JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
World of John Coltrane: “Miles and Monk”   
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300 or register online

Jazz for Curious Listeners continues an exploration into the music of jazz icon John Coltrane with a focus on Coltrane’s tenure with sui generis pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, a short period in which he found his definitive voice. He also played at various times with various configurations of Miles Davis’s small groups. His growth and development at these junctures with Davis will be apparent to all in attendance.

 Rest assured that with the instructional guidance of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem Executive Director Loren Schoenberg, you’ll hear some of most stunning tenor saxophone playing anywhere at anytime!

HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
Edmar Castañeda Trio 
7:00 pm
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
$18 in advance | $20 at door

Colombian Harpist, Band leader and composer Edmar Castañeda was born in Colombia Bogota where he started playing the Colombian harp at the early age of thirteen.

He has a unique style of playing harp, combining Latin jazz with traditional Colombian music, and has carved a firm place in the international jazz scene. A jazz harpist of imposing talent, Castañeda transforms the harp into a lead instrument to phenomenal effect. Producing cross-rhythms like a drummer, smashing chordal flourishes like a flamenco guitarist and collating bebop and Colombian music, he is practically a world unto himself. His style is fascinatingly percussive and he plucks dynamic bass lines almost invisibly while picking out melodies with his right hand. Now in his late 20s, Castañeda moved to the United States in 1994 and was quickly recognized for his unmatched style and sound.

He has performed with Paquito D'Rivera, John Scofield, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, John Patitucci, Pablo Zinger, Dave Samuels, Trio De Paz, Guiovani Hidalgo, Lila Downs, Janis Siegel, the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band, The United Nation Orchestra, among other renowned groups and musicians.

He also tours regularly as the leader of the Edmar Castañeda Trio, together with trombone and drums. His playing is striking for its rhythmic complexities and sheer musical force.

Special Event:
The East Harlem Arts Weekend
JMIH All-Stars led by pianist Oscar Perez
3:00 pm
Location: Terrence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center's roof top, 1249 Fifth Avenue
FREE | More info: 212-360-3600

JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
World of John Coltrane: “The Classic Quartet - 1960’s”   
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300 or register online

Guest lecturer: Dr. Lewis Porter

In the late ’50s John Coltrane formed a quartet after his legendary recording dates and live performances with the Miles Davis Quintet. Alex Henderson’s “All Music Guide” profile on Coltrane informs us that, “That group was the New York-based John Coltrane Quartet, whose original lineup included ’Trane on tenor and soprano sax, McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Steve Davis on bass. Davis didn't stay long; Coltrane went through a few more bassists (Art Davis and Reggie Workman) before hiring Jimmy Garrison in 1961. Like his former employer Miles Davis, Coltrane was a very restless musician who was determined to forge ahead -- and his 1960-1965 quartet did exactly that. In the 1950s, Coltrane's main focus had been hard bop—Giant Steps, recorded in 1959, is considered [by many as] bop's ultimate blowing tune. But it was also in 1959 that Coltrane was prominently featured on Davis' influential modal classic Kind of Blue, and the saxman took the modal plunge in a major way when he became a full-time group leader in 1960. That year, Coltrane's new quartet recorded My Favorite Things, an Atlantic release that did as much to popularize modal playing as Kind of Blue. My Favorite Things' title track is considered a definitive example of modal post-bop, as are "Impressions," "Equinox," "Miles' Mode," and other gems that Coltrane's quartet unveiled in the early '60s.

Guest lecturer Lewis Porter, PhD, is a jazz pianist and Professor of Music at Rutgers University in Newark, where he directs the Master's program in jazz history. He is known worldwide for his teaching and for his many books and articles, especially John Coltrane: His Life and Music (published in English in 1998; published in French and Italian editions in 2007). He edited the John Colrane Reference which appeared in January 2008. As a pianist and keyboardist, he has performed recently with such artists as Wycliffe Gordon, Ravi Coltrane, Joe Morris, Badal Roy, and Jane Ira Bloom; he performed in Europe in November 2007 with Dave Liebman and others. His latest CD, recorded live at Siena Jazz, is Italian Encounter, and it has received only rave reviews. Jazz Times says that Porter is "a helluva piano player." His performance schedule and extended audio and video clips are at Lewisporter.com

Special Event: Dine Around Downtown 
Jazz Museum AllStars featuring trumpeter Dominick Farinacci    
11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: Chase Manhattan Plaza
(between Liberty & Pine and Nassau & William Streets)
FREE | Rain date Thursday, May 22nd

During the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s recent Harlem Speaks Education Initiative youth jazz education class, young trumpeter Dominick Farinacci discussed his formal education as well as his acculturation into the nighttime jazz scene. He also played the blues in the styles of Louis Armstrong and then Clifford Brown, so the youth could hear the distinction in the styles of two giants of jazz trumpet.

