Lalah Hathaway | Courtesy Jefferson Center

Jefferson Center is back in cahoots with Snarky Puppy — the  Brooklyn, N.Y., via Denton, Texas jazz/funk/world band of musical monsters.

Snarky Puppy and musical guests including R&B/soul singer Lalah Hathaway (daughter of Donny Hathaway) will record live in front of audiences during two days at the Jeff’s Shaftman Performance Hall. The March 8-9 performances will benefit the Music Lab at Jefferson Center‘s education programs. And when the Snarks’ release the CD/DVD set on their  groundUP Music/Ropedope label, a portion of the sales will go to the music lab, as well.

The recording project was inspired by Snarky Puppy’s Family Dinner, a series of shows the band has played at New York City’s Rockwood Music Hall, according to a Jefferson Center news release. Those sessions, recorded live, feature the band backing up a variety of performers doing original music.

Also performing at the Roanoke sessions will be N’Dambi, Malika Tirolien, Lucy Woodward, Chantae Cann, Shayna Steele, Tony Scherr and Magda Giannikou. See more info about them, courtesy Jefferson Center, by hitting the jump link below.

Here’s the show and ticket info, courtesy Jeff Center.

Snarky Puppy

Two VIP On Stage Opportunities:
Friday, March 8th at 7:00pm & 9:00pm VIP Live On Stage Audience – $60 per person
*Limited seating available on Shaftman Performance Hall stage.
You will be seated on stage, right in the middle of the band as part of the live CD/DVD recording.

General Admission Orchestra:
Saturday, March 9 at 8:00pm G.A. Shaftman Performance Hall Audience – $34
*This is the live concert portion of the Family Dinner CD/DVD recording sessions.
You will be seated inside Shaftman Performance Hall’s orchestra section.

And here is some video of Snarky Puppy, which has pretty  much mastered this live recording art thing.

Lalah Hathaway
Born to R&B/Soul music royalty, most people know her simply as the daughter of late Soul music legend, Donny Hathaway. But there is more to her than that. A trained pianist and vocalist, she is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music and her career has spanned two decades. 21 years after the release of her first LP, her career continues to thrive.
Lalah continues to keep busy by recording and touring with several acts including George Benson, Take 6, Marcus Miller, Rahsaan Patterson, Mary J. Blige, The Winans, Kirk Whalum, Gerald Albright, David Sanborn, Carl Thomas, Angie Stone, Robert Glasper, Donald Lawrence, Eric Roberson, Grover Washington, Esperanza Spalding, and just recently, Prince. Visit www.lalahhathaway.com for more!

N’Dambi
Raised in a strictly religious house that allowed no secular music, N’Dambi’s independent personality eventually led to college and a degree in English and creative writing from Southern Methodist University. Her developing, expressive voice, the poetic irony of her skillful writing ability and her
musicianship as a classically trained pianist spurred N’dambi’s musical ambition. N’dambi sang back-up and collaborated with another rising soul seeker, Erykah Badu all the while honing her artistry and slowly building a fiercely loyal fan base that resonates with the organic, authentic approach to her life and music.
- Visit www.ndambionline.com for more information.

Malika Tirolien
From her youngest days, Malika has been fascinated with the arts and, most notably, music. When her parents discovered her playing Bach pieces by ear, they figured that enrolling her in classical piano classes would be prudent. From that point on Malika has progressed as a musician with a keen ear, acute sense of musical direction, and velvety vocals; all combining to guarantee Malika a place amongst the best of singer/songwriters internationally.
Malika has sung backup for Coral Egan, which has afforded her such opportunities to share stages with Antoine Gratton, Annie Villeneuve, and Dawn Taylor Watson. Out of these fruitful meetings, Malika was able to conceive two bodies of original compositions-one with the imprint and influence of jazz and the other with a more pop-soul R&B flavor.
- Visit www.myspace.com/malikamusique for more information.

Lucy Woodward
In her teens, Lucy studied voice, piano and flute, and began writing her own songs. At 16, she was accepted to the Manhattan School of Music to study jazz, but opted instead to focus on honing her songwriting and performing skills. She spent the next few years paying her dues by singing with cover bands and wedding combos, working as a session singer, and waiting tables and singing jazz standards in a Greenwich Village restaurant. “When I was 19, I became obsessive about learning jazz standards,” she recalls. “I would lock myself away for hours and hours, learning the vocabulary of this style, studying different singers’ vocal techniques, writing out the lyrics by hand and copping the riffs. That was my job for a year; I waited tables and learned songs. After that, I met a bunch of pop writers and that felt good, so I followed that and started writing pop-rock songs.”
- Visit www.lucywoodward.com for more information.

Chantae Cann
Hailing from Chicago, IL, Chantae Cann is a phenomenal vocalist that is beautiful on and off the stage.
She has performed as a background vocalist for many artists including Leon Timbo, Darlene McCoy, PJ Morton and India.Arie. While working with these artists she has had the amazing chance to travel the world doing what she loves and has been inspired to branch out into her own solo career. Now residing in Atlanta, GA Chantae is currently working on her debut album entitled “The Light” that is soon scheduled to release.
- Visit www.chantaecann.com for more information.

Shayna Steele
New York City based vocalist, song-writer and vocal producer Shayna Steele has been been part of the music scene since 1996. There’s no need to sugar coat it, since her impressive credits speak for themselves. Her colleagues praise her ability, her dedication and drive to perfecting her craft as a professional singer and a knockout performer. On stage and in the studio, Shayna Steele proves she is a vocal force to be reckoned with. Boasting an industry resume as long as your arm, singer/songwriter
Shayna Steele has acquired many labels over the course of her 12 year career, from “Broadway crooner” to “disco screamer”, “Chaka Khaner” to “r&b belter”, and “jazz chanteuse” to “electro diva.” But, while each denotes a unique facet, no one term is able to capture the whole. With her latest album, Steele delivers her most confident and cohesively eclectic set to date, answering the question “Who is Shayna Steele?” with a definitive (and defiant) I’ll Be Anything.
- Visit www.shaynasteele.com for more information.

Tony Scherr
“Tony Scherr has a few different profiles as a musician, each of them sharp, honed, and generously melding into the others.”- New York Times
Tony Scherr is arguably one of the most in-demand sidemen in New York City. The list is long; as a bassist, guitarist, or singer Tony has worked with Bill Frisell Trio, Sexmob, John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards, Willie Nelson, Rickie Lee Jones, Ani DiFranco, Jason Collett (Broken Social Scene), Rufus Wainwright, Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, Jesse Harris, Richard Julian, Sasha Dobson, Shawn Colvin, The Abrams Brothers, Kevin Kinney (Drivin N Cryin), and Teddy Thompson to name a few.
He still tours, records, and plays around town regularly with a very broad range of artists, and has played on many albums, movie and television scores.
- Visit www.tonyscherr.com for more information.

Magda Giannikou
Magda Giannikou was born on January 27th, 1981 in Athens, Greece. At the age of five she began studying classical piano and music theory. She graduated at the age of 20 with a Certificate of Excellence from the National Conservatory of Greece. Parallel to her classical studies, she studied jazz piano and theory at the Nakas Jazz School in Athens.
In September of 2003, she moved to Boston and enrolled in the Film Scoring program at Berklee College of Music. Though Film Scoring was her main objective, she got involved in many other areas of music such as big band writing, songwriting, concert music, production and engineering. She also performed as accordionist/vocalist with various music ensembles ranging from jazz, tango, brazilian, ethnic, to folk and greek traditional in Boston, NY and LA.
- Visit facebook.com/magda.giannikou for more information.