On Saturday, April 24th, 2010, AVT marked a milestone as we hosted live music in our black box theatre space for the first time in a 2-hour fundraiser concert.  Kicking off the evening was musician SPECIAL K, appearing with TWANGER V.  This Wrightwood duo spun poetic lyrics on death, redemption, spirituality, and introspection with their unique, blues-infused folk sound.

Our closer act featured professional artists JIMMY LEE YOUNG and GIL GABALDON II, rocking the house (literally) with their award-winning, Native American folk rock.  Young’s powerful voice rang out, singing soulfully about lost love, resilience, natural beauty, and occasionally a deep and burning anger.

A huge thank you to our musicians for lending their talent to our fundraiser concert.  We did a little better than break-even (sweet!!!), got our name and season out there to some new people, and earned a new individual patron, Mr. Al Bowers!  We also appreciate the members of the community who came out to support local arts in Quartz Hill.

You can listen to some clips and commentary in our latest podcast:

Podcast #10: AVT Music Night [ 3:58 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1122)

Scroll down for artist bios.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

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SPECIAL K

Kurt has been playing guitar and writing songs since his teenage years.  Struggling with non-conformity and the desire to sound like the popular radio, he was encouraged by friends to write songs and play the music as he sees and feels it.  Taking this advice to heart, he has been performing sporadically for about 5 years and seems to be much happier and more musically productive.

In Kurt’s words, “The songs I write are usually about a notable event or observation that has occurred in my life.  The songs give the soul a mechanism of emotional release as a reaction to the event.  For example, “Killer on 138” was written as a warning to the new drivers on this highway to beware and also as a state funding advocacy.”  Kurt also plays guitar at the Village Grind coffee house and plays a gehu (a chinese cello) at a local church choir in Wrightwood, CA.

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JIMMY LEE YOUNG and GIL GABALDON II

Jimmy’s music career started right here at Edwards Air force base in 1991. As an airman, Jimmy worked in the space program doing the weather for the Space Shuttle and flight testing, while supporting the Gulf war effort. Gil Gabaldon II, his drummer, worked under the 6500 ABW doing morale support troops stationed here. Jimmy had left his native New Orleans not only to finish school in the Air force, but to settle in Southern California armed with his education and honorable discharge, to pursue a career in music.

The duo started recording on Valentine’s Day, 1997. Their first CD, “Apache”, was completed in the fall of 1999. It was a long haul as neither of them had ever made a CD before. But the experience laid the groundwork for their future careers.

In the early summer of 2001 they were asked to play a July 4th benefit concert for California City, by KCEL radio. The station had started playing their CD 2 weeks before, and had them in the studio for an interview and CD giveaway. After playing a few of the songs, the phone lines lit up! The concert was packed with people pulling up lawn chairs and offering them soft drinks all day. Over next year, three of their songs stayed in the top three chart positions at that station.

In 2001 Jimmy sent a CD to Daryl Dragon (the captain half of “Captain and Tennille”). He included a letter detailing the duo’s exploits. Daryl taught Jimmy to market his music independently, he spent hours at the computer helping Jimmy get his website up and running. It was a crash course in marketing music!

In 2002, Jimmy and Gil received their first nomination for a major music award. They were nominated in the category of “Best New Group” at the Native American Music Awards. It gave them the confidence to continue, and 2 years later with release of their second CD,”MAYA”, they returned to win the category of “Song of the Year” Within weeks they began to count nominations, winning about half of the time in each category they entered. Between 2003 and 2007, they were nominated and won awards at the Rock City Music Awards, The Native American Music Awards, The L.A. Music Awards, The Indian Summer Music Awards, The First Americans in the Arts Awards, and the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards.

In 2007 they had racked up 27 nominations nationwide and in Canada, winning a total of 17 national music awards. The run culminated with a “Song of the Year” finalist placement at the 49th Grammy Awards, and they became Grammy Foundation members. The song chosen by the Grammy foundation was,” MAYA”, the title track from their second CD, which Jimmy wrote as a tribute to his mother and her people. This year Jimmy and Gil were awarded Native America’s Silver Arrow Award. Jimmy and Gil can now be heard on over 120 stations in the U.S. and overseas.

Jimmy now writes songs for major acts in Native America, such as Felipe Rose of the Village People, Quatisi, and Yolanda Martinez. Jimmy and Gil are currently working on their third full-length CD, and continue to perform in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.

For more information and to hear free song samples, visit www.cdbaby.com.