Acts 4 Ministry's Inspiration Fundraiser Features Blues Hall Of Fame Guitarist, Chris Vitarello

The Jeremey Baum Trio-JB3 blues and funky, soul-jazz band featuring gifted guitarist and Blues Hall of Fame® legend Chris Vitarello will be the entertainers at the non-denominational, non-profit Acts 4 Ministry’s annual fundraising reception, “Inspiration: Inspiring acts of love”. Tickets are now on sale for the fundraiser that will be held Wednesday, May 10 from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the Lower Orchestra Lobby of the Palace Theater in Waterbury.

“This event is an annual celebration of the many ways our organization impacts positive changes in the greater Waterbury community. We support the daily needs of families and individuals who are in dire financial distress because they have lost virtually everything they possess to a fire, flood, or other devastating life events,” explained the Waterbury-based charitable organization’s executive director, Sarah Elizabeth Carabetta.

Famed guitarist Chris Vitarello is a full-time member of the Jeremy Baum Trio, the Bruce Katz Band and the Chris O’Leary Band. When not on tour, he is Worship Leader at Walnut Hill Community Church leading Sunday morning worship for hundreds of congregants at campuses in Waterbury, New Milford, Seymour and Bethel, Connecticut.

Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame’s on November 14, 2013, at the Hudson, New York chapter venue, Vitarello was also a nominee and performer at the 32nd Blues Music Awards. During the past 20 years, he has been a band member, and recorded or shared the stage with the legendary Jimmy McGriff, Bruce Katz, Butch Trucks and the Freight Train Band, Jerry Jemmott, Tad Robinson, the Chris O’Leary Band, Dennis Gruenling, Roxy Perry, Jeremy Baum, Joel Frahm, and Bernard Purdie to name a few. He has appeared on 30 plus albums and continues to perform nationally and internationally.

Jeremy Baum, organ player and his trio are rooted in the blues and funky soul-jazz sounds of the late 1960s including the music of Booker T. and the MG’s, The Meters, Jimmy Smith. His style is also influenced by the current masters of the jam-band scene including Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Soul-Live, Derek Trucks Band. Baum has been playing festivals and jazz clubs in the New England region since the release of his first album. The JB3 Band was also featured on Boogaloo to McDuff, a tribute to Jack McDuff. A native New Yorker, Baum studied jazz at the SUNY New Paltz and while there joined Murali Coryell’s band (son of jazz guitarist Larry Coryell.) In 1998, after playing professionally at clubs and opening for many big-name artists, Baum earned his Master’s degree in fine arts and studied with organist Larry Goldings. He began leading his own organ trio and in 2002 released his first self- produced album Lost River Jams on Flying Yak Records.

Drummer Chris Reddan has toured with legends of blues and rock since age 17 having met Popa Chubby and being mentored at age 14 by the late blues master, Bill Perry. At 18 he was touring Europe, the United States, Canada, and Africa with Popa Chubby’s band which included a double bill with Johnny Winter. Reddan has performed at such prestigious festivals as the Nice Jazz Festival, Bos Pop Festival, San Sebastian Jazz Festival, San Javier Jazz Festival, Blues on the Farm, Memphis in May, Santa Cruz Blues Festival and Ulmer Zelt Festival, and appeared alongside such legends as the Allman Brothers, Sting, Gov’t Mule, Steve Vai, Blood Sweat and Tears, Simply Red, Ten Years After, and many others. He has also toured, recorded and/or gigged with Lance Lopez, Jimmy Vivino, Little Sammy Davis, Michael Hill’s Blues Mob, Rhett Tyler, Billy Hector, Galea, Slam Allen, Arthur Neilson, Big Ed Sullivan and Nicholas D’Amato, and appeared on major television and radio shows, and in magazine articles.

Sponsors to date of Acts 4 Ministry’s 2017 “Inspiration” fundraiser include top-level Inspirational Sponsors are Tomasso Group TBI Construction and Bourassa Catering and Events. Carabetta stated that Thomaston Savings Bank, the David & Eunice Bigelow Foundation, and Jim & Jackie Zoldy are motivational sponsors at the $1,500 level, while Jim and Cathy Smith, and O’Rourke and Birch Florist, Inc. are influential sponsors at the $1,000 level. Beneficial sponsors at the $500 level include Branagan Communications Consultants LLC., Halsey Associates, a subsidiary of The Washington Trust Company, and Freedom Enterprise Holdings, LLC. A friend sponsor at the $250 level is DaVita®.

“Acts 4 Ministry is not a church,” explained Carabetta. “We are a collaborative group of a volunteer board of directors, staff members and a multitude of volunteers who desire to share God’s love by meeting the physical needs of others. We achieve this goal daily on many levels by collecting and distributing, free-of-charge to recipients, clothing, and housewares with an accommodating furniture program through volunteerism. Each year we distribute clothing to nearly 4,000 people, and over 1,000 pieces of furniture and housewares to people of varying income levels throughout the Greater Waterbury area.”

Tickets for the May 10th “Inspiration” fundraiser are $45/ person and can be secured by clicking “Click to Give” at top right corner of www.Acts4.org home page, or clicking “Purchase Tickets” under the “Inspiration” event on the Events page.

Tickets can also be purchased by check or money order made payable to Acts 4 Ministry, Inc. and U.S. Mailed to PO Box 4524, Waterbury, CT 06704. Tickets can also be purchased at Acts 4 Ministry’s building and retail shop at 1713 Thomaston Avenue Mondays through Friday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and select Saturdays, or by calling 203-574-2287, or via www.palacetheaterct.org.

Tax-deductible donations can be brought to Acts 4 Ministry’s facility Mondays through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. and select Saturdays. Cash or money order donations can be U.S. Mailed to P.O. Box 4524, Waterbury, CT 06704. To donate online with a credit card, visit www.acts4.org and go to “Click to Give” in the top right corner of the home page.

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Submitted by Southbury, CT

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