“Singer Carmen Bradford was only 22 when she first met Count Basie,” writes Chase Quinn in Wednesday’s (9/26) Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.). “The jazz giant was sitting backstage. Bradford was singing two songs with the opening act…. Bradford will be appearing with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra alongside trumpeter and vocalist Byron Stripling on Saturday at the Gaillard Center in a tribute concert to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald…. The daughter of a long line of talented jazz musicians—her mother is singer Melba Joyce and her father is trumpeter Bobby Bradford—she went on to sing with the [Count Basie] orchestra for 10 years [and] currently sings with the band as a guest…. The singer … was first introduced to Stripling in Basie’s orchestra. He was a trumpet player with the band when she was first getting her start…. Together they will re-create some of the most iconic duets in music history. Bradford believes it’s important to preserve this history. ‘This is really all that America has,’ she says. ‘There are symphonies performed across the United States written by Europeans. This is an American art form, and it came from black people. This is our classical music.’ ”
Posted September 27, 2018
