At its next installment, Grainger Hill’s Second Sunday Series will present “Big Band Sounds, Ballads and Broadway,” featuring Earle Abernethy, drums; Carol-Ann Tucker, vocals; Jimmy Aycock, piano; and Dave Aduddell, bass.
The series, and each concert, is presented by the Grainger Hill Performing Arts Center in conjunction with the Community Council for the Arts, with all performanes at the CCA, 400 N. Queen St. All proceeds, after expenses, will benefit Grainger Hill.
For more than 45 years, Abernethy has performed professionally with Eastern North Carolina jazz musicians. He began playing jazz in the mid 1960s with Aycock, and his specialty is percussion.
Abernethy studied music at ECU and has “backed up” stars from popular television shows, including “Lawrence Welk” and “The Brady Bunch”; country stars Lynn Anderson and Ray Price; and his highlight, comedian Bob Hope.
He enjoys all types of music, especially big band, ballads from the 1940s and Broadway. He and Dennis Michels co-directed the Grainger Hill OnStage series for several years.
Aduddell, of Raleigh, plays electric and upright bass, working days as a software applications developer and performing nights as a musician. He played his first paying gig at age 14, and has been playing virtually non-stop ever since.
He has played most genres of music, including classical, country, opera, Dixieland, jazz, blues, funk, soul, rock and musical theater. Musical projects include the Casablanca Orchestra, the Soul Providers, Dmitri Resnik and Bootleg Beat, Charlie Elliott and Speakeasy, the Rick Keena Trio, the International Jazz Consortium and various musicals with N.C. State University Theater and the Raleigh Little Theater, including, most “Cinderella,” “The Light in the Piazza” and “Into the Woods.”
Fremont native Aycock — a teacher, composer, arranger and pianist — has been a main character in the North Carolina music scene for more than 50 years. A public school teacher for 30 years, he was appointed to serve on the N.C. Arts Council for Governors Jim Martin and Jim Hunt.
In 2006, he was named a Carolina Icon for his dedication to the arts and his contribution to education. Gov. Mike Easley presented him with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.
Aycock is an Atlantic Christian College graduate and did graduate study at ECU, UNC Greensboro and Western Carolina University. He is an ordained minister.
His contributions to the field of music have been recognized with many awards, including Who’s Who in Teachers in America, Commendation of Achievement, Teacher of the Year, Outstanding Young Man of America, Distinguished Service Award-Teacher/Community Leader and others.
Duplin County native Tucker has spent most of her adult life in Greenville. Retired from ECU in the College of Health and Human Performance, she is a master teacher and motivational speaker, often mixing music with message.
Her musical career began at age 4, and she met Aycock when he came to James Kenan High School as the choral teacher. She began her professional singing career with him after ECU graduation, and they have years of audiences and several recordings to their credit.
Tucker was a guest co-host of morning television, “Carolina Today.” She has been a recent judge for the Pitt Community College scholarship fundraiser, “Dancing with the Stars.”
The last concert of the four-part series will feature The Ray and Bobby Band with “Country, Light Rock and Bluegrass.”
Grainger Hill PAC is a regional, cultural and civic center at 300 Park Ave., serving audiences throughout a multi-county region. Make tax-deductible donations and mail to Grainger Hill Performing Arts Center, P.O. Box 1334, Kinston, NC 28503.
Big Band, Ballads and Broadway
3 p.m. April 14, doors open at 2 p.m.
Community Council for the Arts
400 N. Queen St., Kinston
Presented by the Grainger Hill PAC
Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at door
Available at arts center
Info: 252-527-2517 or kinstoncca.com; or 252-527-8515, Total Experience