Farinacci, 24, is a recent graduate of the Institute for Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School, and has already recorded six records for the Japanese label M & I Jazz. These recordings garnered Dominick the "International New Star" Award from Swing Journal Magazine (Japan) in 2003, an honor that has been previously awarded to Christian McBride and Diana Krall, among others.

Dominick also received Gold Disc Awards (signifying a record of the month for Swing Journal) for three of those recordings. Dominick has already toured several times throughout Japan, and has performed in the USA with such luminaries as Tony Bennett, Ira Sullivan, Joey DeFrancesco, and Jason Miles.

In December of 2000, Dominick performed with Wynton Marsalis (one of his mentors) and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra as a featured student in a Louis Armstrong tribute, which was broadcast on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center. In 2005, Dominick performed with his own groups at both the Blue Note and Birdland Jazz Club in New York, as well as at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival in September of that year.

Dominick’s quartet recently recorded a live performance at the Kennedy Center in February 2006 for NPR's JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. He is currently performing regularly with his own group and as a sideman throughout the US and on several international tours this year.

JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
World of John Coltrane: “Rarities and Film Show”           
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300 or register online

HARLEM SPEAKS
Jimmy Cobb, drummer  
6:30 - 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300

Jimmy Cobb is largely self-taught, though he studied briefly with Jack Dennett, a percussionist in the National Symphony Orchestra. He played engagements with Charlie Rouse, Leo Parker, Frank Wess, Billie Holiday, and Pearl Bailey in Washington. After leaving the city in 1950 he played with Earl Bostic (with whom he made his first recordings), Dinah Washington (for three and a half years), Cannonball Adderley, Stan Getz, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1958 he replaced Philly Joe Jones in Miles Davis’ group, with which he remained until 1963, and is the only living member of the famous Miles Davis Quintet that recorded the timeless Kind of Blue. He then joined Paul Chambers in the Wynton Kelly Trio, which toured and recorded both on its own and with Wes Montgomery and J. J. Johnson.

He accompanied Sarah Vaughan through the 1970s and later played with Rich Cole, Sonny Stitt, Nat Adderley, and Ricky Ford. Most recently he was heard in pianist Cedar Walton’s group at the Iridium Jazz Club in NYC. Cobb's style of drumming is in the classic hard-bop tradition of Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. As an accompanist he plays forcefully, aggressively, and slightly ahead of the beat; as a soloist he uses the entire drum set in a quasi-melodic fashion.

SPECIAL EVENT :
Panel Discussion: Count Basie’s New York 
Panelists: Roxane Orgill, Benny Powell, moderated by Loren Schoenberg   
2:00 pm
Location: Museum of the City of New York  
(1220 Fifth Avenue)
FREE | For more information please call 212.534.1672, ext. 3395

During the 1930s, the big band sounds of the great pianist and bandleader William "Count" Basie captivated New Yorkers. Roxane Orgill, author of Dream Lucky: When FDR Was in the White House, Count Basie Was on the Radio, and Everyone Wore a Hat (HarperCollins, 2008), will discuss the importance of this tumultuous period and Basie's rise to fame. She will then join in a panel discussion moderated by Loren Schoenberg, Executive Director of The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, featuring the trombonist Benny Powell, who played with Basie.

Benny Powell is a journeyman trombonist whose bold sound bridges bebop and swing. His work employs the vocal color of great swing trombonists and the technical fluidity of bop practitioners. Powell plays both tenor trombone and the bigger-bored bass trombone broadening the colors he brings to an ensemble. Known exclusively as a sideman, he's made valuable contributions to several notable bands, ranging from the rocking swing of Lionel Hampton to the roots-informed avant-garde of John Carter. A native of New Orleans, Powell started performing professionally at 14. By age 18, he had joined Lionel Hampton, and three years later he left to join the Count Basie Orchestra, just as Basie was re-establishing his band as one of the benchmarks of the field. Powell's horn plays the bridge on Basie's biggest hit "April in Paris." He stayed with Basie through 1963, making small band sessions with a number of leaders, most often fellow members of Basie's orchestra.

