Welcome to the 16th annual Texas Tech Presidential Lecture and Performance Series. This season we are proud to bring you the following line-up:
- An Evening With Fran Lebowitz - October 14, 2022
- Davina & The Vagabonds - November 10, 2022
- Dirty Dozen Brass Band - February 1, 2023
- Pilobolus Big Five-OH! - March 1, 2023
- Lubbock Lights: The Maines Brothers Band - Bloodlines - April 15, 2023 in Conjunction with the 45th Lubbock Arts Festival
Purchase tickets (season pass or individual tickets) and find information at www.presidentialseries.ttu.edu.
See below for more details on the individual events.
An Evening with Fran Lebowitz - October 14, 2022
In a cultural landscape filled with endless pundits and talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators. Her essays and interviews offer her acerbic views on current events and the media – as well as pet peeves including tourists, baggage-claim areas, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan.
The New York Times Book Review calls Lebowitz an "important humorist in the classic tradition." Purveyor of urban cool and unapologetically opinionated, Lebowitz is a cultural satirist who stars in the 2021 Emmy-nominated, limited Netflix documentary series, Pretend It's a City (dir. by Martin Scorsese). Once named one of the year's most stylish women by Vanity Fair, she remains a style icon. Lebowitz lives in New York City, as she does not believe that she would be allowed to live anywhere else.
Fran Lebowitz will be briefly interviewed onstage by Emmy Award-winning storyteller & Texas Tech Public Media General Manager Paul Hunton, followed by a 60-minute Q&A with the audience.
Davina & The Vagabonds - November 10, 2022
New spin on an old sound, Davina and the Vagabonds have created a stir on the national music scene with their high-energy live shows and commanding stage presence. With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, the band is converting audiences one show at a time, from Vancouver to Miami and across Europe. In 2011 Davina released her first full length, all original album Black Cloud. It was named one of the 10 best releases of the year by the Minneapolis Star & Tribune and awarded 4 ½ stars from Downbeat Magazine. Their next release in 2014, Sunshine, hit number 13 in the Billboard Blues Chart and led them to be a musical feature on the hit BBC show, later with Jools Holland. DATV’s shows are filled with New Orleans charm, Memphis soul swagger, dark theatrical moments that evoke Kurt Weill, and tender gospel passages.
Davina’s voice and stage presence defy category in a different way. Davina has been compared to Etta James, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday and Betty Boop, but comparisons don’t suffice: she is a true original. Bringing you 100 years of American music and Davina’s originals, which lend themselves to the American Songbook, the band brings edgy nostalgia to older generations and fresh new music to younger ears. This rollicking quintet is held together by Sowers’ keyboard playing, with acoustic bass, drums, and a spicy trumpet and trombone horn section. The group’s focused, clean sound and emphasis on acoustic instruments is novel to both blues and jazz worlds, and sets the show closer to New Orleans than to Chicago.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band - February 1, 2023
Formed in 1977, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band are the pioneers of the modern New Orleans brass band movement and are referred to as the brass band equivalent of Duke Ellington. Celebrating over 40 years Dirty Dozen Brass Band has taken the traditional foundation of brass band music and incorporated it into a blend of genres including Bebop Jazz, Funk and R&B/Soul. This unique sound, described by the band as a ‘musical gumbo,’ has allowed the Dirty Dozen to tour across 5 continents and more than 30 countries, record 12 studio albums and collaborate with a range of artists from Modest Mouse to Widespread Panic to Norah Jones.
They have been featured guests both in the studio and on stage with artists including Elvis Costello, Dr. John, Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band, The Black Crowes and many others. "The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is arguably the most influential ensemble to emerge in New Orleans over the last 25 years. Its sway on the brass band scene has been staggering, spawning bands like the ReBirth, New Birth, Hot 8, Li’l Rascals, Soul Rebels and just about ever other young brass ensemble presently performing." Offbeat Magazine recognized the band with its Lifetime Achievement in Music Award in 2021, which was accepted by original members such as trumpeter and vocalist Gregory Davis, tenor saxophonist Kevin Harris, sousaphonist Kirk Joseph, baritone saxophonist Roger Lewis; and drummer Julian Addison, guitarist Takashi Shimmura and trombonist TJ Norris.
Pilobolus Big Five-OH! - March 1, 2023
Pilobolus is turning fifty! The remarkable company that secured an iconic place in American culture in the early 1970s is still wowing audiences with its irresistible mix of wit, sensuality, and stunning physical acumen. Now, to celebrate fifty amazing years, the BIG FIVE-OH! tour brings audiences a mix of pieces ranging from the vintage and visionary to the fresh and electrifying. And in the paradoxical Pilobolus tradition of breaking with tradition, the tour presents works dynamically reimagined for a never-before-seen Pilobolus experience.
For this 50th anniversary celebration, Pilobolus questions its own “givens,” turns its traditions sideways, and brings its past into the future. As fresh and vibrant as ever, Pilobolus –that feisty arts organism– puts the “Oh!” in BIG FIVE OH!, and continues to morph its way thrillingly into audiences’ hearts and minds. The celebration includes signature works from vintage classics to their trend setting innovative work in shadow.
Lubbock Lights - The Maines Brothers Band: Bloodlines - April 15, 2023
In recognition of the Centennial of Texas Tech University and the 45th anniversary of the Lubbock Arts Festival, a musical celebration unlike any other is commencing in 2023. With a theme of “The Beat Goes On,” the Lubbock Arts Festival, April 14-16, 2023, is dedicated to musicians and the music they create. The Presidential Lecture & Performance Series is proud to present Lubbock Lights: The Maines Brothers Band – Bloodlines in conjunction with the Lubbock Arts Alliance.
The legendary Maines Brothers Band got its start in the mid-1950s with James and Sonny Maines, father and uncle of the Lloyd/ Donnie/ Kenny/Steve Maines combo that eventually formed the band. The younger group of brothers initially performed as "The Little Maines Brothers Band" before taking over the "Maines Brothers Band" moniker in the mid-1970s. The Maines family lived in and around Lubbock, Texas, and the band was based there. Several albums and tracks are named after the area, including "Hub City Moan" (1981 album and track) after Lubbock's nickname, the "Hub City"; "Rt. 1 Acuff" (1980 album) after Acuff, Texas, and "Panhandle Dancer" (1982 album) after the Texas Panhandle. In the mid-1980s the band recorded for Mercury/Polygram records and scored a top-20 Country hit in 1985 with "Everybody Needs Love on Saturday Night". The Maines Brothers Band performed a reunion set as an opening act for The Chicks (whose lead singer Natalie Maines is Lloyd Maines's daughter) at Lubbock's United Spirit Arena on August 6, 2000. They had a handful of exciting reunion concerts in Lubbock throughout the 2010s, but haven't been seen together in the Hub City since 2019.
