JAZZ PROMO SERVICES 1

Ask a painter to « explain » a painting to you, and within minutes, hands will be flying, as they describe the angles and the rhythms of the images. This evening, we will investigate the influence that jazz had on such masters as Stuart Davis, Piet Mondrian and Romare Bearden. Our guide will be Professor Robert G. O’Meally, Columbia University’s Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and founder and director of the Center for Jazz Studies. His new project is a full study of Bearden’s uses of literary subjects, and this evening Professor O’Meally will share his passion for jazz and fine art in an original, provocative and eminently entertaining way.

Critically acclaimed drummer Billy Drummond joins NJMH this month for our landmark oral history series, Harlem Speaks. Drummond first came to international prominence with the bands of Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson and Sonny Rollins, with whom he spent three formative years. Now one of the busiest players of his generation, Drummond can be heard on nearly 300 albums, including three critically acclaimed recordings as a band leader, one of which – cult hit Dubai (Criss Cross) – was named Number 1 Best Jazz CD that year by the New York Times. He currently leads his own band Freedom of Ideas in New York. A serious student of the drums as well as an exemplary musician, we look forward to this informative and enjoyable evening.

At the root of cinema is the art of editing; the assemblage of footage in time, which by definition creates its own rhythm.  As part of our regular collaboration with the Maysles Institute and Cinema, we are proud to present filmmaker Emily Hubley for an inside look on the intersections of rhythm, jazz and cinema. Ms. Hubley worked closely with her parents, pioneer animators Faith and John Hubley, and their classic works utilized music created specifically for the films by Quincy Jones, Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie. Ms. Hubley’s feature film, The Toe Tactic, had its theatrical premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in January 2009 and was released on DVD by Kino International in the fall. Hubley’s films are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Department of Film.

Literary history is chock full of authors who, inspired by musical rhythms, have strove to integrate them into their writing: Ernest Hemingway with Bach, Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray with Ellington are just two of many examples. This evening, NJMH is happy indeed to welcome into its family of collaborators Paul Harding, musician and author, best known for his debut novel Tinkers (2009), which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2010 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize among other honors. Harding was the drummer in the band Cold Water Flat throughout its existence from 1990 to 1996, and it’s this aspect of Harding’s talents that will be our focus on this evening. Profoundly inspired Elvin Jones drumming, on record and in person, Paul Harding will share with us his own life-long passion for rhythm, and how he hears and writes it.