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AFRO-AMERICAN MUSIC INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 36 YEARS

BOYS CHOIR AFRICA SHIRTS
 
 
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/building-today-for-tomorrow/x/267428

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                         http://www.komehsaessentials.com/                              

 

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.

 

WELCOME!

 

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Duke Ellington is first African-American and the first musician to solo on U.S. circulating coin

    MARY LOU WILLIAMS     

            INTERVIEW

       In Her Own Words
Some reflections on Luther DeJaurnette from interview with Barry Levenson

"Luther is one of the greatest musicians, not just guitarists, I learned more from him just about music than everything I have learned put together!"

"He BLEW MY MIND! He started playing all that stuff and I almost started to cry...I laid down my guitar and said, "I quit, I don't know anything, I wanna know what you're doing and I don't care what it takes!" [laughs] I spent the next two or three years hanging out with Luther, and he treated me, like absolutely better than if he was my father. He put me in a band with him where I had to actually learn the chords, I couldn't even play the chords, like minor 9ths, #11s, aug13s... things I had never heard of! He was an amazing guitarist, he would play sixty choruses of "Misty" sitting there without any accompaniment and I was like sitting there blown out of my mind!"

"These were the Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Kenny Burrell type of things. It wasn't so esoteric, using an example such as Johnny Smith for instance. Now Luther wasn't a string bender and he thought that I was an amazing guitarist for my own little niche.In fact, one of the first gigs we did together, I did a solo and the whole room stood up! I was embarrassed because my little pentatonic solo was lame compared to his melodic explorations. That is when I started to realise for the first time, that reaching people didn't have anything to do with how complex what you played was. In other words, his solos were harmonically complicated, like a Pat Martino type solo but the average person was actually more able to hear my little "B.B. King excursions" than his type of solo. As far as I was concerned, I said to myself, "since I can play like B.B. King [sort of], it must be easy to do and I can't even figure out what George Benson's doing", so I figured this stuff must be a higher artform. You can do that, but that's a stupid thing to think because they're equal! That's what I thought at the time, so I bowed down to him and he became my guru and I learned a ton of stuff."

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