Houston's Weekend Planning Guide "Weekend Fridays" Friday November 11th, 2023 Events and concerts in Houston

[From all Music.com-Mark Deming] One of the most successful artists and activists within contemporary Christian music, Chris Tomlin is a Dove- and Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter and worship leader who has sold over seven million records. Emerging in the mid-'90s, Tomlin began his domination of the CCM charts in 2004 with the release of Arriving, which included the compositions "Holy Is the Lord," "How Great Is Our God," and "Our God" -- three of the most popular contemporary songs in the world's churches, sung by millions of Christians at worship services each week. Subsequent efforts like Hello Love (2008), Burning Lights (2013), and Never Lose Sight (2016) went gold and platinum, solidifying Tomlin's reputation as both a commercial and cultural ambassador for faith-based music and modern worship. Heading into the next decade, Tomlin started a collaborative streak with the star-studded Chris Tomlin & Friends LP. The worship LP Always appeared the following year.

Born in Grand Saline, Texas, in 1972, Tomlin grew up listening to country music and learned to play guitar from his father (Tomlin has cited Willie Nelson's Stardust as a key influence). At the age of nine, Tomlin accepted Jesus Christ as his savior, and at 14 wrote his first song of praise. He enrolled at Texas A&M in the early '90s to study medicine, but as he heard the call to bring himself and others closer to God, he grew active in a campus Christian group called Breakaway. Tomlin was a worship leader with Breakaway when he began attending Bible study sessions with Louie Giglio, who led a Christian group at Baylor University in Waco called Choice. Tomlin and Giglio worked together at youth ministry camps, and Tomlin was soon performing praise songs regularly for Giglio's events. In time, Giglio's group evolved into Passion, a nationwide organization for young Christians on college campuses, and Giglio started a record company, Six Steps Records, to record youth-oriented Christian artists. Tomlin, whose songs had become mainstays at Breakaway and Passion services, became one of Six Steps' first signings, and The Noise We Make, released in 2001, was Tomlin's first album.

In 2002, Tomlin moved to Austin, Texas, and became a pastor at Austin's Stone Community Church, where he helped guide a congregation of 1,500. As Tomlin's songs and recordings found a wider audience -- his 2004 release Arriving took home the 2005 Dove Award for Praise & Worship Album of the Year -- he was nominated for two Grammy Awards for his 2006 album See the Morning (which rose to number one on Billboard's Christian albums chart and number 15 on the overall Top 200), but the songwriter continued to emphasize that his mission was more important than his own music. Tomlin's fifth studio album, 2008's Hello Love, was certified gold. It was followed in 2009 by the holiday offering Glory in the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship, 2010's And If Our God Is for Us..., and 2103's Burning Lights, the latter of which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart.
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[From imbd.com] Adept at playing comic brat extraordinaires both on film and TV, David Spade was born on July 22, 1964, in Birmingham, Michigan, the youngest of three brothers. He is the son of Judith J. (Meek), a writer and editor, and Wayne M. Spade, a sales rep, and is of German, English, Irish, and Scottish descent. Raised in both Scottsdale (from age four) and Casa Grande, Arizona, he graduated with a degree in business from Arizona State University in 1986. A natural prankster most of his life, Spade was pushed immediately into stand-up comedy by friends and appeared in nightclubs and college campuses all over the country.

A casting agent saw his routine at "The Improv" in Los Angeles and offered him a mischievous role in the film Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987). In 1990, the diminutive, flaxen-haired comedian finally hit the big time as a regular cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live (1975). Slow at first in gaining acceptance on the show, his razor-sharp sarcasm eventually caught on by his second season, when he played a number of smart-aleck characters in a variety of sketches, including a highly disinterested airline steward who bids each passenger adieu with a very sardonic "buh-bye" and an irritating receptionist for Dick Clark Productions who greets each huge celebrity with an unknowing "And you are . . . ?" A master of the putdown, Spade's "Hollywood Minute" reporter also took cynical advantage of tabloid-worthy stars. Spade impersonated such luminaries as Michael J. Fox, Kurt Cobain and Tom Petty during his tenure.

Before that, Sanchez had released a cover version of Cage the Elephant's "Cigarette Daydreams," which helped secure him a deal with Republic Records. In 2021, he issued the six-song EP What Was, Not Now, which garnered millions of streams on the strength of the singles "I Want You" and "The Pool." His sophomore EP, Easy on My Eyes, appeared the following year and included "Until I Found You." In the front half of 2023, Sanchez offered up the singles "Evangeline" and "Only Girl" then headed out on a headlining tour to promote them. In June, while in the U.K., he appeared at Glastonbury Festival alongside Elton John, who accompanied him on "Until I Found You." All this led up to the September release of Sanchez's debut album, Angel Face. A loose concept album about a '50s troubadour in love with the femme fatale girlfriend of a mob boss, Angel Face reached number 90 on the Billboard 200 and charted in the U.K., Europe, and Oceania. Read more @All Music.com (Click Here)

[From All Music.com-Matt Collar] Blessed with a warm, yet often fiery trumpet sound and an ear for deep harmonic sophistication, Terence Blanchard built a deeply expansive career balancing post-bop jazz projects with his vibrant film scores for director Spike Lee. Along with fellow New Orleans trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, Blanchard emerged in the '80s, drawing upon the influence of players like Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, and Miles Davis. A member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, he also co-led a group with Donald Harrison, and released his own albums like 1993's Simply Stated. His profile grew with his association with director Lee, supplying the music for films like Mo' Better Blues and Malcolm X. In 2008, Blanchard won his first Grammy as a leader for his large ensemble album A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina). More accolades followed, including two Oscar nominations for his scores to Lee's films BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods. Along with his film work, Blanchard has continued to expand his reach, composing operas (as with Fire Shut Up My Bones) and exploring an ever far-reaching and stylistically nuanced brand of post-bop and fusion, as on 2013's Magnetic, 2015's Breathless, and 2021's Absence with Turtle Island Quartet. In 2022, he brought his varied experience and influences to the soundtrack to The Woman King.

