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104 E. 126th Street • Suite 2D • New York, NY 10035
(212) 348-8300
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New Artists You Should Know About: Grace Kelley
JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
Friday, August 1
7:00 pm
The Steve Wilson Quartet
HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
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August Events
MCNY SUMMER FILM SHOWS
Sunday,
August 3
2:00pm
Harlem Rent Party: Jazz Film Series
Monday,
August 4:
6:00pm
Albert Murray
JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
Tuesdays in August
(August 5, 12, 19, 26)
7:00pm
A Celebration of Dr. Billy Taylor
Thursday, August 7
6:30 pm
Dick Katz, pianist
Thursday, August 28
6:30 pm
Eddie Bert, trombonist
Friday, August 1
7:00 pm
The Steve Wilson Quartet
Friday, August 8
7:00 pm
Michael Wolff Trio
Friday, August 15
7:00 pm
Theo Crocker Quartet, w/ Benny Powell and Winard Harper
Friday, August 22
7:00 pm
Sip Plus Two
Friday, August 29
7:00 pm
Theo Crocker Quartet, w/ Marcus Belgrave
JAZZ IN THE PARKS
Saturday, August 23rd
2:00pm
Harlem Dance
Location: Jackie Robinson Park
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The National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s August Schedule
Harlem in the Himalayas: Performances
by Steve Wilson, Michael Wolff, Benny Powell, Winard Harper, Charlie Persip, Marcus Belgrave and Theo Croker
Harlem Speaks: Dick Katz and Eddie Bert
Jazz for Curious Listeners: Celebration of Dr. Billy Taylor
Jazz for Curious Readers: Tribute to Albert Murray
Summer
Film Show: The Harlem Rent Party tradition
Jazz in
the Parks: Christian McBride leads the National Jazz Museum in Harlem All-Star
Big Band
Mark your
calendars for a month of exciting jazz performance, film, conversation and
exploration provided by the National Jazz Museum
in Harlem in August 2008
But first,
don’t miss our last July event, featuring an incredible young saxophonist,
Grace Kelley. When you start to hear about her throughout the jazz and music
community and industry, remember that you heard it here first.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Jazz for Curious Listeners
New Artists You Should Know About: Grace Kelly
7:00 – 8:30pm
Location: NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | register online
Instructor: Loren Schoenberg
Grace
Kelly is a saxophonist, singer songwriter, composer/arranger from Brookline, Massachusetts.
Having studied saxophone since the age of ten, she is rapidly making her way up
in the jazz music world. Grace’s talents far outstrip others her age. Now just
sixteen, Grace has already recorded and/or performed with many notable
musicians: Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Dave Brubeck, Frank Morgan, Kenny Barron,
Cedar Walton, Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jerry
Bergonzi, Terri Lyne Carrington, Diane Reeves, Chris Potter, Adam Rogers,
Christian Scott, Billy Hart, George Cables, Winard Harper, Russell Malone,
Rufus Reid, Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland and James Cotton, among others.
Grace has performed in many notable venues in the U.S. and Europe such as
Carnegie Hall, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club Cocoa Cola, Scullers Jazz Club, Regatta
Bar, Dakota Jazz Club, Kennedy Center, Tanglewood Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz
Festival, Blues Alley, Newport Blues Café, Boston Symphony Hall, Jazz Standard,
Pabst Theater, 50th Grammy Awards (After party), Jazz Bakery, (LA) Lionel
Hampton Jazz Festival, Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, (Kennedy Center). Grace
has performed as far away as Tromso, Norway, and Seoul, Korea.
Grace appeared as special guest artist for two nights with Keith Lockhart and
the Boston Pops 2007 Jazz Series. One of the selections Grace performed was her
award winning composition “Every Road I Walked” which she also arranged for the
entire Pops orchestra. It was her first arrangement for an orchestra and
strings. Grace also performed with Diane Reeves and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Grace
is also an award winning recording artist, with five CD’s as a leader.
“Dreaming” (2005), “Times Too” (2005), and “Every Road I Walked” (2006) with
two more releases as a leader scheduled for 2008: “GracefulLee” with Lee
Konitz, Rufus Reid, Matt Wilson and Russell Malone and “Mood Changes,” with Doug
Johnson, John Lockwood, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jason Palmer, with special
guests Adam Rogers and Hal Crook. Grace is the recipient of the ASCAP
Foundation 2008 Young Jazz Composers Award for the composition “101.”
