Phillip K. Jones, II
Phillip K. Jones, II & Friends will present a Centennial Birthday Concert Tribute to jazz legend Billy Strayhorn, on Thursday, November 19, 2015, 7:30 p.m., at Cleveland State University, Music and Communication Building, 2001 Euclid Avenue, Drinko Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public.
Phillip K. Jones, II is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory and a Masters in Music from Cleveland State University. An incredibly versatile musician, Jones is comfortable performing works from a wide range of musical genres. His teachers have included Rodney Hubbard, Joe Hunter, Jackie Warren, Drene Ivy, and LaFayette Carthon, II.
Billy Strayhorn. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten (1958), Library of Congress Collections, Public Domain.
William “Billy” Strayhorn (1915 – 1967) achieved international recognition as one of the greatest American-born composers and pianists of the 20th century. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Strayhorn spent most of his formative years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended the public schools, studied privately, and distinguished himself as a gifted keyboard artist. Many remember Strayhorn as Duke Ellington’s trusted colleague, a member of the Ellington Orchestra, and the composer of many of the group’s signature works, including “Take the A Train” and “Satin Doll.” However, less is known about his professional activities prior to the Ellington collaborations, his recordings with other artists, and his solo works. This concert and other programs during the centennial year will shed new light on the entire career of this brilliant American artist.
About Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Founder and Executive Director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit educational corporation.
Williams holds a PhD in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A native Clevelander and a four-time alumna of Cleveland State University, information on RASHAD's “Praying Grounds, African American Faith Communities: A Documentary and Oral History” project is now available online at www.ClevelandMemory.org/pray/, a site that is maintained by CSU's Library Special Collections, home of the Praying Grounds manuscript collections. Praying Grounds was the primary inspiration for the launching of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD) at CSU, and links to RASHAD's scholarly journal and newsletter are also available on the Praying Grounds site. On April 28, 2020, the RASHAD Center, Inc. became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2010, Dr. Williams was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, where she taught history and directed a RASHAD-related oral history project that focused on the role of religion in recent Nigerian social history. Other research-related travels have taken her to Canada, China, France, South Africa, and Austria.
In 2013, she conceived and produced “Come Sunday @ 70: The Place of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Jazz in World History and Culture, c. 1943-2013,” a project that included scholarly presentations and performing arts activities. From September 1993 until May 2015, she was a faculty member in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. She served as a Fulbright Specialist at South Africa's University of the Free State in the summer of 2019, and completed a short-term faculty residency at Howard University in the fall of 2019. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a public scholar, her current research projects focus on African American history and culture, especially as it relates to music, religion, and spirituality. She is a member of the Oral History Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The RASHAD Center, Inc. 