Award-winning musicians in blues event

Published 2:56 pm Friday, March 21, 2014

Awarding blues musicians will be featured along with Mississippi School of the Arts singers in “The Faces of the Blues” concert coming to MSA Sunday at 2 p.m.

The free event will be held in Lampton Auditorium, 110 South Jackson St., on the MSA campus.

The “Faces of the Blues” Concert features Blues musicians Vasti Jackson and Jeff Stone with the MSA “Total Praize” Gospel Choir.

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Jackson will bring his innovative guitar-playing style and soulful vocals to the stage. Jackson is a songwriter, arranger and producer. He is also an inductee in the Mississippi Musical Hall of Fame. Jackson has been performing for 35 years, and began his career in McComb.

Jeff Stone is a longtime musician from Chicago. Under the direction of legendary Chicago blues artists, Stone developed an outstanding harmonica-playing ability.

American Blues News Magazine awarded Stone the 2011 Best Blues Album of the Year for his “3 Faces of the Blues” CD project. “He is the most phenomenal harmonica player I have ever heard,” said MSA Coordinator of School Advancement Jennifer Jackson, who saw Stone and Jackson perform at a concert at Copiah Lincoln Community College last year.

This year’s event will provide listeners with a journey into the origins of America’s musical heritage and will pay tribute to the masters of the Mississippi Delta.

The performers’ unique blend of Gospel Blues is played with all of the elements of the music’s roots, evolving to our present time. Much of the music can be described as a combination of old blues and new blues and gospel.

Jackson said students performing with the Total Praize Choir were instrumental in getting the concert together.

“After last year’s show …, the students forged a bond with Jackson and Stone. MSA student and choir member Dominique Stowers, in particular, played a key role in getting this show together,” said Jackson. “We owe much of this concert to her alone.”

The concert is sponsored by The Brookhaven Trust, Entergy, First Bank, Junior Auxiliary of Brookhaven, Dr. Hugh Leggett and Pathway Planning Inc.