|
|||||||||||
| 104 E. 126th Street • Suite 2D • New York, NY 10035 | |||||||||||
|
News :: Press Releases For Immediate release: September 12, 2006 · Lester Jenkins, Drummer September 14, 2006 · Arlene Talley, Vocalist October 26, 2006 On September 14th, drummer Lester Jenkins will discuss highlights of his musical career and give a demonstration of the history of drums, which he says are a “sacred instrument.” Early on as a student of drumming, he used to sit at Papa Jo Jones’s drum set when the Count Basie Orchestra rehearsed at the Woodside Hotel, around the corner from his Harlem residence. In addition to performing for several years in Cootie Williams’s house band at the Savoy Ballroom in the ’50s, Jenkins played with Eartha Kitt at the Apollo Theater; Buddy Tate at the Celebrity Club; Morris Lane at the Baby Grand, with Nipsey Russell as Master of Ceremonies; Big Nick Nicholas at the Paradise Club; Harold Ousley in the Virgin Islands as well as gigs with Ben Webster, Lionel Hampton and other lights in the pantheon of jazz. He was the featured drummer in the trio of organist “Fabulous” Preston Brown, and regularly worked with Harlem-based organist Ross Carnegie at the Riverboat club at the Empire State building. He’s also given workshops at Carnegie’s Harlem studio. In the 60s he gave lessons at his own drum studio on 148th and Broadway, after which the careers of George Wheeler and his nephew Henry Jenkins were launched. Born in Augusta, GA, on August 3, 1941, Lonnie Youngblood took up the saxophone after hearing his mother's favorite artist, Louis Jordan. He backed singer Pearl Reeves in 1959 for his first professional gig. His very first solo recording, "Heartbreak," became a regional hit. Youngblood served in the Army for a short time, and returned to Harlem in 1963, where he took over leadership of Curtis Knight’s R&B band. The outfit included a talented young guitarist named Jimi Hendrix. For over 20 years, Youngblood has been playing his mix of jazz, R&B and soul, and even gospel at Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem on Saturday afternoons. Don’t miss this charismatic artist on September 28, 2006. Don’t miss one of the best bassists in jazz on October 12th. Born in Camden, NJ in 1942, Buster Williams learned to play bass from his father, Charles Anthony “Cholly” Williams. “He would prepare my lessons for me . . . It was an unwritten law that I had to play it right. I was going to be the best. I had no choice.” He has played, recorded and collaborated with jazz giants such as Art Blakey, Betty Carter, Carmen McRae, Chet Baker, Chick Corea, Lee Konitz, Nancy Wilson, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, the Jazz Crusaders, Sarah Vaughan, Mary Lou Williams, Hank Jones, Lee Morgan, Jimmy Rowles, Cedar Walton, Billy Taylor, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Errol Garner, Kenny Barron, Charlie Rouse, Dakota Staton, and Freddie Hubbard, to name only a few. Vocalist Arlene Talley, a regular performer at Harlem’s St. Nick’s Pub on Saturdays, is the guest of Harlem Speaks on October 26th. She’s been singing since the age of 2, and has performed with Illinois Jacquet, Art Blakey, Max Roach, among many others, including the Isley Brothers at the RKO Palace. She has taken her Harlem style to California, Atlantic City, Virginia, and all over the country. ___________________________________________________________________ Master drummer Charli Persip’s earthy humor and tales of recordings and live dates with master leaders of jazz over the past 50 years delighted the audience of admirers and well-wishers in the offices of the Jazz Museum in Harlem on August 24, 2006. His commented on his unique art of big band drumming, in which he plays with power along with the looseness usually heard in small ensemble drumming since the bebop era. Born in Morristown, New Jersey to Francis R. Persip (of Portuguese and Pequot Indian heritage) and Doris Mary, he began playing a tin drum at 3 years old, and progressed to a parade drum, with which he won “a church talent show at the age of 7 or 8.” He began taking drum lessons, joined a marching band as a high school junior, and the stage band in his senior year. After attending the Hartt School of Music in New Jersey for two years, Persip began his professional career with R&B bands; his first jazz gig came with Dizzy Gillespie. During this period Kenny Clarke took him under his wings, and drove around Harlem, “instructing me on the pitfalls of the music business and New York. Clarke also urged him to marry the woman who has been his wife for 50 years. Persip’s verbal acknowledgement of his love for his wife moved all with its glow of romanticism. Shadow Wilson was his early major influence. He loved Wilson’s loose rhythms on cymbals and his rhythmic accents on the bass drum. He recalled seeing Philly Joe Jones at the Café Bohemia with Miles Davis, and his playing of a brush solo so stunning that the noisy crowd shut up: “Man, you could hear a mouse piss on cotton,” he said. He also recalled a magical moment when Ben Webster brought a clamorous Jazz Sunday audience to rapt attention within the first four breathy bars of “You Are Too Beautiful.” He gave insights into the mastery of virtually every major jazz drummer, and told anecdotes about Billy Eckstine, Art Tatum, Elvin Jones, Charlie Parker and Papa Jo Jones, whom he remembered wiping out Max Roach, Roy Haynes, and Art Blakey and himself with just a hi hat and brushes at a tribute to Gene Krupa. Kenny Washington and previous Harlem Speaks guest Rudy Lawless were in attendance, and Washington told all that “Persip was one of the black drummers that dispelled the idea that black drummers can’t read music.” Among the lasting insights shared by Persip was the importance of using your imagination to the fullest and that listening is an art, not only as a drum accompanist but in life itself. And when dealing with an unruly audience, don’t be belligerent, just “let your artistry quiet them down.” ___________________________________________________________________ The Harlem Speaks series, supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced by the Jazz Museum in Harlem's Executive Director, Loren Schoenberg, Co-Director Christian McBride, and Greg Thomas Associates. The series occurs at the offices of the Jazz Museum in Harlem, located at 104 East 126th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues, from 6:30pm-8:00pm.
|
||||||||||
