Nat'l Jazz Museum in Harlem Presents Harlem in the Himalayas, 8/27

National Jazz Museum in Harlem presents their schedule for the week of August 23 - August 29, 2010.

The NJMH has received international media coverage from the New York Times article about their acquisition of The Savory Collection - please note that the JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS sessions in September will be devoted to the collection.

JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS

September - THE SAVORY COLLECTION
Exploring a buried treasure - NEW sounds from 1935-1940

September 7 - You Won't Believe It - An Overview

September 14 - Tenor Madness - Lester Young/Coleman Hawkins/Chu Berry/Herschel Evans

September 21 - Trumpet Titans - Louis Armstrong/Roy Eldridge/Harry James/Bunny Berigan

September 28 - Jam Sessions - Benny Goodman/Bobby Hackett/Lionel Hampton/Slim and Slam

Tuesday, August 24, 2010: 

Jazz for Curious Listeners
Pops is Tops: Louis Armstrong at 109: Louis in New Orleans
7:00 - 8:30pm at the NJMH Visitors Center, located at 104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C.
Admission is free.  For more information call 212-348-8300.

As revealed in Terry Teachout's recent biography of Louis Armstrong, the man whose trumpet and singing styling defined the feel of an entire musical idiom was ambivalent about his own birthplace of New Orleans, where jazz itself was born.  Come discover the why as well as the ways and means Armstrong and New Orleans are tied together inextricably.

Thursday, August 26, 2010:

Harlem Speaks
Steve Coleman, Saxophonist
6:30 - 8:30pm at the NJMH Visitors Center, located at 104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C.
Admission is free. For more information call 212-348-8300.

Saxophonist Steve Coleman, according to many of his musical peers, is central to the modern development and evolution of music today. In a similar manner as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, Coleman's musical journey is a constant search for revelation of the continuity of sound, music, culture, and spirituality.

From the age of 14-17, in his native south side of Chicago, he studied the basics of music and saxophone technique, and then decided that he wanted to learn to improvise. Charlie Parker, whom his dad listened to all the time, was a key early influence, as were premier Chicago saxophonists the caliber of Von Freeman, Bunky Green, Gido Sinclair and Sonny Greer.
After hearing groups from New York led by masters like Max Roach, Art Blakey, Woody Shaw, The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, Sonny Rollins, and other legends come through Chicago with bands that featured excellent players with advanced musical conceptions, Steve knew where he wanted to go next. He felt he needed to be around this kind of atmosphere in order to grow musically.

After hitchhiking to New York and staying at a YMCA in Manhattan for a few months, he eventually gigged with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band, which led to stints with the Sam Rivers Big Band, Cecil Taylor's Big Band and others. Soon he began cutting records as a sideman with those leaders as well as pivotal figures like David Murray, Doug Hammond, Dave Holland, Michael Brecker and Abbey Lincoln. The most important influences on his music at this time were listening to tenor saxophonist Von Freeman (who primarily influencEd Coleman as an improviser), saxophonist Sam Rivers (who influenced Steve compositionally) and drummer/composer Doug Hammond (who was especially important in Steve's conceptual thinking). In this period, he also listened intensely to the music of West African masters sparking what became a diasporic journey into the artistic and spiritual continuum beginning in Africa and extending to all parts of the globe.

For the next several years Coleman spent a good deal of time playing in New York City's streets for small amounts of money with a street band that he put together with trumpeter Graham Haynes, the group that would evolve into the ensemble Steve Coleman and Five Elements. It is this group that would serve as the flagship ensemble for most of Steve's activities.
Within a short time the group began finding a niche in tiny, out-of-the-way clubs in Harlem and Brooklyn where they continued to hone their developing concept of improvisation within nested looping structures. These ideas were based on ideas about how to create music from one's experiences which became the foundation which Coleman and friends call the M-Base concept. However, unlike what most critics wrote this concept was philosophical, Coleman did not call the music itself M-Base.

His travels to Egypt, India, Ghana, Cuba, Senegal, Paris and other parts of Europe-perhaps philosophical and historical explorations as much as musical-have impacted the soundscapes he creates with his various ensembles, the technological resources he taps into to create and present his music, and even the concepts he captures in writing, as with a profound analysis of the music and styling of Charlie Parker featured on the website, Jazz.com.
Tonight's discussion promises to be profound and revelatory, so come ready to journey on the wings of the mind and voice of one of the most influential artists of our current age, Steve Coleman.

Friday, August 27, 2010:

Harlem in the Himalayas
Ryan Keberle Double Quartet
7:00pm at the Rubin Museum of Art, located at 150 West 17th Street.
Tickets are $18 in advance, $20 at door. For tickets, visit the RMA Box Office, www.rmanyc.org/harleminthehimalayas or call 212-620-5000 ext. 344.

Since his arrival in New York City, jazz trombonist and composer Ryan Keberle has played in many styles, including all genres of jazz, avant-garde, Latin, classical, and rock. And though based here in NY, where he performs at noted venues, he also tours internationally.

Keberle graduated in 2001 from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with critically acclaimed trombonist Steve Turre and composers Mike Abene and the late Manny Album. Upon graduation he received the William H. Borden award for musical excellence in jazz, given to one member of each graduating class. He went on to study with Wycliffe Gordon and David Berger as a part of the Juilliard School's groundbreaking Institute for Jazz Studies. In May of 2003, he became a member of Jazz at Juilliard's first graduating class.

Recently, Keberle performed on NBC with the Saturday Night Live band, and was selected as one of ten finalists for the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trombone Competition. Aside from being a regular member of the Maria Schneider Orchestra and about 15 other ensembles based in New York City, Ryan has also performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Charles McPherson, the late Percy Heath, Teo Macero, Jon Hendricks, Joe Lovano, Eric Reed, and Ivan Lins, among others.

And when not performing on stage, Ryan can be found in the classroom at City University's Hunter College, where he began his tenure as a visiting professor in 2004 or cooking in the kitchen of his Brooklyn apartment.

And you can surely expect some cookin' tonight in the last show at the Rubin Museum of Art for the summer of 2010.

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is loacted at 104 East 126th Street, #2C,  New York, NY 10035.  For more information, call 212 348-8300 or visit http://www.jmih.org/

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