Mike Longo, Prominent Jazz Pianist Known For His Tenure with Dizzy Gillespie, Dies at 83 - Pittsburgh Jazz Network2024-03-28T14:50:37Zhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/forum/topics/mike-longo-prominent-jazz-pianist-known-for-his-tenure-with-dizzy?groupUrl=obituaries&xg_source=activity&feed=yes&xn_auth=noColleagues Mourn Death of Mik…tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2020-04-13:1992552:Comment:4625572020-04-13T20:04:02.747ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1>Colleagues Mourn Death of Mike Longo</h1>
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<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/mike-longo">MIKE LONGO</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/dizzy-gillespie">DIZZY GILLESPIE</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/annie-ross">ANNIE ROSS</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/lee-konitz">LEE KONITZ</a>, …</div>
<h1>Colleagues Mourn Death of Mike Longo</h1>
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<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/mike-longo">MIKE LONGO</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/dizzy-gillespie">DIZZY GILLESPIE</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/annie-ross">ANNIE ROSS</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/lee-konitz">LEE KONITZ</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/buddy-rich">BUDDY RICH</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/lewis-nash">LEWIS NASH</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/obituary">OBITUARY</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/bill-milkowski">Bill Milkowski</a><span> </span></strong></span><span class="text-primary"> I </span><span class="postinfo">Mar. 24, 2020</span></p>
<div class="pad-btm-sm pad-top-sm"><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/web4_mike_longo_at_the_piano2_hires.jpg" class="img-responsive" alt="Image"/>
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<p><span>Mike Longo</span><span> </span>(1939–20120)</p>
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<p><span>Pianist Mike Longo, </span>best known for his long tenure with Dizzy Gillespie’s band, died on March 22 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. His health was compromised by COVID-19, according to an<span> </span><a href="https://www.wbgo.org/post/mike-longo-prominent-jazz-pianist-known-his-tenure-dizzy-gillespie-dies-83#stream/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article posted by WBGO</a>. Longo also suffered from pre-existing medical conditions. He was 81.</p>
<p><span>As recently as 2017, Longo was leading three bands: </span>the Mike Longo Trio, the 17-piece New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble and a sextet called the Mike Longo Funk Band. In addition to many recordings he put out as a bandleader, Longo’s discography included work with Astrud Gilberto, Lee Konitz, James Moody and<span> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/2OK7QOQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buddy Rich</a>.</p>
<p><span>Born March 19, </span>1939, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Longo began formal piano lessons at age 4 at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. After his family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he continued his piano studies, later winning a local talent contest at age 12.</p>
<p><span>In a 2017 press </span>release, Longo described his vivid memory of hearing Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie for the first time on radio station WFTL. “I wanted to wake up my parents and tell ’em,” he said. “It changed my whole life around.”</p>
<p><span>In 10th grade, </span>Longo began performing club dates around the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area in his bass-playing father’s band, which included a then-unknown alto saxophone player named<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/detail/inside-the-cannonball-adderley-quin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cannonball Adderley</a>, who at the time was band director at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale.</p>
<p><span>It was the younger Longo who recommended that his </span>father hire Adderley. “My dad had a gig playing for the Gateway Shopping Center,” Longo recalled in the press release. “Cannonball walked up on the bandstand, and a hush came over the audience ’cause they had never seen a mixed band. Cannonball started playing ‘Stars Fell On Alabama,’ and he just melted everybody’s hearts.”</p>
<p><span>Longo soon became a </span>protégé of Adderley, who recruited the teenager for jazz and r&b gigs in Florida.</p>
<p><span>After earning a </span>bachelor of music degree from Western Kentucky University, Longo embarked on a two-year stint on the road with a band called the Salt City Six. He later became the house pianist at the Metropole Cafe in New York, where he backed such jazz luminaries as<span> </span><span>Henry </span><span>“</span><span>Red</span><span>”</span><span> Allen, Cozy Cole, Coleman Hawkins, </span><span>Gene Krupa</span><span> and George Wettling</span><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>In 1961, at age 24, </span>Longo studied for six months with the legendary pianist Oscar Peterson at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. In 1962, he released<span> </span><i>Jazz<span> </span></i><i>Portrait Of Funny Girl</i>, a trio session on his own Clamike Records label that featured bassist Herman Wright and drummer Roy Brooks.</p>
<p><span>Longo subsequently </span>did a stint of roadwork with host of singers, including Nancy Wilson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Gloria Lynn, Joe Williams and Jimmy Rushing before joining bassist Sam Jones for duets at The Hickory House.</p>
