Press Release

RAY KAMALAY’S RED HOT PEPPERS HEAT UP TIBBITS

Date 2/25/2008:

COLDWATER, MI—

Ray Kamalay and his Red Hot Peppers with Walter White will perform at Tibbits at 2:00 p.m., Sunday, March 9. This one-time only performance is generously sponsored by Flagstar Bank.

A Detroit native now living in East Lansing, Ray Kamalay has worked as a professional musician since 1974. His emphasis is on historic American music. When he formed his own group, the Red Hot Peppers in 1983, it was to play the great music of the jazz era in its classic style. To his good fortune, some of the best players in the United States found their way into the band. Ray has been known to say, “I could spit on a piece of paper and these guys would make it sound good!”

Besides extensive work with this group Ray regularly appears with Howard Armstrong, a National Heritage Fellow with the National Endowment for the Arts. Ray Kamalay and his Red Hot Peppers with Walter White is one of the finest historic jazz bands in the Midwest. They have appeared at many of North America's most prestigious festivals including The Philadelphia Folk Festival, The Toronto Jazz Festival, The Montreux/Detroit Jazz Festival and The Winnipeg Folk Festival.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reported "Ray wraps himself around the music in a manner that is not only stylistically but technically faultless"

In recent years the band has added one of the most gifted and powerful trumpeters in the nation, Walter White. His playing caps everything this band does with beauty and excitement. Walter's training includes Interlochen and Julliard School of Music. He was formerly the lead trumpet with the Harry Connick, Jr., Orchestra and with Maynard Ferguson. He also works periodically with the Detroit Symphony and the Cincinnati Pops as featured soloist. He also works with the Woody Herman Band and the Charles Mingus Orchestra.

H. Schumacher, NPR’s Jazz Revisited, found “This band swings … hard or soft, fast or slow … They come out swingin’ at the bell and don’t stop.”

Ray Kamalay & His Red Hot Peppers with Walter White have wowed audiences at some of the very finest venues. Now they are planning to do the same in Coldwater. With all of their talent and all of their might, they come to Tibbits at 2:00 p.m. on March 9 to celebrate this great music tradition that we all share. Tickets are $25 and are available by calling 517-278-6029 or online www.tibbits.org.