The 1st Annual Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival | May 9th-15th, 2011
Apollo/Harlem Stage/Jazzmobile Present NY’s Newest Festival: Harlem Jazz Shrines
The Apollo Theater, Harlem Stage and Jazzmobile Join Forces to Celebrate Unique Legacy of Music in Harlem
First Ever Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival Set for May 9 – 15, 2011
Events Include Concerts by Emerging and Established Artists, Panel Discussions, Films, and More
NEW
YORK, NY, January 12, 2011 – Three esteemed Harlem cultural
organizations – the Apollo Theater, Harlem Stage and Jazzmobile – have
joined forces to present the first Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival May
9–15, 2011.
Celebrating the unique legacy of jazz in the uptown
community, the Festival will bring both established and emerging artists
to some of the famed venues where jazz flourished in Harlem: Lenox
Lounge, Showman’s Café, the Apollo Theater, Alhambra Ballroom, and
Minton’s Playhouse. Other festival events will take place at Harlem
Stage Gatehouse, Columbia University and a variety of locations
throughout the Harlem area.
Highlights of the Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival include:
•
Wycliffe Gordon’s Jazz à la Carte – The Apollo’s variety shows of the
1930’s make a comeback under the direction of Wycliffe Gordon with the
Temple University Big Band, featuring vocalists Carla Cook and Nikki
Yanofsky, tap savant Savion Glover, sax wunderkind Grace Kelly,
Director/Choreographer Ken Roberson, and trombone prodigy Corey Wilcox,
among others.
• Fats Waller Dance Party: Small’s Paradise Tribute
with Jason Moran & Meshell Ndegeocello – Harlem Stage presents two
nights of Waller’s music taken to new heights in a social mixing dance
party featuring 2010 MacArthur Genius pianist Jason Moran & dynamic
singer/bassist Meshell Ndegeocello.
• Late Night Jam Sessions
& Conversations with Legends at Minton’s Playhouse – Jazzmobile
re-creates Minton’s legendary “cutting contests” with emerging jazz
talents and an all-star house band curated by T.S. Monk with Robert
O’Meally leading provocative discussions.
• Geri Allen Quartet
Jam Session – During the 1940’s and ‘50’s, the Harlem jazz scene was
famous for its after-hours “jam sessions.” Jazz pianist and producer
Geri Allen “jams” with her quartet and special guests at the Apollo
Music Cafe.
• Blazing Tongues: The Singers & Writers of Lenox
Lounge – Harlem Stage, in partnership with Columbia University’s Center
for Jazz Studies and Institute for Research in African American
Studies, curates two evenings of music and literature.
• Battle
of the Big Bands – Jazzmobile produces two nights of big bands featuring
the Jimmy Heath Big Band and the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra at the
Alhambra Ballroom.
The Apollo Theater, Harlem Stage and
Jazzmobile have partnered specifically to create a resurgence of jazz
opportunities in Harlem with this week-long festival. Jazz will be
presented in all its various forms and diverse formats including jazz
dance, concert, club, cabaret and dance events. Conceived as an annual
offering, Harlem Jazz Shrines will enable the partners to create a
dynamic range of programming, highlighting the role that local Harlem
venues have played in the development of jazz.
The three partners
are also collaborating with Columbia University and its Center for Jazz
Studies and Institute for Research in African American Studies to bring
humanities programming that will further highlight the cultural
significance of the Festival.
High-quality artistic performances
and other events will all be offered at the affordable price of $10.
Events are designed to draw a diverse audience of neighborhood
residents, New Yorkers, and tourists with a mix of programming appealing
to both jazz novices and aficionados. To generate attendance to
multiple events and venues, Festival programming is arranged so that
people have the option of attending several events each day. On Friday
and Saturday nights, the Festival will provide a shuttle bus to
transport audience members to area venues.
“For much of the 20th
Century, Harlem was synonymous with jazz. Few other communities
fostered jazz as a popular art form for both musicians and audiences as
Harlem did, ” said Mikki Shepard, Executive Producer of the Apollo
Theater. “Throughout its history, the Apollo has been a champion of jazz
and of jazz musicians. From the historic night in 1934 when Ella
Fitzgerald first won Amateur Night, to performances by Benny Carter, Nat
“Cannonball” Adderley, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Billie Holiday and
Cab Calloway, the list of jazz greats who played the Apollo goes on and
on. We are proud to celebrate Harlem’s heritage, and to be a part of
Harlem Jazz Shrines alongside Jazzmobile and Harlem Stage.”
Pat
Cruz, Executive Director of Harlem Stage added, “Harlem became an
internationally renowned community primarily as a result of the
incredible flowering of music and art that occurred between the 1920s
through the ‘50s. Contemporary musicians continue to be inspired by that
rich legacy. Extending this legacy into the future with young, dynamic
artists is a core and critical part of our mission. Harlem Stage is
proud to partner with the Apollo and Jazzmobile in the Harlem Jazz
Shrines Festival.”