<p><span>By 1966, Longo’s </span>trio with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Chuck Lampkin had become the house band at The Embers West in New York, where they backed the likes of Clark Terry, Frank Wess, Frank Foster, Zoot Sims and Roy Eldridge. It was at The Embers that Longo was spotted by Gillespie. “Dizzy called me the next day and hired me,” he told<span> </span><i>Jazz</i><span> </span><i>Central</i><span> </span>in an interview posted on his<span> </span><a href="https://jazzbeat.com/MikeLongoJazz/2019/05/28/jazz-central-interviews-mike-longo/#more-284" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. “I worked with him nine years straight, full-time, and for the rest of his life on a part-time basis.”</p>
<p><span>From 1966 to 1975, </span>Longo was musical director for Gillespie, appearing on the 1967 Impulse! classic,<span> </span><i>Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac,<span> </span></i>1968’s<i><span> </span>Reunion Big Band</i><span> </span>and<span> </span><i>Portrait<span> </span></i><i>Of Jenny<span> </span></i>and<span> </span><i>The Real Thing</i><span>, </span>both from 1970.</p>
<p><span>Reflecting on how </span>he was Gillespie’s close collaborator, Longo said in the press release, “I had to do the hiring sometimes and the firing sometimes, and calling rehearsals and writing the music and that kind of thing.”</p>
<p><span>Longo later played </span>piano in the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, and in 1986 he was commissioned by Gillespie to compose a piece for full symphony orchestra, which the trumpeter performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1991. Longo was with Gillespie on the night he died, Jan. 6, 1993, and later delivered a eulogy at his funeral.</p>
<p><span>Longo led sessions </span>for the Mainstream, P-Vine and Pablo labels through the 1970s before forming his own label,<span> </span><a href="https://www.jazzbeat.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Consolidated Artists Productions</a>. His leader dates on CAP include 1981’s<span> </span><i>Solo Recital,</i><span> </span>1990’s<span> </span><i>The Earth Is But One Country</i>,<span> </span><i>I Miss You John<span> </span></i>(a 1997 Gillespie tribute album),<i><span> </span></i>1998’s<span> </span><i>Dawn<span> </span></i><i>Of A New Day<span> </span></i>and 2000’s<span> </span><i>Explosion</i><span> </span>by the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble.</p>
<p><span>The label has </span>released more than 150 titles, including works by Beegie Adair, Bill Anschell, John Di Martino, Falkner Evans, Rob Garcia, Annie Ross and Rich Willey.</p>
<p><span>Longo recorded two </span>other big band projects—2001’s<span> </span><i>Aftermath</i><span> </span>and 2004’s<span> </span><i>Oasis</i>—before recording 2007’s<span> </span><i>Float Like A Butterfly</i><span> </span>with bassist Paul West and drummer Jimmy Wormworth and 2009’s<span> </span><i>Sting Like A Bee<span> </span></i>with bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Lewis Nash.</p>
<p>The 2012 release<span> </span><i>A<span> </span></i><i>Celebration Of Diz And Miles</i><span> </span>was recorded live with West and drummer Ray Mosca at the John Birks Gillespie Auditorium in the New York City Baha’i Center, where he had hosted a weekly jazz series beginning in 2004.</p>
<p><span>In 2017, Longo </span>recorded the trio album<span> </span><i>Only Time Will Tell</i><span> </span>with West and drummer Lewis Nash. The program’s original composition “Stepping Up” was inspired by the terraces on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, close to the world headquarters of the Baha’i Faith, of which Longo was a member.</p>
<p><span>Survivors include </span>his wife, Dorothy Longo, who reportedly is in self-quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus.</p>
<p><span>Saxophonist Bob </span>Magnuson, who co-founded the New York State of the Arts Jazz Ensemble with Longo, posted a tribute to his friend on Facebook: “For 25 years he allowed me into his wonderful world and let me produce six CDs with his best friends James Moody, Jimmy Owens, Bob Cranshaw, Paul West,<span> </span><span>Ray Mosca</span><span> and Lewis Nash. He then included me in a sextet with Randy Brecker, Ron </span>Carter and Joe Farrell, playing music he had recorded in the ’60s. I went fishing with him for years and loved to hear his endless stories of being Dizzy’s closest friend. I realized early on that he understood, digested, taught and lived by all the concepts of time, depth of groove, swing, harmony and all the metaphysical aspects that embodied Dizzy. Nobody knew Dizzy’s stuff the way Longo did.”</p>
<p>Guitarist Adam Rafferty—who studied with Longo and recorded with him on his own CAP leader dates<span> </span><i>First Impressions<span> </span></i>(1997) and<span> </span><i>Blood, Sweat & Bebop<span> </span></i>(1999)—posted this entry on Facebook:<span> </span>“This man was my beloved guru and second father. To say he was a music teacher doesn’t do it justice. He was the one I called several times a day for personal and spiritual guidance. He took me under his wing and mentored me. He was a beacon of truth and light, and a best friend.”<b><span> </span>DB</b></p> THOSE WE’VE LOST
Mike Longo,…tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2020-04-13:1992552:Comment:4625542020-04-13T19:56:49.335ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div><div class="css-rl7mdh euiyums3"><p class="css-tsacue e6idgb70">THOSE WE’VE LOST</p>
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<div class="css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0"><h1 class="css-1s4ffep e1h9rw200" id="link-32d3f23e">Mike Longo, Jazz Pianist, Composer and Educator, Dies at 83</h1>