Friday, August 1,
2008
HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
7:00pm
The Steve Wilson Quartet
Location:
Rubin Museum of Art
(150 West
17th Street)
$18 in advance | $20 at door |
Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
Steve Wilson, saxophone
Steve
Wilson has earned a prominent position on the bandstand and in the
studio with the greatest names in jazz, as well as critical acclaim as a
bandleader in his own right. A musician's musician, Wilson has brought his
distinctive sound to more than 100 recordings led by such celebrated and
wide-ranging artists as Chick Corea, George Duke, Michael Brecker, Dave
Holland, Dianne Reeves, Bill Bruford, Gerald Wilson, Maria Schneider, Joe
Henderson, Charlie Byrd, Billy Childs, Karrin Allyson, Don Byron, Bill Stewart,
James Williams, and Mulgrew Miller among many others. Wilson has seven recordings under his own
name, leading and collaborating with such stellar musicians as Lewis Nash, Carl
Allen, Steve Nelson, Cyrus Chestnut, Greg Hutchinson, Dennis Irwin, James
Genus, Larry Grenadier, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley, and Nicholas Payton.
A native
of Hampton, Virginia, Wilson began his formal training
at age 12. Playing saxophone, oboe, and drums in school bands, he also played
in various R&B and funk bands throughout his teens, and went on to a
year-long stint with singer Stephanie Mills. He then decided to major in music
at Virginia Commonwealth
University in Richmond, affording him opportunities to
perform and/or study with Jimmy and Percy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Jaki Byard,
John Hicks, Frank Foster and Ellis Marsalis. In 1986, he landed a chair with O.T.B
(Out of the Blue), a sextet of promising young players recording on Blue Note
Records. In 1987 he moved to New York and the
following year toured the US
and Europe with Lionel Hampton. Becoming a
first-call choice for veteran and emerging artists alike, Wilson was the
subject of a New York Times profile "A Sideman's Life", highlighting
his work with Ralph Peterson, Jr., Michele Rosewoman, Renee Rosnes, Marvin
"Smitty" Smith, Joanne Brackeen, The American Jazz Orchestra, The
Mingus Big Band, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Leon Parker, and
Buster Williams' Quintet "Something More". In 1996 he joined the
acclaimed Dave Holland Quintet, and from 1998-2001 he was a member of Chick
Corea's Grammy winning sextet "Origin".
Having
been cited by his peers in a New York Times poll as one of the artists most
likely to break out [on his own] as an established leader, Wilson recorded four
CDs (New York Summit, Step Lively, Blues for Marcus and Four For Time) on the
Criss Cross label. He then debuted on Stretch Records with Generations, his
multi-generational quartet with Mulgrew Miller, Ray Drummond and Ben Riley. His
second Stretch release Passages features his working quartet-Bruce Barth, Ed
Howard and Adam Cruz, and special guest Nicholas Payton. Containing nine
original compositions Passages established Wilson as a leader whose vision reveres the
past, creates a soundscape of the present, and reaches toward the future.
Wilson's most recent recording Soulful
Song, was released by MAXJAZZ in June 2003. It features his quartet and special
guests Rene Marie, Carla Cook, Phillip Manuel, James Genus, Billy Kilson, Paul
Bollenback and Wilson
"Chembo" Corniel. The recording, which is the debut of the MAXJAZZ
horn series, issues forth a powerful and provocative performance from these
dynamic and versatile artists. As Wilson
explains, "It's a tribute Black radio, as it was called then, that was
particularly inclusive in its programming and a galvanizing force in the
community. On the same station one could hear R&B, jazz, blues, gospel,
comedy, local news and affairs, and social commentary". In addition to new
original material the program includes songs by Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea,
Abbey Lincoln, Gil Scott Heron, Earth, Wind & Fire, Patrice Rushen, and The
Staple Singers.
Wilson was a featured guest with Dr. Billy Taylor
in his series "Jazz at the Kennedy
Center" which is
broadcast on NPR. He was artistic consultant to Harvey Keitel for the film
"Lulu On The Bridge" as well as being featured on the soundtrack. He
has been Artist-In-Residence at The University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, Hamilton College,
Old Dominion
University, and for the 2002/2003
season with the award winning arts organization CITYFOLK in Dayton, Ohio
which included the performance of a commissioned work. He has been a featured
performer, panelist, and clinician at conferences of the International
Association of Jazz Educators, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and
Chamber Music of America. Wilson was honored
with the Marc Crawford Jazz Educator Award from New York University
in 2001, and the Virginia Jazz Award 2003 Musician of the Year presented by the
Richmond Jazz Society, recognizing his outstanding service in the advancement
of jazz and education in their respective communities. Since 1997 he has been
regularly cited in the Downbeat Magazine Critics and Readers Polls in the
soprano and alto saxophone categories.
