Pittsburgh's Own Regional Notables of Jazz
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PITTSBURGH JAZZ
From Blakey to Brown, Como to Costa, Eckstine to Eldridge, Galbraith to Garner, Harris to Hines, Horne to Hyman, Jamal to Jefferson, Kelly to Klook; Mancini to Marmarosa, May to Mitchell, Negri to Nestico, Parlan to Ponder, Reed to Ruther, Strayhorn to Sullivan, Turk to Turrentine, Wade to Williams… the forthcoming publication Treasury of Pittsburgh Jazz Connections by Dr. Nelson Harrison and Dr. Ralph Proctor, Jr. will document the legacy of one of the world’s greatest jazz capitals.
Do you want to know who Dizzy Gillespie idolized? Did you ever wonder who inspired Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey? Who was the pianist that mentored Monk, Bud Powell, Tad Dameron, Elmo Hope, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme? Who was Art Tatum’s idol and Nat Cole’s mentor? What musical quartet pioneered the concept adopted later by the Modern Jazz Quartet? Were you ever curious to know who taught saxophone to Stanley Turrentine or who taught piano to Ahmad Jamal? What community music school trained Robert McFerrin, Sr. for his history-making debut with the Metropolitan Opera? What virtually unknown pianist was a significant influence on young John Coltrane, Shirley Scott, McCoy Tyner, Bobby Timmons and Ray Bryant when he moved to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh in the 1940s? Would you be surprised to know that Erroll Garner attended classes at the Julliard School of Music in New York and was at the top of his class in writing and arranging proficiency?
Some answers can be gleaned from the postings on the Pittsburgh Jazz Network.
For almost 100 years the Pittsburgh region has been a metacenter of jazz originality that is second to no other in the history of jazz. One of the best kept secrets in jazz folklore, the Pittsburgh Jazz Legacy has heretofore remained mythical. We have dubbed it “the greatest story never told” since it has not been represented in writing before now in such a way as to be accessible to anyone seeking to know more about it. When it was happening, little did we know how priceless the memories would become when the times were gone.
Today jazz is still king in Pittsburgh, with events, performances and activities happening all the time. The Pittsburgh Jazz Network is dedicated to celebrating and showcasing the places, artists and fans that carry on the legacy of Pittsburgh's jazz heritage.
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INTERVIEW
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Pearlann Porter
- Female
- Pittsburgh, PA
- United States
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Profile Information
- Favorite website
- http://Thespaceupstairs.org
- Pittsburgh Connection
- Artistic Director of The Pillow Project (Point Breeze)
Jazz Dance Faculty at Point Park University
- Favorite Jazz Radio or media station
- WZUM
- Favorite Pittsburgh Jazz Venue
- The Space Upstairs
- About Me:
- Jaka Zakajinn is an improvisational performing artist, visual-conductor, experimental fashion designer, physical-poet, passionate instigator of new ideas in dance, and an investigator of physical expressions in dance. Jaka’s medium is the language and philosophy of their improvisational postmodern-jazz movement method, THE ELLIPSIS CONDITION.
Jaka is the Founding Artistic Director of the improvisationally-based dance company The Pillow Project (est. 2004) and the Founding Director of The Space Upstairs (new est. 2006), where with their partner John Lambert are the permanent full-time Resident Artists and regular hosts/creators of the long-running monthly Second Saturdays jazz-happenings.
Through The Pillow Project at The Space Upstairs, Jaka often creates performances without the formal division of a traditional stage so that intimate, inclusive interactions can occur with audiences, helping build a creative community in all directions. To Jaka, is a verb and creation method, and The Space Upstairs is both their laboratory for navigating artistic risks and forum for innovating new audience experiences. Jaka continues to represent as a contemporary artist of a new American modern-jazz dance driven by the concept that jazz is a partnering of music with dancers as physical musicians: Dancers articulate sound into visual motion to share another live dimension of 'jazzing the music'.
Jaka has been teaching and creating from her own postmodern-jazz dance philosophy and improvisational language of THE ELLIPSIS CONDITION for over 20 years. Through The Pillow Project, Jaka has extensive creation and self-production experience, having entirely self-organized and produced large-scale performance events in military armories, abandoned steel blast furnaces, warehouse-lofts, and the recurring performance series on the public streets. Their work with The Pillow Project has been performed in Pittsburgh, NYC, Amsterdam, Paris, London, and Dublin. In addition, Jaka has autodidactically created two original video projection methods to illuminate dance — Luminography and Light-Specific Projection.
Jaka holds a BFA in Dance from Point Park University (‘99) where they have been on dance faculty for 25 years teaching postmodern-jazz improvisation, modern dance methods and dance composition. Jaka has held artist residencies and/or created original work for GroundWorks Dance Theater, The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Endicott College, The Dance Alloy Theater, August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, Xpressions Dance Company, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Pittsburgh, Slippery Rock University, Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh, Point Park University, LABCO Dance, and TEDxGrandviewAve. Jaka was named one of Dance Magazine's 25 To Watch in 2010, Pittsburgh Post Gazette's Best in Dance (2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014), Pittsburgh Magazine's Best of the 'Burgh (2013, 2018). Jaka is currently writing a book with John Lambert on THE ELLIPSIS CONDITION and lives in Pittsburgh with their two cats, Chick’n & Bits.
- Website:
- http://www.pillowproject.org
- Artist or Fan
- artist
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