Jazz and Arts on Riverdale
in the 200 block of Riverdale Drive in Macon, GA
About Past Featured Artist Barclay Burns
A UGA graduate in 1994, I worked in publishing for ten years prior to returning to college to pursue a career in healthcare as an RN. After seven years as a RN in cardiovascular ICU, I graduated from UAB with a Acute Care Nurse Practitioner degree and have now been with Trauma Surgery for seven years. I have been married to my lovely wife Jennifer for 24 years and we have two college age daughters.
Meet the Performing Artists
Bandleader, trumpeter and vocalist Joe Gransden has music in his DNA. Originally from New York, Joe comes from a family of musicians. His father, a gifted singer and pianist, introduced Joe to music at a young age. His grandfather played trumpet professionally. On his mother’s side of the family was the piano virtuoso Carmen Cavallero. Joe and his father practiced together and he took Joe
to sit in at jam sessions. He knew in high school that music was the life and work that he would choose.
In the years since he made that decision, he has performed worldwide and has recorded 14 CD’s in his
own name. As a sideman, he has played with Barry White, Kenny Rogers, The Temptations, Aretha
Franklin to name a few. His trumpet influences include Kenny Dothan & Miles Davis. His voice has been compared to Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra.
Miss Keela’s Rhythmic Jazz is led by Macon native, Lakela Smith-Davis. Lakela grew up in a musical family. Her grandparents, the late Eugene and Ella Pearl Flowers, were the founders of the family’s gospel quartet, the Fantastic Flowers Singers.
They traveled and performed all over the United States. Lakela began singing in the church at
age 6. She always listened to jazz and was influenced by Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. She describes her style of Rhythmic
Jazz as “the freedom to create and express a free-flowing rhythm”. Her eclectic musical style
includes Gospel, Rhythm and Blues, Pop, Blues, Reggae, Country, NeoSoul and Rock.
Led by clarinetist Ted Robinson, the World Famous Walnut Street Dixie, Racing and Marching Jazz Band plays the happiest of all music – New Orleans jazz. The band members come from a wide variety of musical backgrounds. They have performed with internationally known artists including The
Temptations, Chet Atkins, Barbara Streisand, The Four Tops and many others.