January 25, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jim Motavalli, publicity director, at [email protected]
WPKN Celebrates Black History Month in February with Brandon “Taz” Niederauer and Friends
WPKN, at 89.5 on the FM band and at wpkn.org, celebrates Black History Month on February 24 with a special show at the Bijou Theatre in downtown Bridgeport (275 Fairfield Avenue). Doors are at 7 p.m. and the concert starts at 8 p.m. Opening the show will be an acoustic set by reggae performer Vassel Meka. Headlining will be guitarist Brandon “Taz” Niederauer and Friends. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at https://www.bijoutheatrect.net/.
Headlining will be guitarist Brandon “Taz” Niederauer and Friends. Taz, currently a student at Yale, has been described as a young Jimi Hendrix. He started playing guitar at just eight years old, after viewing the movie School of Rock. Only four years later, the New York-based Taz was playing guitarist Zach Mooneyham in the Broadway production School of Rock: The Musical. He was on the Ellen DeGeneres Show when he was just 10.
The 20-year-old Taz has shared the stage with members of the Allman Brothers band, Buddy Guy, Stevie Nicks, Lady Gaga, Slash and Robert Randolph, and has performed with the Tedeschi Trucks Band and The String Cheese Incident. He recently performed on stage at the Newport Folk Festival with Jon Batiste and an all-star band. In 2018, he was reunited with Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Phantom of the Opera’s 30th anniversary celebration. He’s also featured in Spike Lee’s Netflix series, She’s Gotta Have It.
Starting at 8 p.m. the show will open with an acoustic set by reggae performer Vassell Meka Jamaican-Born and also a resident of the state, which he calls home away from home. Meka is also a producer with his multicultural independent label “Legacy Mekas Muzik” record label est 2018. “The sound I prefer is a modern reggae blend with foundation sounds, with a brighter texture,” Meka told the Jamaica Observer. He studied music at Edna Manley college of the Visual and performing arts and then went on to pursue undergraduate studies in Music Education and Minor in Business at The Mico University College. After leaving the university he was a music teacher in Jamaica.
In addition, throughout the month of February, WPKN’s on-air programming staff will be bringing special programming to the airwaves for Black History Month. Check out the daily programming schedule at WPKN.org for more details.
WPKN’s community of Black programmers will present a full day of Black History Month programming on Sunday, February 11, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
About WPKN 89.5 Community Radio
WPKN, rated “the greatest radio station in the world” by The New Yorker, recently completed its long-awaited move to 277 Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport—walking distance to Read’s Artspace and other arts venues. Founded in 1963 as a 100-watt campus outlet, WPKN is today a 10,000-watt listener-supported community radio station broadcasting at 89.5 FM and streaming online at WPKN.org. WPKN’s terrestrial signal now reaches to a listenership of 1.5 million people in Connecticut, Long Island, parts of New York and Massachusetts. Operating 24/7 and largely run by volunteers, WPKN offers a unique and eclectic mix of live and recorded music, news, public affairs, spoken word, arts and culture and other free-form programming which defy genre. WPKN is proud to be listener-supported, commercial-free, community-driven radio available to the public at no cost, any time, day or night.