Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Pulse of Entertainment: The Harlem Globetrotters Bring the Great Assist Program to Baltimore for Christmas

Donte' "Hammer" Harrison performing as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Donte’ “Hammer” Harrison performing as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

*The Harlem Globetrotters’ Great Assist Program gives smiles away to communities with needs and their next World Tour arrives in Baltimore Saturday December 26, 2016 at the Royal Farms Arena. The tour is also celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Harlem Globetrotters who took the sport of basketball and made it an art form.

“I didn’t think you could just become a globetrotter,” said member Donte’ Harrison when discussing how he became a member. “But they just pick up new members. I learned they been around a long time.”

The Harlem Globetrotters have become synonymous with creative basketball playing skills all around the world in 122 countries. In 2016 they will celebrate 90 years of serving communities in need through their The Great Assist program. On the world tour they will play over 330 games in 260 cities. The Harlem Globetrotters are also known as the Ambassadors of Goodwill and will be asking fans during the tour to nominate a worthwhile cause or deserving family in need of a smile.

“(To be a Harlem Globetrotter) you have to be three things,” said Harrison also known as the Hammer because of his 360 dunk. “You have to be a good basketball player to join, you have to be a good person because it’s a goodwill job – we visit schools through our bullying prevention program, and you have to be a good entertainer – I was always entertaining through basketball in college.”

This tour will also feature the basketball talents of Harlem Globetrotter members Big Easy Lofton, Ant Atkinson, Hi-Lite Bruton and Thunder Law. Donte’ has a love for basketball so strong it pulled him through rehabilitation and pain after an accident left both legs broken at the age of 11. He not only properly mended his bones but became so good at basketball he played for college and now for the iconic Harlem Globetrotters.

“I heard stories (of the Globetrotters). My first experience with them I was 10 years old. At that age they were kind of more relevant than now with Curley. Fans tell me they came to the games when they were young. Now they’re bringing a different generation,” he said.

To learn more about the Harlem Globetrotters’ and their 90th Anniversary 2016 The Great Assist World Tour, which arrives in Baltimore December 26th at 6 p.m. at the Royal Farms Arena log onto www.HarlemGlobetrotters.com.

Trumpeter Darren Barrett uniquely blends Reggae and America Jazz with his new album ‘Trumpet Vibes’

Thelonious Monk International Jazz winner Darren Barrett releases new album and single 'To Sir with Love.'
Thelonious Monk International Jazz winner Darren Barrett releases new album and single ‘To Sir with Love.’

*“We just came from filming the video for ‘To Sir with Love’…it is my seventh album. We been working on this record for three years,” said award winning trumpeter Darren Barrett (Common, Herbie Hancock) about the single to his new album release “Trumpet Vibes” (dB Studios). “My parents are from Jamaica and my dad played saxophone, it’s released in the video. He did not make enough money for five kids so he became an auto mechanic. It was mandatory that we play music because he couldn’t. He comes to the concert and his eyes are so full.”

Darren is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and is an associate professor there. He has worked with such artists as Esperanza Spaulding (“Radio Music Society”) and Roy Hargrove. A native of Canada Barrett currently calls Boston home. Aside from a Reggae and Jazz trumpeter Darren also plays R&B, Pop, Jazz Fusion and Jazz-Funk. In “Trumpet Vibes” Darren uniquely blends Reggae, the music from his parents’ native country of Jamaica, with the American Jazz sound.

The single “To Sir with Love” is one of my favorite cuts on the project because of how he blends that Reggae sound in a way that it keeps the essence of the original song but also makes it different; “Chiapas” because of how he flips the trumpet – something I have not heard before; “Everything I Own” because it is so uplifting and provoked images of a crowd of very happy people dancing as they walked down the street, and “The Club Up the Street” featuring Warren Wolf (vibraphonist) because it makes you want to visit the club for a good time, and I love the drum and vibraphone support. Darren Barrett is a winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. He is also a songwriter, band leader, producer, and engineer who has worked with Will.i.Am and Talib Kweli.

You can log onto www.DarrenBarrett.com to learn more about this extraordinary trumpeter.

 (Syndicated Columnist: Eunice Moseley, has an estimated weekly readership of over ¼ million with The Pulse of Entertainment. She is also a Public Relations Strategist and Business Management Consultant at Freelance Associates, and is Promotions Director (at-large) for The Baltimore Times. www.ThePulseofEntertainment.com. EVENTSat April 16, 2016 the “Uplifting Minds II” Free Entertainment Conference arrives in Baltimore at Security Square Mall and Sat October 22, 2016 (TBC) the “Uplifting Minds II” Free Entertainment Conference at the Celebrity Centre in Hollywood, CA.  www.UpliftingMinds2.com.)

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