The Adrian Duke Project with Theresa Richmond - Fridays After Five

FRIDAYS AFTER FIVE - BUD LIGHT CONCERT SERIES

The Adrian Duke Project with Theresa Richmond - New Orleans Blues and Soul - Free Show

Adrian Duke grew up in Richmond, VA and now calls Charlottesville VA home. He grew up as a multi-instrumentalist, but soon after studying jazz piano at VCU in Richmond, discovered the New Orleans musical tradition of Professor Longhair, James Booker & Dr. John, that Duke would make the foundation of his sound as a piano player. And once you add to that a voice that is infused with a startling imprint of the early Atlantic sides of Ray Charles, what you get just begins to describe what’s in Duke’s bag

as a performer and composer. He’s spends a good part of his time on the road performing in a variety of musical settings and genres, always unavoidably with a strong New Orleans flavor. But Duke has found time to produce and record six of his own albums in the past fifteen years.

Adrian Duke and Theresa Richmond met in 1999 in Durham, NC not far from the rural parts of the state where Richmond grew up singing in the church. With a lifelong virtuosity in gospel music, Richmond began touring the globe in the 80’s with the Angelic Gospel Singers, an all-female musical group led by the late gospel icon Margaret Wells Allison. Renowned for their old timed Southern style of church music, gospel and hymns in which elements of spiritual music were quite prominent, the Angelic Gospel Singers were notably "the longest consistently selling female gospel group in African American history" by the Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music.

The similarities between Adrian's New Orleans blues and Theresa's southern gospel roots made the duo a natural fit. Duke’s raw, unprocessed vocals are perfectly balanced against Richmond’s sassy grace. No Depression Roots Music describes their soulful juxtaposition saying "Theresa Richmond has a blast furnace delivery, and tried to scorch the paint off the walls every time she stepped up to the mic. But Duke's gritty soul stood up to her onslaught."

Duke and Richmond began recording together in 2001. They can first be heard together on Adrian's 2009 release "Adriatica". They soon after began a regular performance schedule together, and the duo continued their recording collaboration with "Lazy Bones" in 2008 and most recently on Duke's 2014 self titled EP which was named by RVA Playlistas one of Top 25 local albums of 2014.

In 2014, Richmond and Duke performed with a North Carolina band, “Blues Hammer”, for the 2015 International Blues Challenge where they advanced to the semi-finals and were called the “biggest surprise” of the event by

Memphis Commercial Appeal for "adding space and color to the standard guitar-bass-drums foundation."

The goal of the Sprint Pavilion is to provide a safe, enjoyable environment for all of our patrons, our performers, and our staff. With that in mind, beginning in 2018, we will enact new security procedures to make sure that prohibited or dangerous items are not brought into the venue. For all events, including Fridays After Five, patron points of entry will be limited and there will be a bag check for any packages brought inside the gates.  We encourage our patrons to travel light but, if you do have bags or packages with you, plan for the entry to take a few moments as our staff inspects the bags. We appreciate your patience so that we can all feel safe. Unfortunately, we do not offer any bag check so please familiarize yourself with our list of prohibited items and leave them at home.

For all ticketed events, we will be instituting a higher level of security. All patrons will be asked to walk through our metal detectors after emptying their pockets of any metal objects. Patrons may opt for a pat down inspection should they choose. We will have plenty of lines open and we hope that this procedure will flow smoothly and not delay your entrance to the venue. Should you bring bags with you to ticketed events, we will still need to inspect the parcel prior to you passing thru the metal detectors. Once again, we appreciate your patience as we work to ensure the safety of all of our patrons.