Faye Carol CD Release Party

Thursday, October 16, Faye Carol had a CD release party at Yoshi's. In the audience in the first set was Oakland mayor, Ron Dellumns and his guest, Ray Nagan, mayor of New Orleans. During the show, Mayor Dellums went up to Carol and gave her, as she put it: "Some suga!"

The Faye Carol Quartet was in great form, with her daughter, Kito Gamble "Sista Kee," on piano, Howard Wiley on tenor sax, Darryl Green on drums and Marcus Shelby on bass. Though this was a CD release party for her latest recording honoring Billie Holiday, she also played compositions of her band members: Howard Wiley's Angola Project, Marcus Shelby's Harriet Tubman Suite, and of course her daughter's. It was truly an evening of celebration. Carol said, Billie Holiday is often shown as a tragic character when she was monumentally phenomenal and had a lot of give thanks for. Her arrangements were so Faye Carol, the references in let's say the Cole Porter tune she shared, relevant to the community she was singing to. It was the same with Holiday.

The band is touring Italy now and will return November 14, 7 p.m., for a gig at the Black Repertory Group, 3201 Adeline Street, in South Berkeley, where Ms. Carol teaches a music in the community course. Call (510) 652-2120 for tickets and information.