The Lynette Sheard Experience

The Lynette Sheard Experience is coming to the Monsignor William J. Linder Plaza aka “The Priory” located at 233 West Market Street, Newark, NJ Friday, Dec 1 from 7-11 pm.  There is free parking, light refreshments, and cash bar available.

Tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased at the door or online at https://nccjazzoct6.givesmart.com/

This promises to be an exceptional show complete with music, art, dance, and a lot of FUN! This experience will feature Lynette Sheard who is a sought-after singer, actor, and producer whose performances have been lauded in numerous publications including The Star-Ledger, which proclaimed that “Her voice reaches deep into one’s soul and finds a soft spot”. She performs Jazz, Blues, R&B, Gospel, Soul, and Pop music. Theater credits include principal roles in Dream Girls, Smokey Joe’s Café, Ragtime, Swing, Aida, For Colored Girls, A Raisin in the Sun, and Avenue Q. In 2017 she was inducted into the “Encyclopedia of Newark Jazz.

Lynette Sheard

Lynette Sheard is a gifted versatile vocalist with a five octave range. She is an actor, producer and director. She is the unseated “West Orange Idol”. Her performances have been acknowledged in numerous publications including the New York Times, The Record and the Chronicle. The Star Ledger proclaims that “Her voice reaches deep into one’s soul and finds a soft spot” She performs Jazz, R&B, Gospel, Soul and Pop music throughout the tri-state area. Theater credits include principal roles in: Dream Girls, Smokey Joes Café, Ragtime, Swing, Aida, and an encore performance as Lena Younger Mama in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. She has received countless awards and recognition for her musical service work with children, the elderly and veterans. She is a founding member of the Guiding Stars, a Medical Missions group of professional performers who volunteer to entertain veterans and children. Her performances have raised thousands for Hurricane Katrina Survivors, Haitian Relief efforts, The Red Cross and numerous other local charities.

Joining Lynette on this special occasion will be:

Special Guests include Jeffry Foote, Monet Sheard, the Aurway Repertory Ensemble featuring Lawrence Dandridge and the Kaisokah Moko Jumbies stilt dancers.

Jeffry Foote

Tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased at the door or online at https://nccjazzoct6.givesmart.com/

A tap and musical performance by Jeffry Foote is an actor, singer, and tap dancer, and has been performing for over 20 years. Jeffry has trained in the art of tap with Deborah Mitchell, Karen Calloway Williams, Omar Edwards, and many others. Some of his past credits include “Riffin & Tappin”, “Dance Bojangles Dance”, “42nd Street”, “Shades Of Harlem”, and recently New York City Center Encores “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope” directed and choreographed by Savion Glover. He also occasionally performs as Sammy Davis Jr in The Rat Pack Together Again which performs all over the east coast. Jeffry also teaches tap in the tri-state area and is a member and a principal dancer of the New Jersey Tap Dance Ensemble under the direction of Deborah Mitchell.

Monet Sheard

Live Painting presentation by -Monet Sheard is a painter, and creative whose artistry is displayed through murals, commissioned pieces, and paintings. Her most recent work can be seen in the new terminal A at Newark Airport. Red Bull Stadium, and numerous store fronts though out NJ.

Kaisokah Moko Jumbies

Stilt Dancing performance by Kaisokah Moko Jumbies: Stilt-Dancer bringing the (moko jumbie), from the Caribbean Island of Trinidad and Tobago.

AURWAY Repertory Theatre Ensemble

A musical performance by the AURWAY Repertory Theatre Ensemble featuring Lawrence Dandridge is a network of emerging and professional artists dedicated to the pursuit, creation, and presentation of art, that highlights the experiences of black and brown people. Lawrence Dandridge (Co-Founder/Creative Artistic Director) is a Newark-based multi-faceted artist. A performer first, Lawrence has a long list of professional credits headlined by his role as Smokey Robinson/Damon Harris in the first National Broadway Tour of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. A proud member of Actor’s Equity Association, he is currently starring in the new off-Broadway Musical, ROCK, AND ROLL MAN at New World Stages in NYC. He has produced and directed concerts, workshops, readings, and full productions of his original musicals and arrangements throughout New Jersey, New York, and California. His debut single “Hard to Tell” is streaming on all listening platforms with an E.P. not too far behind.

Tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased at the door or online at https://nccjazzoct6.givesmart.com/

Live Music Trio

The experience will also feature a trio of stellar musicians led by Glenn Merritt. Follow Lynette Sheard on Facebook, Instagram and lynettelive.com.

Lynette Sheard

Lynette Sheard is a gifted versatile vocalist with a five octave range. She is an actor, producer and director. She is the unseated “West Orange Idol”. Her performances have been acknowledged in numerous publications including the New York Times, The Record and the Chronicle. The Star Ledger proclaims that “Her voice reaches deep into one’s soul and finds a soft spot” She performs Jazz, R&B, Gospel, Soul and Pop music throughout the tri-state area. Theater credits include principal roles in: Dream Girls, Smokey Joes Café, Ragtime, Swing, Aida, and an encore performance as Lena Younger Mama in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. She has received countless awards and recognition for her musical service work with children, the elderly and veterans. She is a founding member of the Guiding Stars, a Medical Missions group of professional performers who volunteer to entertain veterans and children. Her performances have raised thousands for Hurricane Katrina Survivors, Haitian Relief efforts, The Red Cross and numerous other local charities.

Glenn Merritt on Piano

Originally from New York City, Glenn Merritt has been playing music since he was a youngster. He studied classical piano and music theory at Manhattan College of Music. At 15 he was a percussionist for Willie Sossa’s Salsa band. He played electric bass in numerous R&B bands. His jazz chops have consistently improved since he first tickled the ivories nearly 40 years ago and he has acquired a very tasteful style with lush chord voicing and a wonderful improvisational ability as a consequence of studying under his mentor the late Morris Nanton of the famed Morris Nanton Trio. He is currently the pianist for the jazz quartet, Meant to be. He co-teaches part time at Morris County College.

Alan Hayes on Bass

Victor Jones on Drums

“Victor E. Jones is a new breed of outstanding drummer bandleaders … nothing Jones does is ever boring.” — Time Out New York

Dynamic Drummer from NYC/Copenhagen, Denmark is considered a visionary in today’s music business, is a new breed of Drummer & Bandleader bringing new and exciting ideas to the world of jazz and world music.

Victor Jones, the Drums and Percussion director for BAAMS, is internationally recognized for his consistent, subtle, and stylistic drumming on stage and in the studio. Victor Jones is known as an innovator who is not afraid to bring together different styles and sounds. He has played on hundreds of recordings, played hundreds of live concerts and performed in clubs everywhere on this planet, often as a backing musician for a variety of well-known artists, including Lou Donaldson, Chaka Khan, Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, and many others.

No stranger to traditional or modern jazz, Victor E. Jones started his career as a teen-age musician playing in local bands in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey and touring world-wide with Lou Donaldson. In his early twenties he toured the world with Stan Getz. Later tours were with James Moody, Michel Petrucciani, Joe, Olivia, Stanley Clarke, Phyllis Hyman, Dizzy Gillespie and Chaka Khan as well as others.

Victor played on the Grammy nominated EMI Korean recording, Second Moon, which won Record of the Year in 2006. Victor also was featured on the Best Latin Jazz recording in 2008 with Papo Vasquez. When asked about his greatest achievement he replied, “My greatest achievement in life was having five children with my wife Ane Jones.”

Get Your Tickets

Tickets available

Monsignor J. Linden Plaza