Wilson continues to tour with the Steve
Wilson Quartet and Generations. He performs in duo with his long-time friend
and colleague Lewis Nash, in Musical Dialogue with Lewis Nash and Steve Wilson.
He is also a touring member of the Grammy winning Maria Schneider Jazz
Orchestra, The Buster Williams Quartet, and Mulgrew Miller's Wingspan, and is
on the faculty at The Manhattan School of Music, SUNY Purchase, and Columbia University.
Sunday, August 3,
2008
MCNY SUMMER FILM SHOWS
2:00pm
Harlem Rent Party: Jazz Film Series
Location:
Museum of the City of New York
(1220 Fifth
Avenue | get
directions)
FREE with Museum admission! |
More information:
212.534.1672, ext. 3395
Although
they were held to help friends pay their bills, Harlem
rent parties of the early 20th century were filled with music and good times.
Join Loren Schoenberg, Executive Director of the Jazz Museum in Harlem, for a
swinging afternoon of rare film clips featuring the kind of music you would
have heard there — Fats Waller, Louis Jordan, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Lena
Horne, and many others. Presented in conjunction with Harlem Week.
Monday,
August 4, 2008
JAZZ FOR CURIOUS READERS
6:00pm
Albert Murray: Philosopher of the Blues and
Jazz
Location:
NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th
Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | register online
Essayist,
novelist, and cultural critic Albert Murray’s contribution to American
literature has established the value and importance of the "blues idiom as
the basis for approaching life in contemporary times."
Born
in Nokomis, Alabama,
on May 12, 1916, Murray
received his BS from Tuskegee Institute in 1939. He joined the Air Force in
1943 and retired with the rank of major in 1962. During his period in the
service, Murray earned his MA from New York, University (1948) and taught literature and composition
to civilians and soldiers both in the United States and abroad.
The Omni-Americans (1970), Murray’s first book, contains reviews,
essays, and commentaries that engage and challenge the predominant frameworks
within which matters of "race and culture were then being discussed.
Critiquing what he called "the folklore of white supremacy and the fake
lore of black pathology," the book argues that all Americans are
multicolored and that social scientific attempts to explain black life in America are fundamentally
mistaken. His next book, South to a Very Old Place (1971), extends that
argument with a series of memoirs, interviews, and reports that document the
positive, nurturing aspects of the African-American community in the South.
In
1972, Albert Murray was invited to give the Paul Anthony Brick Lectures on
Ethics at the University
of Missouri. These
lecturers were published as The Hero and the Blues (1973). Here Murray develops his
concept of literature in the blues idiom, a theory he eloquently practiced in
the novel Train Whistle Guitar (1974), which won the Lillian Smith Award
for Southern Fiction. The hero of this novel received from his family and
neighbors in the segregated South the cultural equipment necessary for leading
a successful life—a sense of fundamental individual worth combined with
community responsibility akin to the relationship between the improvising jazz
soloist and the supporting band.
In
1976, Murray
turned the concept of the blues idiom back on itself, writing perhaps the best
book ever published on jazz aesthetics, Stomping
the Blues. Murray
collaborated with Court Basie on his autobiography, Good Morning, Blues
(1985), and in 1991 published The Spyglass Tree, the long-awaited sequel
to his first novel. A catalog essay on the paintings of Romare Bearden (Romare
Bearden, Finding the Rhythm, 1991)
extends Murray’s
concepts of improvisation, rhythm, and synthesis even to the realm of the
visual arts.
Greg
Thomas, consultant to the National Jazz Museum
in Harlem, will delve into Murray’s
work and thought with particular focus on the blues and jazz as a philosophical
strategy to swing in spite of existential chaos, tragic human history and the
vicissitudes of modern life. Murray’s
relationship with essayist and novelist Ralph Ellison, author of the celebrated
mid-century novel, Invisible Man,
will also be explored.
Tuesday, August 5,
2008
JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
7:00pm
A Celebration of Dr. Billy
Taylor
Location:
NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | register online
Instructors: Loren Schoenberg and Christian
McBride
National Jazz Museum
in Harlem board member, Dr. Billy Taylor
encompasses that rare combination of creativity, intelligence, vision,
commitment and leadership, qualities that make him one of our most cherished
national treasures.
The
distinguished ambassador of the jazz community to the world-at-large, Dr. Billy
Taylor's recording career spans nearly six decades. He has also composed over
three hundred and fifty songs, including "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel
To Be Free," as well as works for theatre, dance and symphony orchestras.
Playing
the piano professionally since 1944, he got his start with Ben Webster's
Quartet on New York's
famed 52nd Street.
