In a career that has spanned decades and countries, professional pianist and Lockport native Krista Seddon will share her Blue Note performance series with audiences in Lockport at 2 p.m. Sunday at Emmanuel United Methodist Church at 75 East Ave.
The series explores and explains the development of jazz and blues music, with Sunday’s opening program “Blues In The Night,” featuring works by Buffalo’s Harold Arlen — the composer of “Over the Rainbow,” which won an Oscar — W.C. Handy, and Louis Armstrong.
“It’s all about the life and times of the composers that gave us blues, jazz, and the connections between classical music and the jazz world,” Seddon said. “I tell a story about the music I’m about to play.”
Seddon said this includes stories about W.C. Handy, called the Father of the Blues, and a descendant of freed slaves. Handy’s father was a minister who thought that any music that wasn’t sacred was dangerous, she said.
“So many great musicians learned music from the church,” Seddon said. “A lot of the musical content comes from church music because African people couldn’t bring their own music with them when they were kidnapped. One of the things their captors didn’t count on is that the music would bring them through it.”
The connection can be seen in Christian spirituals that were created by African Americans, Seddon said, and were used to communicate messages through singing.
“I start with the spiritual ‘Deep River,’ because the spirituals were actually code,” she said. “I play ‘Wade in the Water’ that Harriet Tubman used to tell slaves to get in the water so dogs don’t pick up their scent.”
As director of ensembles at Trinity Episcopal Church in Buffalo, Seddon said she developed the Blue Note series over the past 10 years.
“Some of my Lockport friends came up to Trinity, and Bob Simons thought it would be a great idea to host this series at Emmanuel United Methodist,” she said. “Churches are such great places to support music and gather community through the ages.”
A graduate of Lockport High School, Seddon said she came from a musical family, with her mother, Mary Jane Buddenhagen and her uncle Paul both accomplished pianists. Seddon said she could already play fluently by ear when she started lessons at age 7 with Edna Kurth on Grand Street. At 14, Seddon said she began piano lessons with Kenneth Atkinson of Buffalo.
At the New England Conservatory of Music, Seddon said she trained with Gunther Schuler, who created an innovative jazz program.
“That’s when I became inspired to study jazz in depth,” she said. “It was all about connecting classical music and jazz. That’s how I felt my entire life — that it shouldn’t be separated. I’ve always been fascinated by the interconnections between composers from Bach to Beethoven to Chopin and how they connect to the jazz world.”
After graduating, Seddon performed solo in concert halls in Paris, Germany, and The Hague. In 2008, she worked as the synthesizer accompanist on a cruise ship in Asia for 3 Mo Divas, a Buffalo Motown and gospel act.
More recently, Seddon said she was part of a core group of Buffalo musicians that backed Broadway road tours at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. She has played synthesizer in the pit orchestra during “Wicked,” “Phantom of the Opera,” and other musicals.
Tickets for “Blues in the Night” are available at the door and at www.lockportemmanuelumc.com. The series continues on Nov. 2 and Dec. 7.