From 1963, he first worked as a session man in New York, notably with the band for the Merv Griffin Show. He moved to California with the show and continued to be in demand with rehearsal big bands in which studio players got a chance to exercise their jazz chops. Prominent among these was the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Powell recorded one session with the group taking the highly charged and characteristic solo on "Fingers." That swaggering solo style combined with a studio player's dependability landed him stints with Abdullah Ibrahim and John Carter, contributing to all five recordings that comprise Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music, and Randy Weston. Weston's big bands proved especially fitting showcases for the range of Powell's work. In 1991, Powell recorded his second session as a leader under his own name. The session features a number of his own compositions which draw on a variety of styles and prove apt vehicles for his expressive horn. Powell has also been active in teaching young people about jazz and the roots of African-American music, including work with the Jazzmobile in New York City.

JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
Art Tatum          
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300 or register online

Special Event:
A Tribute to Duke Ellington
NJMIH All Star Big Band   
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Location: Calvary Christian Church  
(Park Avenue South at 21st Street)
FREE | More info: 212-260-3875

HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
Jane Ira Bloom, saxophonist
7:00 pm
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
$18 in advance | $20 at door

JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
Art Tatum        
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300 or register online

HARLEM SPEAKS
George Wein, pianist/entrepreneur 
6:30 - 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300

HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
Joe Wilder, trumpeter,
& friends
7:00 pm
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
$18 in advance | $20 at door

Joe Wilder, trumpet
Loren Schoenberg, tenor sax
Steve Ash, piano
Yasushi Nakamura, bass
Quincy Davis, drums

JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
Art Tatum         
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300 or register online

SPECIAL EVENT :
Tatum: Piano Starts Here
2:00 pm
Location: Apollo Theater,
(New York, NY)
Tickets thru Ticketmaster

At this concert, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem will accept the Art Tatum collection from his family.

Art Tatum’s widow, Geraldine, has donated number of artifacts, including Tatum’s prized grand piano, touring trunks, and a locked piano bench filled with personal papers and sheet music, to the Jazz Museum. Read about it here.

JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS
Art Tatum         
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300 or register online

HARLEM SPEAKS
Emme Kemp, pianist 
6:30 - 8:30 pm
Location: Harlem School of the Arts
(645 St. Nicholas Avenue | get directions)
FREE | Reservations: 212-348-8300

HARLEM SPEAKS
Johnny Colon & NY Salsa Jazz
2:00 pm
Special Location: The Riverside Theatre
at The Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue, New York, NY 10027

FREE

Interview 2 p.m. Dance 3:30 p.m.

Part of the NY Family Arts Festival
Presented by The Riverside Theatre

Don’t miss the opportunity to spend an afternoon with the legendary bandleader/singer and pioneering educator Johnny Colon. He’ll be doing double duty, first in an interview conducted by National Jazz Museum in Harlem Executive Director Loren Schoenberg as part of their well-known HARLEM SPEAKS series, and then leading his fiery band for a wonderful afternoon of dancing to his award-winning orchestra. We dare you to sit still once they start!

HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
Theo Croker Quartet featuring Wycliffe Gordon
7:00 pm
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
$18 in advance | $20 at door

Wycliffe Gordon, trombone
Theo Croker, trumpet
Sullivan Fortner, piano
Chris Mees, bass
Kassa Overall, drums

HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
Jimmy Cobb Quartet featuring Theo Croker
7:00 pm
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
$18 in advance | $20 at door

Jimmy Cobb, drums
Theo Croker, trumpet
Sullivan Fortner, piano
Chris Mees, bass

HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
Theo Croker Quartet featuring Benny Powell and Winard Harper
7:00 pm
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
$18 in advance | $20 at door

Winard Harper, drums
Benny Powell, trombone
Theo Croker, trumpet
Joe Sanders, bass Sullivan Fortner, piano

HARLEM IN THE HIMALAYAS
Theo Croker Quartet featuring Marcus Belgrave
7:00 pm
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box Office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344
$18 in advance | $20 at door

Marcus Belgrave, trumpet
Theo Croker, trumpet
Joe Sanders, bass
Sullivan Fortner, piano
Kassa Overall, drums