He then served as the house pianist at Birdland, the legendary jazz club where
he performed with such celebrated masters as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie
and Miles Davis. Since the 1950s, Billy Taylor has been leading his own Trio,
as well as performing with the most influential jazz musicians of the twentieth
century.
Dr. Taylor
has not only been an influential musician, but a highly regarded teacher as
well, receiving his Masters and Doctorate in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst and serving as a Duke Ellington
Fellow at Yale University.
He has
also hosted and programmed on radio stations WLIB and WNEW in New York, and an award-winning series for
National Public Radio. In the early 1980s, Taylor became the arts correspondent for CBS
Sunday Morning.
Dr. Billy
Taylor is one of only three jazz musicians appointed to the National Council of
the Arts, and also serves as the Artistic Advisor for Jazz to the Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts, where he has developed one acclaimed concert
series after another, including the Louis Armstrong Legacy series, and the
annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival.
With over
twenty three honorary doctoral degrees, Dr. Billy Taylor is also the recipient
of two Peabody Awards, an Emmy, a Grammy and a host of prestigious and highly
coveted prizes, such as the National Medal of Arts, the Tiffany Award, a
Lifetime achievement Award from Downbeat
Magazine, and, election to the Hall of Fame for the International Association
for Jazz Education.
Now in his
eighties, and officially retired from active touring and recording, he remains
active with his educational activities and a full schedule of speaking
engagements and appearances on radio and television.
Thursday, August 7,
2008
HARLEM SPEAKS
6:30pm
Dick Katz, Pianist
Location:
NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300
Come
meet and hear the story of Dick Katz, a versatile pianist and arranger
responsible for a host of memorable recordings through the years, often as an
important sideman and/or producer. He studied at the Peabody Institute, the
Manhattan School of Music, and Juilliard, in addition to taking piano lessons
from Teddy Wilson. In the 1950s, he picked up priceless experience as a member
of the house rhythm section of the Café Bohemia, with the groups of Ben Webster
and Kenny Dorham, the Oscar Pettiford big band, and later with Carmen McRae.
Katz was part of the popular J.J. Johnson/Kai Winding Quintet (1954-1955) and Orchestra
USA
and participated on Benny Carter's classic Further
Definitions album. He has freelanced throughout much of his career and was
a guiding force behind some of Helen Merrill's finest recordings. Katz, who
played with Roy Eldridge and Lee Konitz starting in the late '60s, co-founded
Milestone Records in 1966 with Orrin Keepnews. In the 1990s, Dick Katz worked
both as a pianist and an arranger with the American Jazz Orchestra and Loren
Schoenberg's big band.
Friday, August 8,
2008
HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
7:00pm
Michael Wolff Trio
Location:
Rubin Museum of Art
(150 West
17th Street)
$18 in advance | $20 at door |
Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
Michael Wolff, piano
Michael Wolff is a genuine hipster — a Manhattan-based family man
and internationally acclaimed pianist-composer-bandleader who returns to his
roots with the release of his eleventh album, jazz, JAZZ, jazz. This soulful,
instrumental collection is everything fans have come to embrace in Wolff’s
virtuoso jazz piano playing.
A baby boomer in his prime, Wolff is renown for his old school jazz
roots, melodically fresh and rhythmically compelling multi-keyboard style, and
ever-expanding media presence. A New Orleans
native whose father taught him blues on piano before he began classical lessons
at age eight, Michael also grew up in Memphis
and Berkeley, California, getting his first significant professional
gig when he was 19 from Latin jazz vibist Cal Tjader. He made his recording
debut with Cannonball Adderley’s band in 1975, and has worked extensively with
the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Tony
Williams, Christian McBride and others including his late friend Warren Zevon
and singer Nancy Wilson, for whom he wrote orchestral arrangements and
conducted more than 25 major symphony orchestras during world-wide tours.
Wolff’s own band Impure Thoughts, launched in 2000, is an infectious
improvising ensemble, richly percussive thanks to Indian tabla player Badal
Roy, drummer Mike (Headhunters) Clark and electric bassist John B. Williams (on
his new Trio CD, Wolff is joined by Williams and drummer Victor Jones.) Wolff’s
recent performances include an Impure Thoughts concert at the Royal Albert Hall
as part of the BBC Proms and a trip to the British Virgin Isles. He tours the U.S. regularly,
and will perform a series of Trio dates in support of jazz, JAZZ, jazz.
Wolff’s repertoire and his manner of interpreting it reveals a lot
about his underlying aesthetic and broadly encompassing strategy. Of the
upcoming jazz, JAZZ, jazz, critic Howard Mandel has already praised: “Michael
Wolff’s music just gets better and better — his straight-ahead piano trio
album, following his crooner-at-the-keyboard success Love and Destruction,
interprets choice standards by Miles, Dizzy, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, et
al. with elegance, energy and nuance that establishes him in the first rank of
urbane jazz pianists.
