Topically Yours Show - Pianist/Composer/Vocalist/Actress Emme Kemp

Deardra Shuler's guest is the legendary Emme Kemp. Kemp was a child prodigy who grew up with the gospel and blues of Chicago.  The protege of Eubie Blake, she recorded with the ragtime piano man.  She performed a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. Played at Josephine Baker's Welcome Back Party after Ms Baker's 1972 appearance at Carnegie Hall, the Waldorf, venues in Japan and her beloved Harlem. And in Monte Carlo before Princess Grace.  Most recently she delighted listeners at the Jackie Robinson Recreation Center in Manhattan for Black History month. When Ms Kemp lived in California she coached under the eminent pianist Egon Petri. Her Jazz anthology is classic to modern.

Emme appeared in Woody Allen's movie "Sweet & Lowdown, starring Sean Penn," on college campuses, gave her overview on popular culture through her lectures, poetry and writings, paid tribute to the music of Harold Arlen, Gershwin and Ellington on her album "Try a Little Tenderness," composed the original song Bubbling Brown Sugar for Broadway and has played piano for and acted in the productions, Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope, Bubbling Brown Sugar and Lorraine Hansberry's musical "Raisin.  Her deep spirituality has given Ms Kemp a compassion that is the lifespring of her music.  

(Group photo by Janet Solesky); Film clip credit: Angela Viscido, Eclectrix, Inc.  https://vimeo.com/395278798