Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991 TAG: 9102070098
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Donna Alvis
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sax appeal.
If bad puns and good sax appeal to you, don't miss J. "Plunky" Branch and his Oneness band tonight at 8 in Radford University's Preston Auditorium. Plunky is at the top of the class in the cool school of saxophonists.
He sings, writes and produces music, too.
Plunky and his six-piece ensemble play the spectrum of African-American music - jazz, reggae, R&B, blues, rap, funk and more. The influence of traditional African music underscores the band's style.
Plunky has performed in Nigeria, Ghana and the Gambia, joining such African masters as Asante, who plays an amazing 40 percussion instruments. He has rubbed elbows with the "biggies" of American popular music, too, opening acts for stars like B.B. King, Ray Charles, Patti Labelle and the Pointer Sisters.
"Move Into the Light," the latest of his seven albums, is receiving critical applause. His 1983 release, "Every Way But Loose" was his biggest hit on the soul charts. In addition, he has recorded for TV shows such as "The Cosby Show" and contributed to albums by other world-class musicians.
Also active in music education, Plunky, an instructor at Virginia Union University, has lectured at Yale, Harvard, Columbia and major universities all over the place. That doesn't stop him from visiting the small fry, though. He spent this past week speaking and performing at public schools in Pulaski, Dublin and Christiansburg.
His appearance at Radford University is sponsored by the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley in conjunction with the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Reserved seating is available by calling the Fine Arts Center in Pulaski, 980-7363, or Heth Student Center, 831-5420.
Tickets also will be available at the door. Admission is $5 for adults and $2.50 for students.
\ THE FOUR REASONS: The four reasons to be in Virginia Tech's Donaldson Brown Center Saturday night are Joe Kennedy Jr., Russell Wilson, Clarence Seay and Clarence Penn.
The Joe Kennedy Jr. Quartet will perform a concert honoring Black History Month at 8 p.m. in the auditorium.If you've never heard this fab foursome, you've been missing out.
Kennedy, a jazz violinist, is joined by Wilson on piano, Seay on bass and Penn on percussion. Members of the quartet recently performed in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Concert at the University of Georgia and in a tribute to Duke Ellington at the Smithsonian Institute. They also were featured guests with the Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.
Much of Saturday's program features Kennedy's original compositions, such as "Bennett Place," based on childhood memories of his home in McDonald, Pennsylvania, and "The Major," a piece dedicated to the late artist and composer Major Holley, a friend of Kennedy's.
Admission to the concert is $5.
\ SPEAKING OUT: In Afrikaans, one of the official languages of South Africa, apartheid means "apartness."
Apartheid is the subject of Maki Mandela's speech at Radford University Thursday. Mandela will speak out at 8 p.m. in Preston Auditorium.
The daughter of Nelson Mandela, she was 9 years old when her father was imprisoned for his participation in the banned African National Congress. Since then, Mandela has devoted much of her time to exposing the problems of South Africa's 26-million black population.
She majored in social work at the University of Forthare, a South African university exclusively for blacks, but at her father's urging she came to the United States where she is studying anthropology at the University of Massachusetts. She also does social work and is a political activist for social and economic reform in her native land.
Mandela's speech is sponsored by Radford University's Black Awareness Programming Board. It's free for Radford students and $3 for the public.
\ LOVE FROM THE PAST: In the old days, you didn't call your lover. You sent a post card!
An exhibit of turn-of-the-century post cards is now on display at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum in Newbern. The cards are from the collections of Ruth F. Miller and Lloyd Mathews of Pulaski County and Ann Bailey of Riner.
Scenes of the New River Valley, including historical sites and buildings, color many of these cards. Others feature love poems and songs. The messages on the cards give some insight into what living and loving was like back then.
The exhibit will run through February. Museum hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
by CNB