Thursday 2

Jazz jam

CJ’s Restaurant & Lounge presents “The Roger Humphries & RH Factor Jazz Jam Session” at 8 p.m. at 2901-2911 Penn Ave., Strip District. There will be live jazz and fun every Thursday night. Must be 30 years or older and there is a dress code that will be enforced. No tennis shoes, sweats, or athletic gear. For more information, call 412-642-2377.

This week I visited the Sanders Family Reunion in Penn Hills, Umoja’s African Arts in the Park at Allegheny Commons Park on the North Side, CJ’s in the Strip District, Herbie Hancock at Heinz Hall and Jenesis Magazine at the Shadow Lounge in East Liberty.

My first stop was at CJ’s in the Strip District where DJ Nick Nice was on the 1’s and 2’s playing all the hits for the crowd.

Chilling at CJ’s in the Strip District.

AUGUSTA, Ga.—The rumors are running rampant throughout many major cities in the nation—live (traditional) jazz is just about dead.

Well, during a recent Smooth Jazz” show at the William Bell Auditorium in the heart of Augusta, Ga.’s entertainment district, a lineup of jazz stars headed by virtuoso guitarist Norman Brown, vocalist Phil Perry, keyboardist Alex Bugnon and rising sax superstar Eric Darius, provided jazz lovers with arguably the finest-ever jazz performance in recent times.

NORMAN BROWN

Billed as the “3rd Annual CSRA Jazz Festival,” the show featured several of the world’s premier jazz men who are predominant when it comes to the nouveau jazz category called Smooth Jazz.

Originally from Penn Hills, John Wilson, also known as hip-hop artist Mista Scrap, is Pittsburgh’s next artist to break out and become a national artist. He has been on the hip-hop music scene since he was nine years old and has not looked back since. He was inspired by Run DMC and Cool J and other legends in the game from back in the day.

Wilson’s music is about life because he keeps it real and creates his own style. He raps about things that he has been through. He takes it seriously and it is not a joke. He also taught his son and younger brother to rap.

MISTA SCRAP

“Hip-hop music is fabricated and no one is creative anymore and the music is watered down,” he said.