Video: Esperanza Spalding to Headline Benefit for Thara Memory's American Music Program

Jazz legend Thara Memory's Pacific Crest Jazz Orchestra is rehearsing this week with Esperanza Spalding for a performance Sunday at the Gerding Theater.

"Nothin' but the Blues" will showcase the talents of Hailey Niswanger, Andy Stokes and LaRhonda Steele as well as Esperanza Spalding.

The concert is a benefit performance for Memory's American Music Program, which takes jazz music into schools and supports youth musicians. Memory has been teaching students at King School in Northeast Portland, among others. Thara Memory won a Grammy  this year for his arrangement of City of Roses on Esperanza Spalding's album Radio Music Society.   

"Nothin' but the Blues":  7:30-9:30 p.m., Sunday August 18, at the Gerding Theater, 128 N.W. 11^th Ave.

Advance tickets start at $35 from tickettomato.com