JAZZ FORUM ARTS presents JAZZ FORUM @ 35! June 28
An Alumni Reunion Celebration Concert Benefitting Jazz Forum Arts’ 33 Free Concerts
“It would be hard to pick one special moment at the Jazz Forum, because
there were so MANY special moments.” Dr. Barry Harris
Jazz Forum Arts Founder & Executive Director Mark Morganelli invites jazz fans to join him, along with more than two dozen Jazz luminaries for JAZZ FORUM @ 35! This featured event of the Blue Note Jazz Festival celebrates the Thirty-Fifth Anniversary of trumpeter/flugelhornist Morganelli’s Jazz Forum lofts, where some of the greatest jazz artists in the world performed between 1979 and 1983. Twenty-Five of those artists will reconvene in Greenwich Village, where it all began, for one special evening beginning at8pm on Saturday, June 28, 2014 at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, NY. Jazz artists performing that night will be Lee Konitz, Kenny Barron, Larry Willis, Michele Rosewoman, Vic Juris, Dave Stryker, Jon Burr, Cameron Brown, Sonny Fortune, Billy Hart, Marion Cowings, Jon Hendricks, Charli Persip, T.S. Monk, Candido, David Amram, Bobby Sanabria, Harvie S, Wallace Roney, Steve Turre, Ronnie Cuber, Michael Carvin, Valery Ponomarev, Bob Mover,and Ray Drummond, plus more TBA.
Mark Morganelli, then a 24-year-old trumpeter, established the Jazz Forum at 50 Cooper Square in New York City’s East Village in June of 1979 to provide opportunities for emerging and established artists and their groups to perform in a relaxed loft-setting. Just out of Bucknell University, he emphasized jazz education by renting his loft to Detroit piano icon Barry Harris, whose legendary classes grew from 25 to 150 students every Monday night for three years. From Morganelli’s own rehearsal big band grew steady, weekly large ensemble presentations of Chuck Israels’ National Jazz Ensemble, Jaki Byard’s Apollo Stompers, and Charli Persip’s Superband. There were also weekly jam sessions led by drummer Jo Jones, Jr. During the period when the second Jazz Forum operated at 648 Broadway at Bleecker Street, from 1981 to 1983, the loft played host to many benefits for ailing musicians, several National Public Radio broadcasts, a few celebrated recordings, and the award-winning film Music In Monk Time, featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Carmen McRae, Milt Jackson, and Jon Hendricks.
When the Jazz Forum closed in April 1983, after four short years, Morganelli had presented 1500 concerts, including memorable shows by Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris, Sphere, Roy Haynes, Pepper Adams, Al Haig, Lee Konitz, Bill Hardman and Junior Cook, Cedar Walton, Bob Berg and Tom Harrell, and countless other great artists.
In 1985, Morganelli established Jazz Forum Arts, a not-for-profit arts presenting organization, and launched the Riverside Park Arts Festival, which concluded in 1997. He has produced almost 60 compact discs, most for Candid Records. Twenty-two years ago, he inaugurated the Jazz at the Music Hall series in Tarrytown. He has produced numerous jazz festivals and concerts, including a piano series at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Dizzy Gillespie 75th Birthday Concert at Carnegie Hall, and the Jazz Beats Breast Cancerconcert at Avery Fisher Hall. He continues to perform with his Jazz Forum All-Stars. “I’m thrilled to be going back to my Greenwich Village roots and that so many of the great artists who played at the Jazz Forum lofts will be performing in this milestone event. We’ve even got four NEA Jazz Masters – Lee Konitz, Jon Hendricks, Kenny Barron and Candido,” said Morganelli.
Tickets for JAZZ FORUM @ 35! presented by Jazz Forum Arts, on Saturday, June 28, 2014 at 8pm at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU are $35, $55 and $75 and can be purchased at the NYU Skirball Center Shagan Box Office, 566 LaGuardia Place, NYC, Tuesday – Saturday, 12noon – 6:00pm and two hours before show time; through Ovation Tix at 866-811-4111; or at Jazz Forum @ 35! : Skirball Center for the Performing Arts – New York University. For information about Jazz Forum Arts, call 888-99-BEBOP, or visit www.jazzforumarts.org.
