WPFW 50th Year Benefit: Brandon Woody and “Purple Velvet Planet”Film Screening

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WPFW celebrates its upcoming 50-year anniversary with a benefit concert and film. The afternoon will start with a screening of “Purple Velvet Planet,” directed by WPFW’s Cody Valentine, also known as DJ Cody V. Later in the evening, trumpeter Brandon Woody will perform in a jazz concert. Woody and his band Upendo have been regulars in the D.C.-Baltimore jazz scenes for the last decade . Until now, the band has been best known locally for their electrifying live performances. But they’re taking their D.C-Baltimore sound global with their Blue Note debut, For the Love it All. T he group takes what Woody calls the “simple, honest, melody” to the heights of their possibility. Woody’s playing itself pushes out a kaleidoscope of colors from the Black American Music spectrum: there’s a triumphal, Gabriel-tooting gospel uplift merged with the softer sounds of R&B, as well as a heavy dose of strong traditional jazz a la Freddie Hubbard and the like.