On May 16, 2007, at ceremonies in Los Angeles, Michael Wolff, along with sons
Nat and Alex, each received the BMI Film and TV Award for their contributions
to the music on The Naked Brothers Band TV Show. In November of 2007, ESC
Records in Germany
will release, internationally, Pandora’s Box — a compilation of two of his jazz
CDs, Impure Thoughts and Intoxicate.
Wolff’s growing corpus of movie soundtracks includes Dark Angel and
The Tic Code (2000), a feature for actor-dancer Gregory Hines, that was
semi-autobiographical in its depiction of the Tourette’s Syndrome with which
Wolff copes. His five-and-a-half year stint as musical director of the Arsenio
Hall Show heightened his visibility and gave him the occasion to meet his wife,
actress and writer/director Polly Draper. He is producer, and Draper
writer-director of the smash hit Nickelodeon cable TV series The Naked Brothers
Band, starring their sons Nat, 12, and Alex, nine (Wolff appears regularly as
the boys’ “hapless, accordion-playing dad”), and he produced his first music
video for 2006’s Love and Destruction’s plaintive “Underwater,” shooting on
location in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.
Described as a “Renaissance Man” by Miami New Times, Wolff won
praise for his surprising CD Love and Destruction, his first to feature vocals
on all songs. Add to that his virtuoso piano playing, his amalgam of rock-jazz
and his World music-inspired live performances, and you have the makings of a
multi-faceted artist, unafraid of labels and boundaries. In fact, The New York
Times praised Wolff as “A pianist and vocalist with a style both global and
contemporary.” “It’s not a sudden departure,” Wolff says of his video efforts,
as well as his affectively husky and hushed singing on Love and Destruction.
“I’m making developmental steps. I’ve had some interesting years doing a lot of
different things, and that was where I arrived.” Wolff’s late night, blue light
singing on the CD brought new cool to an inspired selection of rock/pop classics
as well as his own tunes about the well-lived life, now. JazzTimes Magazine
raved that Michael Wolff is “one of the most innovative and dynamic pianists of
his generation.” “Wolff proves himself an exceptionally astute vocal stylist.
His sound, a rock-jazz hybrid that exists somewhere in the vast expanse between
Donald Fagen and Mark Murphy, is at once as distinctly powerful and as
cunningly seductive as his playing.” At radio, Wolff generated airplay on
Acoustic Café and other key outlets. Starbucks put four tracks in rotation, in
5000 locations nationwide.
Tuesday, August 12,
2008
JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
7:00pm
A Celebration of Dr. Billy
Taylor
Location:
NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | register online
Instructors: Loren Schoenberg and Christian
McBride
Friday, August 15,
2008
HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
7:00pm
Theo Croker Quartet featuring Benny Powell and Winard Harper
Location:
Rubin Museum of Art
(150 West
17th Street)
$18 in advance | $20 at door |
Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
Winard
Harper, drums
Benny Powell, trombone
Theo Croker, trumpet
Joe Sanders, bass
Sullivan Fortner, piano
Inspired by the musicianship of greats such as Clifford Brown, Max
Roach, Jackie McLean, Cannonball Adderley, Dr. Billy Taylor, Art Blakey and
Billy Higgins, drummer Winard Harper has been the leader and musical
inspiration for a vibrant sextet for almost a decade. The group appears
regularly all over the United States
from the Kennedy Center
in Washington, D.C. to Yoshi's, the legendary West Coast
jazz club. Although clearly the dominant force behind this extraordinarily
gifted ensemble, Harper has surrounded himself with superbly talented young
guardians of the jazz tradition (including Lawrence Clark, Ameen Saleem, Josh
Evans, Stacy Dillard and Alioune Faye), who are as entertaining to watch as
they are to listen to.
Born in Baltimore
in 1962, Winard had a natural affinity for drumming. He was encouraged to play
the drums by his father, who noticed him beating on cans when he was three or
four years old. At the age of five, Winard was developing his skills and making
guest appearances with his older brother Danny's nightclub band. A turning
point was reached when Winard heard a recording of Clifford Brown and Max
Roach. It was then that he was irreversibly inspired to play jazz.
Harper's first major gig was with Dexter Gordon in 1982, and shortly
thereafter with Johnny Griffin. It wasn't long before his drumming skills
captured the attention of Betty Carter. He spent four years working with Ms.
Carter's band, inevitably honing his jazz-as-entertainment sense of
showmanship.
