Jack Kleinsinger's "Highlights in Jazz," New York's longest running jazz series is pleased to present Keepers of the Flame featuring Dick Hyman, Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks, Marcus Belgrave Salute To Doc Cheatham and Special Guest Peter Cincotti on Thursday, May 12, 2005 8PM at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center.


Dick Hyman (born Mar 8, 1927 in New York, NY) is a versatile virtuoso pianist. He has investigated ragtime and the earliest periods of jazz and has researched and recorded the piano music of Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, Zez Confrey, Eubie Blake and Fats Waller. In addition to being an accomplished pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and composer his encyclopedic knowledge of jazz is featured on Dick Hyman's 100 Years Of Jazz Piano, a CD-ROM based on his frequent recital-lectures.  For his "Highlights in Jazz," appearance Dick will be a  'keeper of the flame' for the piano music of James P. Johnson (1891 - 1955), the grand-daddy of stride piano who composed "Carolina Shout", "You've Got To Be Modernistic", "Caprice Rag",  "Eccentricity", "Old Fashioned Love" and "Charleston".

“To me living and music are all the same thing. And I keep finding out more about music as I learn more about myself, my environment, about all kinds of different things in life. I play what I live… I can't predict the directions in which my music will go. I just want to write and play my instrument as I feel.” -–McCoy Tyner

Pianist McCoy Tyner is one of the working legends of his generation, an artist whose long and diverse career spans the heyday of bop, the emergence of Coltrane, and the evolution of the complex structures that are hallmarks of modern jazz. His percussive attack, orchestral voicings, and modal harmonics have influenced several generations of musicians, and his ongoing work exemplifies the life of a creative artist constantly seeking to grow and respond. This week at the Blue Note in Manhattan (May 10-15), Tyner and his trio (Charnett Moffett, Eric Kamau Gravatt) are joined by Ravi Coltrane, Terrell Stafford, and Gary Bartz for a very special Sextet.

• Fred Staton of the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band (May 5)
• Mercedes Ellington (May 19)
• Dr. Billy Taylor (June 2)
• William C. Rhoden (June 16)

Harlem Speaks, The Jazz Museum in Harlem's continuing series venerating the Harlem jazz continuum, begins a smoking new set with senior member of the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, tenor saxophonist Fred Staton, followed by choreographer Mercedes Ellington, jazz renaissance man Dr. Billy Taylor, and long-time Harlemite and New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden.

On May 5th, Fred Staton will recount his days and nights with legends Billy Eckstine, Howard McGhee, Art Blakey and Errol Garner plus the living legacy of the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, formed in 1972. Others stalwart members include recent Harlem Speaks honoree Joey Morant, trumpet and vocals; drummer Johnny Blowers, on record with Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra; Lloyd Mayers, pianist with Sammy Davis, Jr. for 11 years; bassist Michael Max Fleming, who shared stages with, among others, Mary Lou Williams, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Chet Baker; plus singer and Broadway actress Ruth Brisbane.