The WMNF Song of the Day for May 12, 2025 is “Tampa Strut” by Tampa Bay’s Simon Lasky Group ft. James Suggs.
Here at WMNF SOTD, we love birthdays. We especially love birthdays that end in “0”. Although really any day is good to celebrate with music, a 50th birthday is an especially good reason. Today we celebrate Lasky’s upcoming 50th birthday concert that was previously postponed due to hurricanes.
The event features Simon Lasky, the award-winning British pianist/composer who now calls Tampa Bay home, along with hand-picked musicians James Suggs (trumpet), North Carolinian Jack Wilkins (saxophone), Alejandro Arenas (upright & electric bass), Jonathan Thomas (drums) and Simon (piano/keyboards/composer). And an exciting guest spot by up and coming vocalist Allison Nash.
Lasky tells us that he will be premiering some new arrangements of Fred Hersch, Wayne Shorter and George Benson tunes as well as a couple of original brand new jazz quintet compositions, written especially for the concert.
Of the Tampa Bay Jazz scene, Lasky says, “One word stands out for me – “community”. There is a great sense of community, both among the musicians and between the musicians and our audiences. It takes a village to create a thriving cultural scene. And without the infrastructure of supportive radio stations (such as WMNF!), concert venues, festivals, volunteers and – most crucially – the wonderful Tampa Bay jazz audiences, we’re just a bunch of earnest folks playing for tables and chairs!”
You can get ticked to Lasky’s 50th birthday concert here!
Also, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that if you love jazz, WMNF has you covered with Jazz in the Night and Colors of Jazz, always live and available on demand.
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