Keeping The Music Alive

In celebration of KTSU’s 50th Anniversary and Black Music Month, The Miller Outdoor Theatre is bringing you “Keeping the Music Alive,” featuring The Ernest Walker Band and Friends.

This live performance will be bringing the iconic sounds of R&B and Hip Hop legends, remembering the classic sounds that have been stirring souls for generations.

“This music is part of our culture,” Walker said. “I think it is important that we educate the younger generation, exposing them to the type of music which has been setting trends for years.”

Rhythm and blues is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The music has evolved over the generations, touching our souls with something to fit anything anyone was going through from the “Down Home Blues” (Z.Z. Hill), to “Love and Happiness” (Al Green) to the songstresses telling love interests they were “Giving You the Best That I Got” (Anita Baker).

And when it comes to the evolution of Hip Hop, a time machine can take you on a thumping ride from the carefully rhyming days of the Sugar Hill Gang to smooth rappers like Big Daddy Kane and LL Cool J, to street poets for social justice like the legendary KRS-One, Public Enemy and 2Pac Shakur.

“Keeping Music Alive” will give throwback performances and pay special tribute to Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, Barry White, Michael Jackson, Prince, Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac and more.

Ernest Walker Band and Friends include Mary Griffin, Chris Walker, Liz Vaughn, Kyle Turner, Vincent Powell, J. Xavier, Andre James and Kai Hicks.