For DH's birthday, I surprised him with an intimate evening of jazz. As one of the Cultural Series performances at the USC Aiken Etherredge Center, we saw the NEA Jazz Master, renowned Grammy Award®‐winning saxophonist, and Tony Award® nominee Branford Marsalis and his Quartet's longtime pianist, Joey Calderazzo. Without an established setlist, we accompanied them on a musical journey that wound and meandered for 90 minutes. Their duo performed a variety of tunes across a spectrum of time periods.
The Etherredge Center is on the University of South Carolina Aiken campus and consists of a 687-seat theatre. The Center is also the home of the department of Visual and Performing Arts with art galleries, studios, and practice rooms, in addition to musical, dance, and theatrical productions like the Marsalis Calderazzo duo we saw. Our front row seats placed us within 30 feet of the performers and the acoustics in the Etherredge Center was stellar. I look forward to visiting the delightful venue again. read more