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Press Releases For Immediate Release: 10/28/05 | Click here for PDF version Harlem Speaks Features Two NEA Jazz Masters and Harlem Legends ·
John Levy, November 10, 2005 New York, NY - “We should honor the living legends of jazz while they are with us,” says Loren Schoenberg, Executive Director of the Jazz Museum in Harlem. “Our Harlem Speaks conversation series, now in its second year, does just that. We are very proud that two NEA Masters—John Levy and Clark Terry—will be featured among the next round of conversations along with legendary Harlemites vocalist and bassist Carline Ray, and the ‘Prince’ of Harlem, saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood.” On November 10, 2005 the Jazz Museum in Harlem welcomes bassist and a ground-breaking manager of jazz artists John Levy to its offices for a talk about his career as a musician as well as the business side of the industry. He will be inducted as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in January 2006. Levy will receive the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy. He began his jazz career as a bassist. In 1944, he moved to Harlem, leaving Chicago with the Stuff Smith Trio to play an extended engagement at the Onyx Club on New York City’s 52nd Street. Subsequently, he was to play with many jazz notables, including Ben Webster, Buddy Rich, Errol Garner, and Milt Jackson (also a Jazz Master), as well as with Billie Holiday at her comeback performance at Carnegie Hall in 1948. In 1949, George Shearing heard Levy play at Birdland with Buddy Rich’s big band and hired him for his own group, which featured Buddy DeFranco (another 2006 Jazz Master Fellow). As Levy toured the country playing with the original George Shearing Quintet, he gradually took on the role of road manager. Levy put aside performing in 1951 to become the group’s full-time manager, making music-industry history and establishing the career he would follow for the rest of his life. The impressive roster of artists he has managed include more than 85 singers and musicians, a “Who’s Who” of jazz luminaries, eight of whom are already NEA Jazz Masters: Betty Carter, Herbie Hancock, Shirley Horn, Ahmad Jamal, Abbey Lincoln, Billy Taylor, Joe Williams, and Nancy Wilson, and one more, Freddie Hubbard, who will join the ranks with him in 2006. Other notable clients from the Levy roster throughout the years include: Cannonball Adderley, Brook Benton, Roberta Flack, Johnny Hartman, Etta Jones, Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, Wes Montgomery, Dianne Reeves, George Shearing, Dakota Staton, and many others. One week later, on November 17, 2005, Carline Ray, a native New Yorker and graduate of Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music, will be the Harlem Speaks guest. She has been a member of Local 802 since 1945. As a concert chorister, she has performed with Leonard Bernstein and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. As a bassist, her many jazz credits include the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Mary Lou Williams and Doc Cheatham. As an educator, Ms. Ray has taught at Medgar Evers, William Paterson and Hunter colleges, the Jazzmobile Workshop and, presently, the New School. She has served on the Ethnic Minorities and Jazz Advisory committees and the Trial Board for nine years. Duke Ellington once said that 2004 NEA Jazz Master Clark Terry was “beyond category.” He’s a sui generis trumpet king who’s the Jazz Museum in Harlem’s special guest on December 1, 2005. With a long career including many years with the orchestras of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones’s big band, his own illustrious small and large ensembles, plus jazz education, Terry will have much to share with executive director Loren Schoenberg and audience, which will hopefully include you, so call early and make your reservation: 212 348-8300. The December 15th guest, Lonnie Youngblood, was born in Augusta, GA, on August 3, 1941, and 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 first solo recording, "Heartbreak," became a regional hit. 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. On October 20, 2005 Congressman Charlie Rangel told many tales of his youth in Harlem, and how jazz intersected with his life as well as the community’s, at his alma mater, Frederick Douglass Academy. Childhood friend Arthur Barnes, jazz benefactor and senior vice president for External Affairs and Corporate Contributions at HIP Health Plans, and previous Harlem Speaks honoree and museum board member Dr. Billy Taylor joined Loren Schoenberg and co-executive director Christian McBride onstage to converse with Mr. Rangel. Dancing in the aisles commenced when Schoenberg (tenor sax), McBride (bass) and Savoy ballroom drummer Lester Jenkins played “Flying Home” to close the evening. This historic night was captured via photographs and video for the archives of the Jazz Museum in Harlem. To view the photo archives of Harlem Speaks go to: http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/photos36.html. About NEA Jazz Masters: From 1982 through 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has designated eighty-seven great figures in American music as NEA Jazz Masters, based on nominations submitted by the public. Newly named NEA Jazz Masters are honored at an awards ceremony and concert and are provided with a one-time fellowship of $25,000. The Harlem Speaks series is co-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 twice a month on Thursdays. The series is free to the public. Please call for reservations: (212) 348-8300. |
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