FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Grateful to be on the ballot for your consideration in the first round voting for the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards®
Lenora Helm Hammonds, Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals, the selection is: Rio Dawn from North Carolina Central University's Vocal Jazz Ensemble.

About the recording:
Take Note, North Carolina Central University Vocal Jazz Ensemble’s 2017 CD release includes favorites from the vocal jazz standard repertoires of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Heath, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Take 6, and on Flamenco Sketches, lyrics from the pen of NCCU Jazz Studies alum, vocalist Eve Cornelious. Produced by Lenora Helm Hammonds and Dr. Ira Wiggins, Take Note features the talented students of the NCCU Jazz Studies program. Two of the selections are from the pen of saxophonist/composer, Jimmy Heath from the recording featuring vocal selections he had written, some with lyrics by vocalist Roberta Gamberini.  Mr. Heath has been a frequent guest artist of the program, first in 1986 and most recently the 26th Annual NCCU Jazz Festival in 2015.  In honor of Mr. Heath’s legacy to jazz and our gratitude for allowing us to record his music, and specifically to his longstanding commitment and support of the NCCU Jazz Studies program and our NCCU Jazz Studies Director, Dr. Ira Wiggins, we dedicate Take Note to NEA Jazz Master, Mr. Jimmy Heath. 

Rio Dawn, (Jimmy Heath composer/Roberta Gamberini, lyrics) features NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble, directed by Lenora Helm Hammonds,

Take Note

Rio Dawn_NCCU VJE

I sing, I compose, teach, I write.
l am the ancestral daughter of slaves. of healers, of survivors, of dreamers
who were entrepreneurs and sage leaders.
1 am a stepmom, godmother, auntie-mom.
grandmother, great-grandma, Wife, Sibling, Aunt, Friend, Woman, Human.
I am a Chicago born, Creole descended, Afro-Carolina, 20th Century woman living on land originally inhabited by the Eno and Occanneechi band of the Saponi Nation. My work is as a musician, composer, educator, researcher and administrator.
A creative alchemist who expresses herself being a Sensual, Loving. Lighthouse.
I am Journeywoman.

Lenora Helm Hammonds aka Lenora Zenzalai Helm