Harlem Speaks
By Larry Blumenfeld
From JAZZIZ

Earlier this year, while writing about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's passion for jazz, I rode in a town car with him through Harlem. He pointed out the sites of leg- endary, now-defunct nightspots, such as Minton's Playhouse and Smalls' Paradise, markers of Harlem's significance to jazz cul- ture. As we rode through the neighborhood, he recalled a 1964 summer program for high school students, a beacon of promise for area youngsters, in which he'd participated.

These days, Harlem is experiencing a resurgence. Minton's has reopened. And on East 126th Street, the Jazz Museum in Harlem continues to bloom. In its still-nascent state, the museum amplifies Abdul-Jabbar's points: It highlights Harlem's storied past as a creative epicenter; and it focuses on empowering educational op- portunities for local students.

On many Thursday nights, musicians and fans fill the museum's second-floor office suite to catch "Harlem Speaks," an ongoing series of conversations with, and performances by, notable local musicians and cultural figures. One recent Thursday found cornetist and singer Olu Dara sharing his experiences and music. On atypical Tuesday night, saxophonist Tia Fuller instructs the Harmony in Harlem Youth Ensemble. And throughout the past year, students at Thurgood Marshall Academy earned credits in a program that offered firsthand exchanges with musicians includ- ing trumpeter Joe Wilder.

But these activities merely hint at the museum's ambitious plans, which have gained momentum ever since Loren Schoenberg signed on as executive director in 2002. Schoenberg, a seasoned musician and bandleader who worked for many years in Benny Goodman's orchestra, is also a dis- tinguished historian, educator, and author. "There's a golf museum, a bowling museum," Schoenberg said when I visited his office, "but there's no jazz museum in this country. That's a bit shocking to many people."

The idea for the museum sprang up in the summer of 1995, during a conversation between Leonard Garment, a lawyer and politician who started his career as a jazz saxophonist; David Levy, president of the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.; and Art D'Lugoff, impresario of Greenwich Village's famed Village Gate jazz club. With the help of a grant from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and Abraham Sofaer, a former federal judge and jazz fan (now chairman of the museum's board), the project moved slowly along. A $1 million Congressional appropriation in 2000 kick- started the planning process, and enabled the enlistment of designer Ralph Appelbaum, whose celebrated work includes the Holocaust museum and the Clinton Library.

Appelbaum's innovative design may end up part of the planned redevelopment of Harlem's Victoria Theater, just down i25th Street from the Apollo Theater. Schoenberg and his board are also re- searching other area venues, including some brownstones. The museum will have an archival component, to include Willis Conover's Voice of America collection, for which Garment is executor. But it won't be a place where you'll recount history through artifacts. "It will be built on his- tory," Schoenberg explained, "but it will focus on tomorrow. Live music will be an important fixture of the institution, as will interactive exhibits that offer the feeling of jazz creation."

Bassist Christian McBride, who joined the museum last year as co-director, stressed over the phone that this will not be a museum in the crusty sense, focused solely on a "Golden Age." "Subconsciously," he said, "people have a tendency to think, 'Okay, I gather that jazz is already dead or that most of the guys playing today won't be as great as those who went before.' Well, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis were giants, but I think Roy Hargrove is important too. Our museum will reflect that atti- tude." McBride envisions a museum rooted in Harlem's 20th-century jazz tradition but wired to the best of 21st-century technol- ogy. He spoke excitedly of one proposed exhibit that would bring alive the big-band experience by placing visitors inside a virtual band.

Schoenberg intends the museum to be inclusive, in a way that transcends political correctness - in concept. "Let's look at the museum as a crossword puzzle, with jazz as the central clue that extends across the puzzle."

And McBride wants to reach out to cultural figures from all walks of music and American life - art, theater, even sports. So, once the new venue is secured and exhibits in place, don't be surprised to find not just musicians like Hargrove, but also jazz folks like Kareem.

Larry Blumenfeld is editor-at-large of JAZZIZ. For more on The Jazz Museum of Harlem check www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org.