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<p class="css-ns7wfp e1wiw3jv0" id="article-summary">Best known for his long association with Dizzy Gillespie, Mr. Longo, who died of the coronavirus, also led a big band and promoted the work of other musicians.…</p>
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<div><div class="css-rl7mdh euiyums3"><p class="css-tsacue e6idgb70">THOSE WE’VE LOST</p>
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<div class="css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0"><h1 id="link-32d3f23e" class="css-1s4ffep e1h9rw200">Mike Longo, Jazz Pianist, Composer and Educator, Dies at 83</h1>
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<p id="article-summary" class="css-ns7wfp e1wiw3jv0">Best known for his long association with Dizzy Gillespie, Mr. Longo, who died of the coronavirus, also led a big band and promoted the work of other musicians.</p>
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<span class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0">Mike Longo performing with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band at the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen in 1968. Mr. Longo’s association with Gillespie began in 1966 and endured until shortly before Gillespie’s death in 1993.</span><span class="emkp2hg2 css-1fxp258 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span>Jan Persson/Getty Images</span></span><br />
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<li class="css-i49r68"><div class="css-ld3wwf e16638kd1">Published<span> </span>March 28, 2020Updated<span> </span>March 30, 2020</div>
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<div id="NYT_ABOVE_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION" class="dfp_1p2-0_control DFP_1p-2_fp dfp_adslot4v2-1_external DFP_als_home-1_als DFP_als-1_als DFP_amzn-0_control dfp_messaging_flexframe_ctr-0_control DFP_mt-0_control HOME_timesExclusive-0_control INBOX_individualpage_redesign-0_control MAPS_fr_interests_block-1_from_your_interests MAPS_individual_redesign-0_control MC_bar1_color_0120-0_control MC_DFP_topbar_bar_anon_1019-0_control MC_DFP_topbar_bar_regi_1019-0_control MKT_dfp_hd_paywall_zip-1_zip MKT_dfp_intl_pricing_low_conv-2_50cents MKT_dfp_intl_pricing_med_conv-1_50cents MKT_DFP_ods-1_test SA_Referral_DFP_April2020_Test-1_yellow_evergreen SEARCH_FACET_DROPDOWN-1_DYNAMIC_FACET_SELECT STORY_intentional_links_v1-0_control STORY_topical_recirc-1_variant STYLN_elections_notifications-1_elections_notifications STYLN_fr_recirc_quantity_desktop-0_control_fr_recirc_quantity_desktop STYLN_latest_story-0_control_STYLN_latest_story STYLN_lb_newposts-1_lb_newposts STYLN_live_newupdates-variant STYLN_live_tabs-2_body STYLN_live_updates-1_live_updates STYLN_liveblog_email-0_control STYLN_menu_coronavirus_live-variant STYLN_pharmacy_components-show STYLN_remove_relatedlinks-0_control_STYLN_remove_relatedlinks"></div>
<div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0"><em class="css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0">This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others<span> </span></em><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/series/people-who-have-died-of-the-coronavirus" title=""><em class="css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0">here</em></a><em class="css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0">.</em></p>
<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0"><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.mikelongojazz.com/" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mike Longo</a>, a jazz pianist, composer and educator best known for his long association with the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, died on March 22 in Manhattan. He was 83.</p>
<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">The cause was the coronavirus, Dorothy Longo, his wife of 32 years, said.</p>
<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">As a musician and a composer, said Matthew Snyder, who had studied composition with Mr. Longo and played baritone saxophone with the big band he led, the<span> </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr-lHtW5wDA" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble</a>, Mr. Longo “was simultaneously very earthy and also had the highest possible level of harmony and melodicism and complexity in his musical conception.”</p>
<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">As an educator, Mr. Longo wrote 10 books and produced four DVDs, espousing concepts he had refined while working with Mr. Gillespie. He also advocated tirelessly for other artists, engaging them for concerts and releasing their recordings on<span> </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://jazztimes.com/archives/label-watch-consolidated-artists/" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CAP (Consolidated Artists Productions)</a>, which he had established as a publishing company in 1970 and a record label in 1981.</p>
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<div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">“He took on other artists because he wanted them to have a forum to produce their own music and express their creativity,” Ms. Longo said in an email. “CAP is an umbrella organization whereby musicians produced and owned their own product, but if Mike chose to take them on, because of his reputation, he was able to get airplay and distribution.”</p>