During the 1980s while Winard worked as a sideman to such jazz legends
as Ray Bryant, Abdullah Ibrahim, Pharoah Sanders and Clifford Jordan, he also
laid the foundation for what would become The Harper Brothers band. He and his
brother Philip launched a band that would blaze a brilliant trail both on the
charts and on the international touring circuit.
Piadrum recording artist Winard Harper is one of the hardest working
drummers in jazz today, not only leading his very exciting and hard-swinging
sextet, but also continuing as an in-demand sideman. When not touring with his
band, Harper continues to work and record with such artists such as Joe Lovano,
Avery Sharpe, Steve Turre, Wycliffe Gordon, Frank Wess, Ray Bryant, and Jimmy
Heath. His newest CD, Make It Happen,
goes further than any of his previous six releases to highlight his talent as
drummer, composer and bandleader.
Benny Powell is one of the most versatile trombonists and jazz
lecturers on the contemporary music scene. He is a world-class musician
who draws upon his vast experience, deep roots in the jazz tradition, and a
driving capacity to expand his concept of modern music. jazz critic Nat Hentoff
has written: "Benny Powell's playing has always had a flowing coherence."
The stories he tells are not fragmentary; they're complete.
So, tool is his writing and arranging." Now, this accomplished
instrumentalist and composer has begun reinvesting himself as a singer and
lyricist as well. Toward that end, Powell recently recorded a collection
of his engaging melodies and inspiring lyrics, backed by an all-star ensemble.
Powell is a favorite with both nightclub audiences and jazz
critics. Sometimes performing alongside pianist Jane Jarvis and bassist
Earl May, Powell and his long-time colleagues have delighted listeners
worldwide with their straight-forward presentation of familiar standards and
original compositions. For the past 15 years, he has also played with
pianist Randy Weston's African Rhythms. In addition, he works as a solo
act and recently appeared at jazz festivals in Japan,
Italy, France and Los
Angeles.
Dedicated to keeping the jazz tradition alive, Powell devotes a
large portion of his time to a broad range of educational endeavors.
He regularly presents an oral/musical history of African American
music, J.11 Stories; has taught at Barry Harris' jazz Cultural Theatre,
Jazz-mobile, and Long Island
University; and is
currently a professor at The New School.
He is also a private teacher and conducts clinics and residencies
at high schools and colleges. Powell is also a committed activist on behalf of
jazz related causes. In 1978, he founded the non-profit Los Angeles Committee
on jazz, and has served on panels for die National Endowment for the Arts, the
New York State Council on the Arts, and Local 802 of the American Federation of
Musicians.
Born in New Orleans,
Powell was a member of Lionel Hampton's big band and gained national attention
during his twelve years with Count Basie. Since leaving Basie in
1963, Powell has enjoyed a diverse career. He has worked in
orchestras for numerous Broadway shows and was one of the first jazz musicians to
perform regularly on television as a member of The Merv Griffin Show
band. Powell can be heard on countless recordings with the likes of
Count Basic, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis jazz Orchestral Benny Carter, the Heath
Brothers, and Randy Weston, among many, many, others.........
Don’t miss this rare collaboration of the great Basie band trombonist
Benny Powell and several of the most exciting young(er) jazz musicians on the
scene.
Tuesday, August 19,
2008
JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
7:00pm
A Celebration of Dr. Billy
Taylor
Location:
NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | register online
Friday, August 22,
2008
HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
7:00pm
Sip Plus Two
Location:
Rubin Museum of Art
(150 West
17th Street)
$18 in advance | $20 at door |
Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
Charli Persip, drums
Marcus Persiani - piano
Andrew Perusi - bass
An excellent drummer both
in big bands and combos, Charli Persip changed his name from Charlie in the
early '80s. He had early experience playing locally in New Jersey and with Tadd Dameron (1953), but
gained his initial recognition for his work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band and
quintet (1953-1958).
In 1959, he formed his own
group, the Jazz Statesmen, which featured a young Freddie Hubbard. Persip
appeared on many record sessions in the 1950s and '60s with such players as Lee
Morgan, Dinah Washington, Red Garland, Gil Evans, Don Ellis, Eric Dolphy,
Roland Kirk, Gene Ammons, and Archie Shepp, among others. He was with Billy
Eckstine during 1966-1973, was the main drum instructor for the Jazzmobile in
the mid-'70s, and has led his Superband (a part-time big band) since the early
'80s, recording several dates.
After having performed
with Tadd Dameron in 1953, Persip gained recognition for his work with Dizzy
Gillespie's big band and small groups, playing drums for Gillespie through
1958. In the 1950s and 1960s, he also performed with many other notable jazz
musicians, a small sampling of whom includes instrumentalists Lee Morgan, Harry
“Sweets” Edison, Phil Woods, Eric Dolphy, and Archie Shepp, and vocalists Dinah
Washington and Billy Eckstine, in whose band he played drums from 1966 through
1973.