“With a 46-year history of presenting both
emerging artists and the giants of Jazz on the Jazzmobile float,
Jazzmobile is pleased to be partnering with the Apollo Theater and
Harlem Stage as co-presenters of this premiere Festival, ” stated Robin
Bell-Stevens, President & CEO of Jazzmobile. “Our pioneering
education programs came from our founder, the legendary Dr. Billy
Taylor, one of the master Jazz artists who performed in many of the
shrines being highlighted during the Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival, most
notably Minton’s Play House. Although we are saddened that Dr. Taylor
can’t enjoy this great intergenerational festival, we are proud that
this program continues to build on his legacy.”
Tickets for many
of the Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival events are available now. For
tickets and more information on the Festival and its partners, visit the
organizations’ websites at www.apollotheater.org, www.jazzmobile.org
and www.harlemstage.org. For updates and additional information, log on
to www.harlemjazzshrines.org.
Harlem Jazz Shrines is made
possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts
and The New York Community Trust – Elizabeth Meyer Lorentz Fund. This
program is also supported, in part, by public funds from The New York
City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City
Council, Council Member Inez E. Dickens, and Speaker Christine Quinn.
Wycliffe Gordon’s Jazz à la Carte was commissioned with support from Meet the Composer’s National Commissioner’s Network.
The
Fats Waller Dance Party has been made possible by the National
Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries
of Artistic Genius.
About the Apollo Theater
The Apollo
Theater is one of Harlem’s, New York City’s, and America’s most iconic
and enduring cultural institutions. Since introducing the first Amateur
Night contests in 1934, the Apollo Theater has played a major role in
cultivating artists and in the emergence of innovative musical genres
including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and hip-hop.
Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis, Jr., James
Brown, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross,
D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, and countless others began their road to stardom
on the Apollo’s stage. Based on its cultural significance and
architecture, the Apollo Theater received state and city landmark
designation in 1983 and is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. This winter, the non-profit Theater will introduce new
programming building on its rich legacy and supporting presentations of
forward looking, contemporary music, dance, theater and performance art
events.
About Harlem Stage
Since 1979, Harlem Stage has been
one of the nation’s leading arts organizations devoted to the creation
and development of new works by performing artists of color. Harlem
Stage supports artists and organizations around the corner and across
the globe. And it provides children and adults with engaging and
interactive education programs. Harlem Stage is a performing arts center
that celebrates and perpetuates the unique and diverse artistic legacy
of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture.
It provides opportunity, commissioning and support for diverse artists,
makes performances accessible to all audiences, and introduces children
to the rich diversity, excitement and inspiration of the performing
arts.
About Jazzmobile
Jazzmobile, Inc., America’s oldest
not-for- profit arts organization created just for jazz, was founded in
1964 by NEA Jazz Master Dr. Billy Taylor and Daphne Arnstein. Its
mission is to present, preserve, promote, and propagate Jazz –
“America’s classical music.” This mission is implemented through quality
jazz education and performance programs: workshops, master classes,
lecture demonstrations, arts enrichment programs, as well as
out-of-doors mobile Jazz performances and those in clubs and major
concert halls here and abroad. Jazzmobile serves approximately 100, 000
people in New York City and its outlying areas each year.
HARLEM JAZZ SHRINES FESTIVAL SCHEDULE*
MAY 9–15, 2011
Monday, May 9
• Kickoff Event at Minton’s Playhouse, 6pm-8pm.
•
Late Night Jam Session at Minton’s Playhouse, 9pm-closing. Jazzmobile
re-creates Minton’s legendary ‘cutting contests’ with emerging jazz
talents and an all-star house band. T.S. Monk curates.
Tuesday, May 10
•
Blazing Tongues: The Singers & Writers of Lenox Lounge, featuring
the music and words of Billie Holiday and Zora Neale Hurston as
performed by Queen Esther and writer TBD, 7pm-9pm. Harlem Stage, in
partnership with Columbia University’s Center for Jazz Studies (CJS) and
Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS), will curate
an evening with vocalists and writers in one of Harlem’s most historic
jazz venues, Lenox Lounge.
• Showman’s Late Night Jazz, 8pm
until close. A week-long set of late-night jazz performances produced in
partnership with the Apollo. Performing artists to be announced.
Wednesday, May 11
•
Amateur Night, 7:30pm-9:30pm. The Apollo Theater’s signature program
will feature young, emerging jazz artists on the Apollo’s world famous
stage.
• Blazing Tongues: The Singers & Writers of Lenox
Lounge featuring the music and words of Dinah Washington and James
Baldwin with Marcelle Davies-Lashely and Carl Hancock Rux, 7pm-9pm,
presented by Harlem Stage in partnership with Columbia University’s CJS
and IRAAS.
• Showman’s Jam Sessions, 8pm until close. Presented by the Apollo Theater.
Thursday, May 12
• Showman’s Jam Sessions, 8pm until close. Presented by the Apollo Theater.
•
Minton’s: Inspired Innovation, 7pm-11pm. Jazzmobile will present a
dinner, conversation and performance led by Stanley Crouch and Robert
O’Meally.