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Born in 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Terence Oliver Blanchard grew up the only child of Wilhelmina and Joseph Oliver Blanchard. His father, who worked as a manager at an insurance company and sang opera, started his son on piano lessons at age five. By age eight, he'd switched to the trumpet and was soon playing alongside childhood friend Wynton Marsalis at summer band camps. As a teenager, he took music classes at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts with Roger Dickerson and Ellis Marsalis. After high school, Blanchard studied under Paul Jeffrey and Bill Fielder at Rutgers University in New Jersey, a period that also found him touring with Lionel Hampton's orchestra. In 1982, Blanchard joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, taking over the trumpet chair from Wynton Marsalis, who had recommended him for the job. Blanchard toured with Blakey for several years, eventually becoming the band's musical director before leaving in 1986. Also during the '80s, he co-led a sophisticated quintet with New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison that was modeled after Miles Davis' groups of the late '60s. Together, they recorded a handful of albums for Concord, Columbia, and Evidence, including 1983's New York Second Line, 1984's Discernment, and 1988's Black Pearl.

In the '90s, Blanchard came into his own as a leader, recording for the Columbia label and issuing albums like 1992's Terence Blanchard and 1993's Simply Stated. These albums found him balancing his love of the New Orleans jazz and bop traditions with his own increasingly distinctive and progressive compositional voice. Other albums, like 1994's minor-tinged The Billie Holiday Songbook, 1996's The Heart Speaks with singer/composer Ivan Lins, and 1999's orchestral-leaning Jazz in Film showcased his broad stylistic palette.

During this period, he developed a fruitful working relationship with director Spike Lee. Having first played on the soundtracks to several of Lee's films, including Mo' Better Blues and Do the Right Thing, Blanchard then composed the music for many of Lee's subsequent films, including Jungle Fever, Malcom X, Clockers, Summer of Sam, 25th Hour, Inside Man, and the Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke for HBO.

In the fall of 2000, Blanchard was named artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Keeping up with his love of live performance and touring, Blanchard also maintained a regular studio presence, delivering albums like 2000's Wandering Moon, 2001's Let's Get Lost, and 2003's Bounce. Produced by pianist Herbie Hancock, 2005's Flow received two Grammy nominations. Also in 2005, Blanchard was part of pianist McCoy Tyner's ensemble that won the Grammy in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category for Illuminations. The trumpeter also took home the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for 2007's A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina). By April of 2007, the Monk Institute announced its Commitment to New Orleans initiative, which included the relocation of the program to the campus of Loyola University in New Orleans, spearheaded by Blanchard.

Signing with Concord Jazz in 2009, he released Choices -- recorded at the Ogden Museum of Art in Blanchard's hometown -- at the end of that summer. Two years later, he paid tribute to the innovative Afro-Cuban recordings of Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo by teaming up with Latin jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez for the studio album Chano y Dizzy! The following year, Blanchard returned to his film work by scoring the soundtrack to director George Lucas' WWII action-drama Red Tails. Also that year, music business legend Don Was brought the trumpeter back to Blue Note Records. Blanchard's first offering for the label was 2013's Magnetic, an album that showcased a new quintet and guest appearances by Ron Carter and labelmates Lionel Loueke and Ravi Coltrane. Also in 2013, Blanchard debuted his first opera, Champion, which was a co-commission by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Jazz St. Louis, and based on the life of Black welterweight boxer Emile Griffith.

Blanchard's second Blue Note album was 2015's electric fusion- and R&B-infused Breathless. Featuring backing from Blanchard's band the E-Collective, the album also included contributions from vocalist PJ Morton. Returning to film work, he supplied the original score for director Taylor Hackford's 2017 film Comedian. Joining Blanchard on the soundtrack were pianist Kenny Barron, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, alto saxophonist Khari Allen Lee, bassist David Pulphus, and drummer Carl Allen.

In 2018, Blanchard was named a USA Fellow, and composed the score to Spike Lee's film BlacKkKlansman, which won him a Grammy Award. He also released the concert album Live with his E-Collective. Returning to film work, Blanchard scored the 2019 Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet, along with another Lee film, Da 5 Bloods, in 2020. Other soundtracks from that year included One Night in Miami and the first season of HBO's Perry Mason series.
Read more @All Music.com (Click here)

Houston's Weekend Planning Guide

Friday
November 11th, 2023

Chris Tomlin
@Houston's First
Baptist Church

David Spade
@Cullen Performance Hall
University of Houston

Stephen Sanchez
@White Oak Music Hall
Lawn

Terence Blanchard's
"Fire Shut Up In My Bones"
Wortham Theater Center
Cullen Theater

In 2018, Blanchard was named a USA Fellow, and composed the score to Spike Lee's film BlacKkKlansman, which won him a
Grammy Award.

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Friday November 11th, 2023

Chris Tomlin@Houston's First Baptist Church

David Spade@Cullen Performance HallUniversity of Houston

Stephen Sanchez@White Oak Music Hall Lawn

Terence Blanchard's "Fire Shut Up In My Bones"Wortham Theater CenterCullen Theater