Press Releases

For Immediate Release: 10/28/04 | Click here for PDF version

Harlem Speaks JAZZ SERIES SALUTES FOUR MORE

· Robert O'Meally (November 11)
· Marjorie Eliot (November 18)
· Allan Harris (December 2)
· Bobby Sanabria (December 16)

New York, NY (October 29, 2004) Harlem Speaks, The Jazz Museum in Harlem's successful series honoring those who keep jazz alive in Harlem, resumes on Thursday, November 11, 2004 with a talk featuring literature professor and the director of Columbia University's Center for Jazz Studies, Robert O'Meally. He's author and editor of several books about jazz, including Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday, The Jazz Cadence of American Culture, and most recently, Uptown Conversation: New Jazz Studies.

Professor O'Meally will discuss his life-long love of jazz and Harlem; his scholarship on Ralph Ellison, one of the best writers on jazz of the last century; the Center's recent symposium on the artist Romare Bearden, in collaboration with the Whitney Museum, and more.

The very next Thursday (November 18) finds pianist and impresario Marjorie Eliot in dialogue with Executive Director Loren Schoenberg about her weekly Sugar Hill soirees at 555 Edgecombe Avenue, a legendary residence where band leader Andy Kirk and Ellington alto giant Johnny Hodges lived in decades past. Ms. Elliot, an accomplished actress, began the free series in 1995; every August she coordinates a jazz concert in front of the landmark Morris Jumel mansion.

Singer-guitarist Allan Harris is acclaimed as one of the top male jazz vocalists on the scene today. A Harlem resident of many years, he'll share tales of his life and career on December 2nd. Winner of the 2004 New York Nightlife award for "Outstanding Male Jazz Vocalist," Harris has the privilege of being known as Tony Bennett's "favorite new singer."

Grammy-nominated percussionist, composer and arranger Bobby Sanabria closes out the Jazz Museum in Harlem 2004 season on December 16th. He's graced the stage with luminaries such as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Charles McPherson, and Paquito D'Rivera, and was a key member of the Mario Bauza Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra's soundtrack of the film, The Mambo Kings. Sanabria has entitled his evening's discussion, "East Harlem, birthplace of Afro-Cuban Jazz."

A similar theme was the focus of Spanish Harlem Orchestra leader Oscar Hernandez's talk in early September; two weeks thereafter the CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, Kenneth Knuckles, "told us of his peripatetic career as a lawyer, architect, civil servant, and lover of black music, especially R&B and jazz," recalls co-producer of Harlem Speaks, Greg Thomas. "The last half hour was a phenomenal dialogue about Harlem's future and UMEZ's possible role in it."

Multi-reed man Patience Higgins, gave "a virtual lesson on how to build a successful career as a jazz musician through talent, practice, luck, having mentors the caliber of Frank Wess, and being professional no matter what difficulties arise on the road or at a gig," says Schoenberg. "One of several wise lessons Patience revealed was to comport yourself as if you were the leader on a gig, in terms of attention to detail, even if you're a sideman."

The evening with Educator and bassist extraordinaire Larry Ridley is being rescheduled, and in its place the JMIH had an intergenerational jam session built around the playing of jazz drumming legend Eddie Locke. Mr. Locke also spoke, telling of his participation in the iconic Great Day In Harlem Esquire photo, and led an ensemble that included such young talent as trumpeters Jumaane Smith and Mike Rodriguez, the Barber Brothers (saxophonist Rahsaan and trombonist Roland) and bassist Ivan Taylor. Loren Schoenberg rounded out the ensemble on tenor saxophone.

The series, co-produced by the Jazz Museum in Harlem and Greg Thomas Associates, will be held 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 on November 11, 2004, continues the following week, and resumes its bi-weekly schedule on December 2nd and 16th.