Entertainment icon/activist Spike Lee is too busy creating in Italy, so Bill Cosby December 8th hosts his multi-media affair at Washington, D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The curtain goes up for "The Movie Music of Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard" 8pm this Saturday at the prestigious capitol city venue. Scene shaping accompaniments from film director Spike Lee's hip hop influenced, yet highly respected, films will be performed by long time collaborator, Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, and Raul Midón, and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.

Recent hip hop critic/pioneer actor and Kennedy Center Honoree Bill Cosby will preside over a highly audio-visual show, which has already engaged London, New York, Chicago, and L.A. The Kennedy Center's Silver Spring, MD neighbor, The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, Friday gets things started with a Terence Blanchard film music showcase/meet and greet at 7pm.

The composer will present two films he has scored, Spike Lee's ‘Inside Man' and ‘Talk to Me' starring Academy Award winner Don Cheadle. Saturday's Kennedy Center set features performances of songs from ‘Clockers,' ‘Malcolm X,' ‘Jungle Fever,' ‘Inside Man,' and Lee's hard hitting HBO documentary, ‘When the Levees Broke,' about Hurricane Katrina's impact.

The planned program list is as follows:

PROGRAM :

Bamboozled :

Main Theme - Terence Blanchard Quintet and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
"Shadowlands" - Dee Dee Bridgewater, Terence Blanchard Quintet, and Kennedy Center
Opera House Orchestra

Inside Man :

"Hostage Breakdown" - Terence Blanchard Quintet and Kennedy Center Opera House
Orchestra

Clockers :

"People in Search of a Life" - Kurt Elling and Terence Blanchard Quintet
"Strike Packs Up" - Terence Blanchard Quintet and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

Malcolm X :

Opening Credits - Terence Blanchard Quintet and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
Eulogy (video w/sound) - Terence Blanchard Quintet
"A Change Is Gonna Come" - Raul Midón and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

Jungle Fever :

"These Three Words" - Raul Midón and Terence Blanchard Quintet
"Make Sure You're Sure" - Dee Dee Bridgewater and Terence Blanchard Quintet

25th Hour :

Open Title - Terence Blanchard Quintet and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
One Last Walk - Terence Blanchard Quintet and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

Mo' Better Blues :

"Mo' Better Blues" - Terence Blanchard Quintet
"Pop Top 40" - Kurt Elling and Terence Blanchard Quintet

When the Levees Broke :

"Funeral Dirge" - Terence Blanchard Quintet and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
"Levees" - Terence Blanchard Quintet and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
"The Ghost of Congo Square" -Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, Raul Midón, Terence
Blanchard Quintet, and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra