Tributes in residency

It's a day for acknowledgements.

We're honoring the legacies of legends whose contributions can't be quantified. Such is the case with Ramsey Lewis, who is being honored on June 3rd at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke. Genuine Culture, LLC has gathered a group of jazz players and MCs to walk through his catalog to give a glimpse of the breadth of his influence across many genres. We speak with Damany Gordon about about the many innovations and connections Lewis made over the course of his life.

We're honoring icons we recently lost by renaming the wine thunderdome for it's namesake. And under it's new heading, we head for Table and Vine in West Springfield to sip with Michael Quinlan. It's our third straight week of firsts, as we try two wines of the same type from the same vineyard and truly see the variety that terroir can bring.

And we're honoring fortitude and virtuosity as well. Jeffrey Foucault starts his residency at Floodwater Brewing tonight, performing for the next three Fridays, but he's also playing in the Berkshires over the weekend at the Egremont Barn. Both he and his drummer for the night, Don McAulay were a part of Sparkletown: a tribute to Kate Lorenz a few weekends back at The Shea Theater, so in addition to hearing music from his catalog, we reminisce with the two of them about loss in the musical community near and far.