Chris Thomas King to perform at Delta State University

Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

CLEVELAND— The acclaimed Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and Grammy winning blues artist Chris Thomas King, will perform a Sunday matinee concert on April 18, at 2 p.m. in the Delta and Pine Land Theatre of the Bologna Performing Arts Center on the Delta State campus. Hollywood movie star Chris Thomas King will join Grammy-nominated jazz saxophonist Antonio Hart,  Charlie Parker Institute Director and vocalist Lisa Henry; past Wynton Marsalis Quartet pianist Richard Johnson; past Terrence Blanchard Quintet bassist Derek Nievergelt; and Esperanza Spalding’s drummer, Otis Brown, III for the Sunday matinee performance.  The show will feature musicians who have worked with everyone from Coldplay to recent Grammy Album of the Year winner Herbie Hancock. Chris Thomas King is a Grammy-Award Winning Artist who acted in two Oscar-winning films, Ray (as Lowell Fulson) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (as Tommy Johnson). Also in attendance will be Thelonious Monk’s son and chairman of the board of the Monk Institute, TS Monk.The program is a celebration of African American music in DSU’s Year of the Arts, and is part of the Monk Institute’s return to the Mississippi Delta during its annual "The Blues and Jazz - Two American Classics" educational outreach tour (www.thebluesandjazz.org). The April 19 and 20th Informance tour includes visits to public schools in Cleveland and Ruleville.Funding for the entire tour was provided by Carolyn and Bill Powers, in memory of Mrs. Powers' grandparents, Joe Rice Dockery and Keith Dockery McLean, the late owners of Dockery Farms. Of Dockery Farms and the blues, B.B. King has said, "You might say, it all started right here.”