The City of Sunrise and KCC Productions present Red, Hot, and Blue Songs of the 30’s and 40’s 8/31/12
The City of Sunrise and KCC Productions present "Red, Hot, and Blue: Songs of the 30’s and 40’s" starring Wendy Pedersen and Lisanne Lyons 
August 31 at 8 pm.
Sunrise Civic Center Theater
10610 West Oakland Park Boulevard
(954) 747-4646. Tickets $17; $15 for students, $10 for children.
Go back to the ‘40s with KCC Productions’ swinging ensemble, “Red, Hot and Blue,†featuring singing sensations Wendy Pedersen and Lisanne Lyons. These fabulous ladies will be accompanied by a quartet of musicians led by Jim Gaisor on piano, Rick Harris on trumpet and vocals, and Josh Allen on bass. Hear favorites like “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,†“Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,†and more!
Wendy Pedersen is one of South Florida’s favorite performers. Her high-energy vocal delivery, with deep, convincing emotion has been impacting audiences for many years. Wendy has won many awards including the Southern Bell/Pace “Jazz Artist of the Year†and a Miami New Times “best vocalistâ€, saying, “Wendy can shake the rafters or break your heart…†Wendy Pedersen’s discography includes her debut CD, “Me + Threeâ€; a Holiday CD, “Ho Ho Hoâ€; and her brand new release, “Under The Influenceâ€, a tribute to the many women who inspired and influenced her. Both Wendy and Lisanne also sing with an exciting new jazz vocal quartet, Mad Romance, also featuring Rick Harris and Greg Diaz.
Lisanne Lyons teaches Studio Music and Jazz at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. She has been featured with the Woody Herman Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson, Arturo Sandoval, Roanoke Symphony, Palm Beach Pops, XL Big Band in Sweden, Nantes Big Band, Los Alas Studio Orchestra, and various bands and orchestras across the country. She has produced two solo CD’s and two CD’s as lead soprano in the DC-based Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet, with whom she performed at major jazz festivals across the country and abroad. With numerous performing, recording, and back up singing credits, she was also the featured performer with Joel Grey on the NBC Orange Bowl half-time show. Lisanne is the recipient of several DownBeat awards as a jazz vocal soloist, jazz vocal choir director, and most recently as a jazz arranger. She was the first to perform live the Nelson Riddle arrangements of the George Gershwin Songbook that he wrote for Ella Fitzgerald, who only recorded them.
When the words “pastry” and “Miami” come together, the first thought that usually comes to mind for locals and tourists, alike, is Cuban pastry – those little geometric shapes of crispy, lardy, flakiness most famously filled with guava paste and/or cream cheese.  Cuban culture and cuisine have come to be almost synonymous with Miami culture, and apart from the plethora of Cuban bakeries on almost every corner in western Miami, practically every supermarket in South Florida carries pastelitos and croqueticas.  However, after having moved to North Miami Beach and then bouncing around different neighborhoods in the northeastern part of Dade County, I discovered that Cuban pastries are not as prevalent in this part of the Magic City as they might be in Hialeah, Little Havana, Kendall, or Coral Gables.  Whereas Español might be the language of choice in those neighborhoods, Kreyòl is the lingua franca in places like North Miami, North Miami Beach, Miami Shores, and Little Haiti where it’s easier to find a place to grab a box of griot (spicy fried pork chunks) and a Choucoune (champagne cola)  than it is to find a Cuban sandwich and a cafecito.  Haitian culture is very prominent in northeastern Miami, which means that Spanglish phrases widely accepted in other parts of the city are usually met with blank stares (I learned this the hard way), and the chances of finding a fresh guava and cheese pastry can be slim to none.
Discovering Haitian cuisine is a gastronomic revelation for any true foodie.  While the cuisine is unpretentious and simple, the flavors are bold and spicy, oftentimes quite unique, and demonstrate a very African culinary aesthetic paired with a very French sophistication.  One area in which this cross-cultural fusion of techniques and palates can be experienced almost perfectly is in a Haitian patty, which is an anglicization of the Creole word “pate” (pronounced pah-tey) derived from the French word “patisserie”, which simply means pastry.  In form, it more closely resembles a Cuban pastelito than a Jamaican patty.  Like Cuban pastries, Haitian patties consist of delicate, flakey puff pastry surrounding some sort of filling, but the similarities end there.  The main difference between the two pastries is that while Cuban pastries are best known for their sweet fillings, Haitian patties are almost exclusively savory, and even when comparing  savory pastries from both cuisines, Haitian patties are noticeably spicier and have bolder flavors.  The most typical fillings are ground beef, ground chicken, salted cod (bacalao), smoked herring, and ground turkey.  There is also a difference in the crusts between Cuban pastries and Haitian patties.  While Cuban pastries place value on crispiness and have more brittle crusts that are glazed to complement the usually sweet fillings, Haitian patties go unglazed and place emphasis on producing as many impossibly delicate layers as possible.  Like most pastries, Haitian patties are best when they are fresh out of the oven in the morning, making them an ideal choice for a breakfast on the go, especially if you’re one who prefers something savory for breakfast over something sweet.  There are two main shapes to take into account with Haitian patties that usually denote the two most popular fillings: beef patties (and sometimes chicken) are square while cod patties (and sometimes herring) are triangular.
