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Pianist Marc Cary Featured at Harlem Speaks May 17th 6:30PM-8:30PM. This Discussion Series is Free to the Public

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Marc Cary, Pianist May 17, 2007
6:30pm-8:30pm. This discussion series is free to the public

New York, NY - Marc Cary is known and respected universally on the music scene as an innovative and gifted keyboardist whose musical expressions are consistently fresh, unrestrained and inspiring. Don't miss this discussion with one of the bright young stars on the jazz scene on May 17, 2007 at offices of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, 104 East 126th Street.



Cary's Native American (the Wampanoag/Chappaquiddick Nation) and African American roots and his musical training at the Oxendine Music Academy (MD), Duke Ellington School of the Performing Arts (DC) and the University of the District of Columbia Jazz Studies Program, have shaped his approach to musical composition and his style of playing. The New York City born, Washington, DC-raised pianist was nurtured in a home environment where Native American traditional music as well as music emanating from all over the world was appreciated, discussed and listened to. Cary's parents, grandfather, and great grandmother were all performing musicians in a variety of genres.



His youthful search for identity found its deepest and most satisfying self-expression in music. Cary explored all types of rhythms, but he found a true groove in the “GO-GO" rhythms popularized by the 1980's street bands in Washington, DC. He joined the High Integrity Band and later connected with Let Um Play and the Frontline Jazz Ensemble. In the late eighties he moved to New York City where he studied with the late Walter Davis Jr., struck chords with Beaver Harris and Mickey Bass who introduced Marc to many other musicians. Soon Arthur Taylor's Wailers and Betty Carter beckoned; Cary toured and recorded with them as well as with Roy Hargrove, Stefon Harris and Abbey Lincoln.



Marc Cary evolved as a composer, writer, producer and bandleader in his own right, releasing a series of well wrought acoustic trio CD's on the Enja, Arabesque and Jazzateria labels. The ensemble is called Indigenous People, featuring Yarborough Charles Laws on flute and percussion, Camille Gainer on drums, Tarus Mateen on bass and Ron Sutton Jr. on sax. In 2000, Cary was the winner of the first Annual Billboard/BET “Best New Jazz Artist Award." He is also known on the underground dance music scene as producer Marco Polo.

Cary is deeply involved with activities at The Langston Hughes House in Harlem at 20 East 127th Street. The parlor floor serves as a gallery and performance space where educational and artistic programming occurs weekly. He directs the Sunday Jazz & Afternoon Tea session from 2pm - 5pm.

Cary keeps many irons in the fire with acoustic and electronic jazz, dance world music and funk. Cary relishes in the freedom to grow and change within his core musical identity: As Marc says, “I'm not moving away from tradition-I'm expanding."



On the evening of April 26, 2007, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem Executive Director Loren Schoenberg engaged guest Al Harewood in a wide-ranging discussion, held at The Museum of The Coty Of New York. Harewood discussed his early years as a tap dancer affiliated with Bill “Bojangles" Robinson's school of dance. His older brother, Eustace was the first drummer in the Harewood household. But Eustace was drafted into the Second World War and left the house drums unoccupied. After contracting pneumonia as a child, at the Army physical the younger Harewood was declared unfit for military duty. This was the beginning of a fine and illustrious career-to-be as a jazz drummer.

While working at a munitions armory during the war, Harewood taught himself the drums and developed an aptitude for playing the traps with fiery swing. His brother, surprised by his younger brother's ability and growing potential as a drummer when he returned home after the war, started recommending the prodigy for club dates around New York. Harewood quickly became an expert at feeding and supporting each soloist while never getting in the way of a horn player's melodic development.

It was at the Putnam Central Club that JJ Johnson first heard Harewood and asked him to join the two-trombone group JJ had with Kai Winding. Harewood was especially influenced by Art Blakey at this time, particularly Blakey's cymbal work. On one occasion when Blakey was late for a Charlie Parker gig, Harewood happened to be on the scene and stepped in to play, and amazed Bird.

After Johnson's group broke up, Harewood became part of the rhythmic foundation for such jazz luminaries as Stan Getz, Carmen McRae, Mary Lou Williams, the Curtis Fuller-Benny Golson Sextet, Stanley Turrentine, Shirley Scott and Grant Green, to name a few. The great drummer's performances also range from the Newport Festival All-Stars to new jazz premiers and classical works by David Amram with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He also became an adjunct instructor at the Livingston College of Music at Rutgers University, where he taught drums and percussion.

Save the Date!

May 31, 2007: Trumpeter Stanton Davis
June 14, 2007: NEA Jazz Master, Writer Nat Hentoff
June 29, 2007: Dancer, Choreographer Frankie Manning*

* This special Friday session of Harlem Speaks will take place in South Hall of the Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue (between 120th and 122nd Streets).

The Harlem Speaks series, supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced by the Jazz Museum in Harlem's Directors, Loren Schoenberg and Director Christian McBride, as well as Greg Thomas, host and co-producer of the web's only jazz news and entertainment television series, Jazz it Up!

Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm. This discussion series is free to the public.

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
104 East 126th Street
New York, NY 10035
212 348-8300

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