Jazz News: Mile High Murals; Lakecia Benjamin named Jazz Scholar; videos from Wayne Shorter concert

Let’s start with art. Public art. The $100-million dollar improvements unveiled last week at Empower Field at Mile High include what is now the fifth largest scoreboard in the NFL. The white horse Bucky still stands proudly at the top.

On the concourses, Denver Broncos co-owner Carrie Walton-Penner has coordinated a mural art program, including one by Thomas Evans, aka “Detour” near the expanded team store, featuring Broncos Hall of Famers. Other muralists on the concourses and on the club level include the RINO-based couple Lindz and Lamb, whose work also covers walls in The Netherlands, Jamaica at the Bob Marley Museum, and around metro Denver.

And speaking of public mural art in Denver… once named “Crush Walls,” then “Art Rino,” the non-profit event is now a woman-owned public arts festival named “Denver Walls,” running September 22 through October 3. In partnership with the Rino Arts District, Denver Walls features as many as 15 artists and teams decorating walls around the River North neighborhood.

Local artist A.L. Grime says she wants “to build a program that puts (Denver) on the map as the next major Art Mecca of the United States and eventually of the world.” The event is part of Worldwide Walls, a campaign already up and running in about 20 cities around the planet. (SOURCE: Broncos Mural)  (SOURCE: Denver Walls)

Coming on strong in the alto sax world, Lakecia Benjamin has been named the 2023 Jazz Scholar Fellow and mini-residency performer at the Library of Congress.  She will showcase her approach to the music this November at the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.  Details at LOC.gov. (SOURCE: Loc.gov-Lakecia Benjamin)

Last Friday, KUVO’s The Morning Set marked the legacy of Wayne Shorter on his birthday, and clearly the jazz story of the week was the all-star concert organized by Shorter’s friends and bandmates Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter at the Hollywood Bowl. Kamasi Washington, Chris Potter and Devin Daniels on saxophones, and Joni Mitchell showed up for a vocal tribute. Carlos Santana played, too.

The images and videos are starting to hit the internet.  L.A.-based photographer and writer Sheryl Aronson posted some great footage on her Facebook page. (SOURCE: Facebook – Sheryl Aronson)

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