Vaneese Thomas To Headline Flagpole Radio Café Second Season Opener

Rhythm and blues sensation Vaneese Thomas will be the guest artist when Flagpole Radio Café kicks off its second season on Saturday, September 12. The event will return to the theater at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street in Newtown. Showtime is 7 pm.

Ticket are $15, and reservations can be made online at NewtownArtsCommission.org or by calling 364-0898.

“We’re thrilled to have the talented Vaneese Thomas performing at the premiere of our second season,” said Flagpole Café Music Director Jim Allyn. “She is an extraordinary R&B singer and the band is very excited to back up her vocals. The audience is in for a great evening.”

 Born in Memphis, Tenn., the daughter of R&B legend Rufus Thomas, Vaneese Thomas has cultivated her own style by blending all the influences of her background including R&B, gospel, blues and jazz. Regarded by many industry insiders as an accomplished performer, songwriter, producer and actress, Ms Thomas is above all a vocalist extraordinaire.

“I first heard music in the womb, pre-birth,” Ms Thomas told Martin Blanco, one of Flagpole Café’s producers, during a phone interview Labor Day weekend. “I was born into a family of music. My father was a musician, and my older brother and sister were singing at an early age.

After I was born, my brother said, ‘Oh goody three part harmony.’ From that moment on, he made his little sister the third part.  And by kindergarten I was a really good singer.”

As a child, Ms Thomas listened to her father work as a DJ for Memphis radio station WDIA, which sponsored a number of community events including “The Teen Town Talent Hour.” Teenagers would be invited to sing on the air and at the end of the broadcast the DJs would vote for the best of the day, leading to a prize for the winners.

“When I was in kindergarten I auditioned for the show and I wound up winning,” said Ms Thomas. “The prize was a Brownie camera.”

Throughout her rich career, Ms Thomas has worked with an array of internationally known performers including Sting, Luciano Pavarotti, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Chaka Kahn, Luther Vandross, Joe Cocker, k.d. lang, Jonathan Butler, Jewel, Celine Dion, Joan Osborne, Annie Lennox and Patti Austin. She has produced recordings, created vocal arrangements or written songs for Austin as well as Freddie Jackson, Bob James, Larry Coryell and Melba Moore.

To read her resume today it would be a surprise to learn that the world almost missed out on hearing the talents of Ms Thomas.

“While music was always a part of my life, I initially rejected music as a career path,” Ms Thomas admitted to Mr Blanco. “By high school I was not interested. Given my family’s involvement in the music business I had seen too much, too soon, and I shied away from it. But I couldn’t stay away and music ultimately became my destiny … Performing live is my greatest joy.”

The Flagpole Radio Café is a variety show produced by Newtown residents Jim Allyn, Martin Blanco and Barbara Gaines, in conjunction with Newtown Cultural Arts Commission. In addition to Mr Allyn, returning for the second season are musicians Rick Brodsky, Dick Neal, Grammy Award-winning Stacy Philips, host and guitarist Chris Teskey, and performers Jennifer Rogers, David Wheeler, Ms Gaines and Mr Blanco.

Additional Flagpole Radio Café performances for the 2009-10 season will be October 24, December 5, and three dates in the late winter and spring.