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<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">Born into a musical household, Mr. Longo played his first nightclub date, with the alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, while still in high school. After arriving in New York in 1960, he found work supporting musicians like the trumpeter Red Allen and the tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins at the Metropole, a Manhattan nightclub. A year later, he moved to Toronto to study with the pianist Oscar Peterson.</p>
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<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">Returning to New York in 1962, Mr. Longo became an in-demand accompanist for singers including Nancy Wilson, Gloria Lynne and Joe Williams. In 1965 he led a house band at the New York nightclub Embers West, where he performed with a wide range of luminaries. A year later, Mr. Gillespie engaged him as his musical director and arranger, an association that would endure until 1975, and informally until shortly before<span> </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/07/arts/dizzy-gillespie-who-sounded-some-of-modern-jazz-s-earliest-notes-dies-at-75.html" title="">Mr. Gillespie’s death in 1993</a>.</p>
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<div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">Mr. Longo went on to perform and record solo, in duos and<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bgr-fDptYQ" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span> </span>trios</a>, and with the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, which he founded in 1998.</p>
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<div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">“Mike’s book was roughly split between his arrangements of other tunes and his original tunes,” Mr. Snyder said of Mr. Longo’s repertoire, “and it was obvious it was all the same thing for him; even his arrangements were recompositions.”</p>
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<div class="css-zgakxe erfvjey0"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Image</span><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)"></source><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)"></source><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)"></source><img alt="Mr. Longo was still with Mr. Gillespie when he released the album &ldquo;Matrix&rdquo; in 1972. He would continue to perform and would record prolifically as a bandleader, arranger and composer after leaving Mr. Gillespie&rsquo;s band in 1975." class="css-1m50asq" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/04/01/obituaries/26longo2/26longo2-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale"/></div>
<span class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0">Mr. Longo was still with Mr. Gillespie when he released the album “Matrix” in 1972. He would continue to perform and would record prolifically as a bandleader, arranger and composer after leaving Mr. Gillespie’s band in 1975.</span><br />
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<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">Michael Joseph Longo was born on March 19, 1937, in Cincinnati, to Michael Anthony Longo and Elvira Margaret (Vitello) Longo. He began to study piano with his mother, a homemaker who sang and played the piano and the organ, at age 3, starting formal lessons a year later. The family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where Mr. Longo’s father established a successful business supplying produce to stores and to restaurants while also leading bands in which he played bass.</p>
<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">Mr. Longo’s father hired Mr. Adderley, who was black, to play in his band at a time when racial mixing was uncommon and potentially perilous. Mr. Adderley in turn took young Mr. Longo under his wing, engaging him for church performances and, on one occasion, an engagement at Porky’s Hideaway, a Fort Lauderdale jazz club.</p>
<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">Mr. Longo studied classical piano at Western Kentucky University, graduating in 1959 with a B.A. in music. Offered a scholarship by the jazz magazine DownBeat, he opted instead to pursue his education on the road with a small combo, the Salt City Six, and then in New York. His studies with Mr. Peterson in Toronto, Mr. Longo recalled in a 2006 interview with the website All About Jazz, taught him “how to play piano and how to be a jazz pianist — textures, voicings, touch, time, conception, tone on the instrument.”</p>
<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">Mr. Longo studied composition privately with<span> </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/26/archives/hall-overton-of-juilliard-dead-symphonic-and-jazz-composer.html" title="">Hall Overton</a><span> </span>from 1970 to 1972 and worked prolifically as a bandleader, arranger and composer after leaving Mr. Gillespie’s employ. But his association with Mr. Gillespie would dominate much of his professional career, even offering him the opportunity to compose an orchestral work, “A World of Gillespie” (1980), which Mr. Gillespie performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.</p>
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<div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">In addition to his wife, Mr. Longo is survived by a sister, Ellen.</p>
<p class="css-exrw3m evys1bk0">Like Mr. Gillespie, Mr. Longo embraced the Baha’i faith, a religion that espouses the unity of all people and finds truth in multiple faith traditions. In 2004, he began leading weekly concerts at the<span> </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://bahainyc.org/" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York City Baha’i Center</a><span> </span>in Greenwich Village. The last concert was on March 10.</p>
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