Maryland Traditions and Folklife

Showcase features master artists

Maryland Traditions, a collaborative program representing the partnership between the Arts Council and the Maryland Historical Trust, will hold its annual Gathering & Showcase, June 11, at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore.

The event brings together folk and traditional arts practitioners, along with traditional arts organizations, folklorists, cultural specialists, public-policy officials and members of the media. Regional cooks serve traditional foods and traditional-material artists demonstrate their crafts.

A highlight of the evening is the Maryland Masters showcase. Performing artists who received 2009 Maryland Traditions Apprenticeship Awards take the stage. This year’s performers are:

• Cheick Hamala Diabate, an internationally known ngoni player from Mali who was nominated for a Grammy Award
• Daryl Davis, a boogie-woogie pianist who has accompanied Chuck Berry and Cephas & Wiggins
• Valeri Georgiev, a Bulgarian kaval (flute) player
• Lalitha Swaminathan, a South Indian Karnatic music vocalist
• Junious Brickhouse, a hip-hop dancer

Jazz men

Two prominent Baltimore-based jazz musicians – saxophonist Carl Grubbs and pianist Lafayette Gilchrist – are pooling their talents to produce a CD that spotlights Baltimore’s jazz tradition. The pair received a 2009 Maryland Traditions Project Grant to create the CD. The grant was an outgrowth of their Maryland Traditions Apprenticeship Awards, which they received in 2008. Grubbs recently won a $25,000 award in the inaugural Baker Prize contest.