Friday, May 13
• Battle of the Big Bands,
7pm-12am. Jazzmobile presents the first of two nights of big bands,
Jimmy Heath’s Big Band will perform at the Alhambra Ballroom.
•
The Apollo Jazz Show: Wycliffe Gordon’s Jazz à la Carte, 8pm at the
Apollo. Famed artist and composer, Wycliffe Gordon presents a show
featuring the music of the Temple University Big Band, with vocalists
Carla Cook and Nikki Yanofsky; tap dancer Savion Glover; saxophonist
Grace Kelly; and trombonist Corey Wilcox, Director/Choreographer Ken
Roberson among others.
• Showman’s Jam Sessions, 8pm until close. Presented by the Apollo Theater.
•
The Fats Waller Dance Party: Small’s Paradise Tribute with Jason Moran
& Meshell Ndegeocello, 9pm and 11pm. Aside from its nightly sets,
the legendary club Smalls was famous for its after-hours jams and rent
parties. Among the many artists Smalls hosted, Fats Waller regularly got
the joint jumpin’. This tribute jumps forward from that legacy, at the
stride piano tradition for which Waller was a seminal figure, and how it
resonates in contemporary music. Multiple Grammy nominee Meshell
Ndegeocello and MacArthur Genius Award-winner Jason Moran, along with a
full band and DJ, re-imagine Waller’s historic music into a contemporary
dance event at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse – two sets at 9:00 pm and
11:00 pm.
• Late Night Jam Session, doors open at 9pm, show
starts at 10pm. Geri Allen Quartet Jam Session – During the 1940’s and
50’s, the Harlem jazz scene was notorious for its after-hours “jam
sessions.” Jazz pianist and producer Geri Allen “jams” with her quartet
and special guests at the Apollo Music Cafe.
• Showman’s Jam Sessions 8pm until close. Presented by the Apollo Theater.
• Friday Night at Minton’s — Late Night Jam Session, 10pm-4am, presented by Jazzmobile.
•
Geri Allen Quartet Jam Session – During the 1940’s and 50’s, the Harlem
jazz scene was famous for its after-hours “jam sessions.” Jazz pianist
and producer Geri Allen “jams” with her quartet and special guests at
the Apollo Music Cafe. Doors open at 9pm, show starts at 10pm.
Saturday, May 14
•
Columbia University Humanities Panels, 1-3pm at the Miller Theater.
First Panel – Curated exhibition about jazz shrines, with panel
discussion moderated by
Kellie Jones with panelists Bob O’Meally and
Diedre Harris-Kelly. Second Panel will be led by Josef Sorett, from
Columbia’s Center for Religion and Culture, and will focus on the impact
of Gospel and Jazz. Panelists include Farah Griffin and John Szwed.
• The Apollo Jazz Show: Wycliffe Gordon’s Jazz à la Carte, two shows: 5pm and 8pm.
• Swinging at the Alhambra Ballroom, 7pm-12am. The Harlem Renaissance Orchestra will lead a swing dance competition.
• Showman’s Jam Sessions presented by the Apollo. 8pm until close.
•
The Fats Waller Dance Party: Small’s Paradise Tribute with Jason Moran
& Meshell Ndegeocello at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse – two sets at
9:00 pm and 11:00 pm.
• Geri Allen Quartet Jam Session – During
the 1940’s and 50’s, the Harlem jazz scene was famous for its
after-hours “jam sessions.” Jazz pianist and producer Geri Allen “jams”
with her quartet and special guests at the Apollo Music Cafe. Doors open
at 9pm, show starts at 10pm.
Sunday, May 15
• Re-creation of Count Basie’s Lounge, 3pm-5pm. A Jazzmobile performance/humanities event.
•
Habana/Harlem: Park Palace and the Afro-Cuban Legacy featuring the
Spanish Harlem Orchestra two sets at 5pm and 7pm at the Harlem Stage
Gatehouse. Produced by Neyda Martinez and Onel Mulet, this party pays
tribute to the influence of Afro-Cuban music as it made its way to New
York and defined an era. At 3:00pm, a film on the era will be shown,
followed by a conversation with scholar Chris Washburne.
*Schedule and Artists Subject to Change
VENUES
Alhambra Ballroom
2116 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard
New York, New York 10027
(212) 222-6940 or 6941
www.alhambraballroom.net
Apollo Theater
253 W 125th Street
New York, NY 10027
(212) 531-5305
www.apollotheater.org
Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street
New York, NY 10031
(212) 281-9240 Ext. 19 or 20
www.harlemstage.org
Lenox Lounge
288 Lenox Avenue
Malcolm X Boulevard
124th & 125th
New York, NY
(212) 427-0253
www.lenoxlounge.com
Miller Theatre
2960 Broadway (at 116th Street)
(212) 854-7799
www.millertheatre.com
Minton’s Playhouse
206 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10026
(212) 864-8346
Showman’s Café
375 W 125th Street
New York, NY 10027
(212) 864-8941