Achievement in Education Award, an African American Arts Alliance Black Excellence Award, and a Rainbow PUSH Coalition Trailblazer Award. Collaso is also the founder and executive director of Timeless Gifts Performing Arts Program for Youth and Young Adults, an organization that has inspired, provided instruction for, and given advanced professional performance opportunities to young aspiring artists in the Chicago area since 2011.
Larry Hanks is an accomplished pianist, composer, orchestrator, conductor, and former college professor. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at University of Illinois at Chicago. In the late 70s and 80s, Hanks and his first writing partner, Rodney Massey, penned songs that were recorded by artists including Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Melba Moore, The Stylistics, The Emotions, Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble, Jerry Butler, and Heaven & Earth, and which hit the Billboard charts regularly. In the 90s, Larry found another partner–Ms. Joan Collaso. Together, they’ve traveled the world and created music together for the last 30 years. They perform regularly in the Chicago area, and Hanks performs weekly at Gibsons Steak House on Rush Street.
Bassist Ron Hall has been playing bass professionally for over 32 years and can be heard on hundreds of commercial jingles, including for McDonalds, Anheuser Busch, Ford Motor Company, and the Illinois Lottery. He has performed and/or toured with artists including Grover Washington Jr., Gladys Knight, Alex Bugnon, Larry Carlton, Jonathan Butler, Charlie Wilson, The Emotions, and Ronnie Laws. He played bass on the Grammy Award-winning dance mix version of Crazy in Love by Beyonce feat. Jay Z., and the Emmy Award-winning documentary Colorblind: Rethinking Race (with music composer Orbert Davis). He has been the bassist for Poi Dog Pondering since 1999.
The musicians:
Joan Collaso - vocals
Larry Hanks - piano
Ron Hall - bass
Kenari Allison - drums
Rayzine Collaso - supporting vocals
Jessica Walton - supporting vocals
Zaji Nixon - supporting vocals