In the 1970s, Persip was
the main drum instructor at New York's
Jazzmobile. He has also led groups of his own, including the Jazz Statesmen in
1959 and, since the 1980s, Superband, with which he has recorded several
albums.
Saturday, August 23,
2008
Jazz in the Parks
6:30pm
Harlem Dance
National Jazz Museum in Harlem All-Star
Big Band
Christian McBride, Director
Location:
Jackie Robinson Park
(Bradhurst and Edgecomb Avenues, from West 145th Street to West 155th Street | get directions)
FREE | 212-348-8300
Come and tap
your feet, or get up and swing as a couple or with friends. This festive occasion
of Jazz in the Parks features the National Jazz Museum in Harlem All-Star
Big Band conducted by bass great Christian McBride, co-director of the
National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
Tuesday, August 26,
2008
JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
7:00pm
A Celebration of Dr. Billy
Taylor
Location:
NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | register online
Thursday, August 28,
2008
Harlem
Speaks
6:30
– 8:30pm
Eddie Bert,
Trombonist
Location:
NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300
Trombonist
Eddie Bert's career spans nearly seven decades of jazz, from big bands to bebop
and beyond. In addition to being a jazz musician who's played with one and all,
he's been a regular in Broadway show bands, and a first call studio player. Yet
no matter what the musical setting, Eddie has always played his uniquely
personal, warm and melodic style of jazz.
When renowned jazz leaders needed a dependable, original trombonist for a
significant recording or event in the second half of the twentieth century,
they turned to Eddie Bert. In fact, his resume reads like a Who's Who of modern
Jazz, including musical relationships with Thelonious Monk, Charles
Mingus, Coleman Hawkins, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Machito,
Tito Puente, Benny Goodman, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis.
There's a reason Eddie Bert has played with the jazz masters--he's a truly
gifted musician, a trombonist who has easily traversed eras and genres, from
bop to swing, Mingus to Hampton,
and Kenton to Herman. Eddie straddled the racial divide as well. He played in
one of the first integrated big bands, Charlie
Barnet's 1943 aggregation, which included Howard McGhee, Buddy
DeFranco and Oscar Pettiford.
In addition to being one of the most dependable players in jazz history, always
in demand because of his sight-reading skills and his ability to lend a passionate
and individual approach to all music, Eddie is a soloist and arranger with a
distinctive musical voice. In 1955, when he stopped playing only to sleep, he
won Metronome's Musician of the Year award. He followed that with a top rated
album of the same name for Savoy.
He has led a number of other recordings during his distinguished career,
featuring such sidemen as Duke Jordan,
Joe Morello, Hank Jones and Kenny Clarke.
Yet during Eddie's teenage years, 52nd
Street was a hotbed of musical activity. At fifteen,
he began frequenting "The Street," where musicians of all generations
played and gathered nightly. Being too young to get into the clubs at night,
Eddie hung around during the afternoon when he knew the bands would be
rehearsing.
Fast-forwarding
several decades, in the 1990s Eddie started working with drummer T.S. Monk's group. "We did a
European tour in 1997 and an album that featured a lot of Thelonious' new
material that T. S. had found around the house. He hired me because I had
played with his father-if you hang around long enough, you find that you have
played with everyone's father!"
Now in his eighth decade, Eddie Bert is still playing the trombone, still
traveling, and still married to Mollie, his wife of 60+ years. With three
daughters and four grandchildren, he enjoys spending time with his family and,
when not playing, also likes photography.
Friday, August 29,
2008
Harlem in the Himalayas
7:00pm
Theo Croker Quartet
featuring Marcus Belgrave
Location:
Rubin Museum of Art
(150 West
17th Street)
$18 in advance | $20 at door |
Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
Marcus
Belgrave, trumpet
Theo Croker, trumpet
Joe Sanders, bass
Sullivan Fortner, piano
Kassa Overall, drums
Trumpeter Theo Croker, Doc Cheatham’s
grandson, has been featured all summer at Harlem in the Himalayas.
This last performance promises to be hot, with Croker locking horns in
antagonistic cooperation with elder trumpet legend Marcus Belgrave.
Trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator,
recording artist, and producer Marcus Belgrave was born in Chester, Pennsylvania
June 12 1936.
