Help the people of Nepal while hearing great piano jazz from Palladium favorite Kym Purling tonight

Kym Purling, the popular pianist who once called our town home, is coming back to help raise money for the earthquake-ravaged country of Nepal.

 

Until he left for the west coast and gigs that have taken him around the world, Purling was one of our Side Door stars. He’ll be performing with Alejandro Arenas on bass and Mark Feinman on drums tonight at 7:30. You can purchase tickets at the door tonight.

 

We’re partnering with Rob Rowen on this benefit concert. Rob has been supporting grass-roots food programs for students in Nepal for years. All proceeds received by this Global Action Coalition and all donations made tonight, will go directly to the relief effort.

 

Here’s an excerpt about the benefit that appeared in Tuesday’s Tampa Bay Times:

 

The Global Action Coalition, a nonprofit organization in Tampa, also is raising money to help Nepal. The group so far has sent $6,000 for emergency relief and is hosting a jazz concert to raise more to help the districts closest to the epicenter of the earthquake.

 

Coalition co-founder and president Rob Rowen said the group has been funding educational programs in Nepal since 2009. Since the earthquake, the organization and its partners in Nepal have been raising money to send to the small mountain villages in the Gorkha district.

 

“These small villages live year to year,” Rowen said. “I’m worried about these people; they have no homes.”

 

The jazz concert is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg. Tickets are $25 and $30, and all proceeds will go directly to Nepal relief, including tents, water, food, medicine and health care.

 

The coalition is working with three groups in Nepal to lend aid to small villages like Barpak, where all but four of its 1,200 homes were destroyed.

 

“It’s going to take a long time to put Nepal back together,” Rowen said.