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Harlem Speaks Swings into the Summer! |
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Written by Ronaldo Oregano
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Friday, 22 July 2005 |
Harlem Speaks Swings into the Summer!
Jean Bach (July 7th)
Bill Saxton (July 28th)
Seleno Clarke (August 11th)
Herb Boyd (August 25th)
The Harlem Speaks series
is co-produced by the Jazz Museum in Harlem's Executive Director, Loren
Schoenberg, and Greg Thomas Associates. Each event takes place 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, twice a month
on Thursdays.
 
The Jazz Museum in Harlem's series honoring the great and
ongoing legacy of Harlem jazz, Harlem Speaks, continues on July
7th with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Jean Bach. Her 1995
documentary, A Great Day in Harlem, commemorated the historic,
iconic 1958 Esquire magazine
photo taken by first-time photographer Art Kane in front of a Harlem
brownstone on 126th street between Park and Madison Avenues. Early in
her career, Ms. Bach was a society-page journalist in Chicago. Her
friendship with Duke Ellington during the mid-30s led to a weekly
record column in a major Chicago newspaper. Subsequent acquaintances
with leading jazz players of the 40s, 50s and 60s sparked her affection
for the famous group photo on which her film A Great Day in Harlem
was based. "I actually knew most of the stars in that picture"
she
explains. Since the Oscar nomination of that motion picture,
dozens of
copycat photos have sprung up all around the globe. So we now
have A Great Day in Hollywood, A Great Day in New South Wales,
Australia, A Great Day in Chicago, and a brand new Great Day
in Harlem featuring
a group of Black businessmen, with Bill Clinton in the middle.
Throughout the span of her very long life, Jean Bach has been
fascinated by the music of jazz, and its purveyors.
One of Harlem's most beloved jazz musicians, multi-reed man
Bill
Saxton, is the museum's special guest on July 28th. A Harlem native,
Saxton's quartet was a regular at St. Nick's Pub for over a decade, yet
has been featured around the world, touring Europe and Africa and
across the United States since the 1980s. While in his 20s, he studied
woodwinds, arranging and composition at the New England Conservatory,
where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1973. He's played
and recorded with a virtual who's who of jazz, including jazz lights
such as: Clark Terry, Clifford Jordan, Charlie Persip, Frank Foster,
Tito Puente, Jimmy Ponder, and Bobby Watson. In addition to his superb
work as a leader and sideman, Saxton is a top-notch jazz educator; he
is an adjunct faculty member of the New School of Social Research, and
instructs a clarinet ensemble and teaches music theory to youth on
behalf of a music program sponsored by the NYC Housing Authority.
Seleno Clarke, another Harlem jazz treasure, is a living master of the
Hammond "B3" organ. On August 11th he will discuss his 40+
years in the music business. In
the 60s he played saxophone in all the clubs in the Harlem loop
(including the Apollo) and downtown. Clarke and Kenny Dorham were two
of the last artists to play the famous Harlem club Minton's Playhouse.
Legends like the late Grant Green and stars like George Benson, who
produced Clarke¹s quintet CD, Diversity, have appeared
frequently as special guests with his bands. The long list of other
players who have played with him also includes Melvin Sparks, Jimmy
Ponder, Mark Whitfield and Russell Malone. Clarke hosts an
international jam session every Sunday evening from 7:00pm -
12:00am at Harlem's American Legion Hall, and plays on Tuesdays from
7pm-11pm at Perk's Jazz and Supper Club.
Harlem Speaks concludes its summer set of talks on August
25th with
Harlem resident Herb Boyd, one of the most tireless writers in all of
New York. In addition to serving as National Editor of the online
publication The Black World Today, Boyd's byline can be seen on
a weekly basis in the Amsterdam News. But in any given month,
you can find his jazz reviews in Downbeat, Jazz Times,
and other music publications. Boyd¹s co-editorship of the
anthology Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America was
awarded an American Book Award for nonfiction; he is also editor of The
Harlem Reader, and author of a biography of Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar
in Harlem, as well as We Shall Overcome, a gripping account
of the civil rights movement.
The spring set closed on June 16th with William C. Rhoden,
sports writer and columnist with the New York Times for 23
years. Mr. Rhoden discussed his background as an associate editor
of Ebony magazine from 1974 to 1978, his three years with The
Baltimore Sun as
a columnist and jazz critic, and his experience as the road manager for
an international tour of the Billy Harper Quartet. While on tour in
Prague, Rhoden sent a postcard to the Abe Rosenthal of the New York
Times;
upon his return, he found a response from the legendary newspaperman,
and thereafter, began his long tenure with the nation¹s top
newspaper.
In addition, he engaged the Jazz Museum in Harlem¹s co-director
Christian McBride in a wide-ranging talk about his work as the
unofficial "Minister of Jazz" for the Church of the Intercession in
Harlem, his ideas for jazz education for youth and professional
athletes, along with his provocative views on race, society and
culture.
The Harlem Speaks series is co-produced by the Jazz Museum
in Harlem's Executive Director, Loren Schoenberg, and Greg Thomas
Associates. Each event takes place 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 twice a month on Thursdays.
As always, the series is free to the public. Please call for
reservations: 212 348-8300.
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 Friday, 29 August 2008
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