He began playing the trumpet at age six and
professionally at age twelve. Mr. Belgrave
describes himself as "born into bebop." An early inspiration and mentor was Clifford
Brown. At age eighteen, Marcus earned
his initial reputation joining the Ray
Charles Orchestra. His solo on Alexander's Ragtime Band from the album The Genius of Ray Charles put him on the
map. He toured for five years and is heard on such Charles hits as Night
Time is the Right Time, What’d I Say, You are My Sunshine, Margie, Ruby and Stella by Starlight.
In the early 60’s he worked and recorded in
the bands of leading innovators of post-bop modern jazz: Max Roach, Charles
Mingus and Eric Dolphy. In 1963 Marcus settled in Detroit, becoming one of the prominent studio
musicians with Motown Records. He is heard on many Motown hit recordings
including Dancing in the Street, The Way
You Do the Things You Do, and My
Girl. His distinguished career as a player includes performances with
legendary stars from both the pop music and jazz world: Ella Fitzgerald, Bud
Powell, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Sammy Davis Jr., Wynton Marsalis, Lena
Horn, Liza Minnelli, Doc Cheatham, Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy
Eckstein, Gene Krupa (with whom he recorded) and many others.
As an original member, starting in 1988 he
toured with the Lincoln Center Jazz
Orchestra, appearing on national television and recording for CBS/Sony. Marcus Belgrave’s own
recordings began in 1974 with the release of his self-produced album Gemini II, showcasing a collective of Detroit jazz artists,
which he led. This record was the first
to garner the attention of the international jazz press, about new “cutting
edge” jazz activity emanating from that famous music city. Belgrave’s
recordings from the 1980’s and ‘90’s include the critically acclaimed Detroit Piano Legacy with Tommy Flanagan
and Geri Allen and Working Together,
Marcus’ collaboration with composer/drummer Lawrence Williams. Recording more
traditional jazz material in this period, Marcus co-led on albums with several
of the last surviving “pioneers” of the pre-bebop era including saxophonist Franz
Jackson (Live at Windsor Jazz Festival
III) and pianist Art Hodes (Hot ‘n
Cool Blues). Critical accolades for these releases are cited in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, The Rolling Stone Guide to Jazz and Blues on
CD, other jazz reference books, and major news publications.
Since 2001 Marcus Belgrave has led his Tribute to Louis Armstrong octet,
appearing in thirty states, Canada
and Puerto Rico and playing Armstrong’s music in pops programs with the Detroit Symphony and other US
orchestras.
As a soloist, Marcus continues to travel
the US
for appearances at jazz festivals, night clubs and concert hall performances.
In January 2006 he was featured on three concerts at Jazz at Lincoln
Center’s presentation
Detroit: Motor City Jazz, later
broadcast on National Public Radio.
Mr. Belgrave is internationally known for
his dedication to educational endeavors. He is founder of Detroit’s Jazz
Development Workshop and co-founder of the Jazz Studies Program at the
Detroit Metro Arts Complex (recognized with grants from federal and state
levels). He was also an original faculty member with the Oakland University Jazz Studies Program and in 2003 became the
first Chair of Jazz Education and
Programming for the Detroit SymphonyOrchestra. Beneficiaries of his musical
tutelage include leading names of today’s jazz scene: pianist Geri Allen,
bassist Robert Hurst, saxophonist Kenny Garrett, violinist Regina Carter and
bassist Rodney Whitaker. The past five years Marcus has served as Professor of
Jazz Trumpet at Oberlin University
in Ohio.
In recognition of his outstanding artistry,
vision, and life-long achievement in jazz education, Marcus Belgrave is the
recipient of numerous honors including the Arts
Midwest Jazz Master Award, the Michigan
Governor’s Arts Award, and the Louis
Armstrong Award.
Visitors Center
104 East 126th Street, Suite 2C
Monday through Friday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m
close to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 trains to 125th Street
We’re waiting for you! Yes, that’s right. Our new Visitors Center is now open Monday through Friday (10 a.m. – 4 p.m.) and chock full of books, CDs and DVDs for your perusal. There is also a first-class exhibit of photos on the walls, so we hope you will come up and see us and also spread the word to any other curious folk who want to spend some time getting jazzed in Harlem.
Also, to find audio and video clips, event summaries, program updates and photographs galore from our previous events, venture here:
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The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is deeply dedicated to the legacy and continued growth of jazz. Your continued support of our events demonstrates your love of jazz and the level of community appreciation and interest in its further development. As we continue our efforts to bring you the best insights and live music (at little or no cost), your participation translates into a favorable reflection upon our efforts to build a physical museum worthy of this profound, emotionally riveting art form. We look forward to seeing you at our future events, and when you come, please bring a friend! |
This press release was composed and edited by Greg Thomas,
host of the web’s only jazz news and entertainment TV show, Jazz It Up!
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