On April 14, 2010, the Jazz Loft Project and the New York Public Library presented a program devoted to the monumental, behind-the-scenes influence of pianist, arranger, composer, teacher, and Jazz Loft veteran Hall Overton. Featuring Steve Reich, composer; Joel Sachs, conductor and pianist; Carman Moore, composer, arranger, and conductor; Ethan Iverson, composer and pianist; Sam Stephenson, Director of the Jazz Loft Project.
april 2010 jazz loft project related events at the new york public library
“hall overton: out of the shadows” wednesday, april 14, 2010 | 6 p.m.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Bruno Walter Auditorium
111 Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street
For information, call (212) 642-0142
The program is free and open to the public | Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
In partnership with the Jazz Loft Project, this evening program is devoted to exploring the monumental, behind-the-scenes influence of pianist, arranger, composer, and teacher Hall Overton.
The Duke Jazz Talks are part of the two-year Library for the Performing Arts’ project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories.
Still from "In My Mind"
in my mind (100 minutes color | gary hawkins, director; emily ladue, producer; tom rankin, executive producer)
monday, april 19, 2010 | 5:30 p.m.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Bruno Walter Auditorium
111 Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street
For information, call (212) 642-0142
Film screening of In My Mind, by Center for Documentary Studies instructors Gary Hawkins and Emily LaDue, based on a concert performance of the same title by Jason Moran and The Big Bandwagon on February 26, 2009, a fiftieth anniversary homage to Thelonious Monk’s original 1959 Town Hall concert. Q&A with the filmmakers and Jason Moran to follow. This event is free and open to the public.
interview with dan partridge, jazz loft project research associate
Dan Partridge has been working as part of the Jazz Loft Project since 2003. His role as the “professional listener” on staff has entailed listening to and making detailed notes on the thousands of hours of audio recordings made during the period of 1957 to 1965 by legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith. Smith recorded jazz musicians, artists, and friends who passed through his Manhattan loft as well as recording street noise in the flower district, late-night radio talk shows, telephone calls, television and radio news programs. Learn more at http://www.jazzloftproject.org.
In June of 2002, Sam Stephenson and Dan Partridge visited bassist Bill Crow at his home in New City, New York. Crow picked up the two researchers at the bus station in his van, a vehicle he drives because it is large enough to transport his bass to gigs. Stephenson recalls that Crow kept a tuba mouthpiece in his van in order to practice mouthings while driving. During the visit, Stephenson was also struck by Crow’s attentiveness to his backyard birds. Throughout the interview you can hear the sounds of birds chirping and water trickling at a bird bath. Learn more about Bill Crow at http://www.billcrowbass.com/
In June of 2005 Sam Stephenson and Dan Partridge visited pianist Joey Massters at home in Bellingham, Washington. During his lifetime, Massters played with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, the Max Roach/Clifford Brown Quintet with Sonny Rollins and the Art Blakey Jazz Messengers. He died in 2007.
Mike Seeger at CDS on March 16, 2009. Photograph by Nick Pironio.
When Mike Seeger died late Friday night last week we lost a remarkable musician, an indefatigable documentarian, and a fine soul. What Mike Seeger gave us is hard to measure—from his own recordings, beginning with his albums with the New Lost City Ramblers, to his documentary field recordings, which number beyond an easy count.
This past March, on the night he visited the Center for Documentary Studies, Mike told me that it had taken two wheelbarrow loads to move his instruments from his Lexington, Virginia, house to his car to make the trip to Durham. At first I assumed he was joking. But when it came to music, Mike was seldom joking. He played what seemed every instrument that night: gourd banjo, old-time banjo, guitar, jaw harp, autoharp, harmonica, pan pipes, and no doubt something I’ve let leave my memory. He was the consummate virtuoso, but much more. His ongoing research and his role as a public advocate for folk music and creativity have inspired countless musicians and listeners.
Like most of us, I heard Mike Seeger on record long before I met him. I first met Mike in person in the living room of Tommy Jarrell’s house in Surry County, North Carolina, in 1981 when I went with Cece Conway to visit Tommy. When we walked in, Mike and Tommy were playing fiddle tunes, Mike on banjo and Tommy on his fiddle. I was in awe of both of them, and before the night was over Mike had explained to me the history of much of the music I’d heard. He was a natural teacher, a passionate interpreter. Jim Watson, one of the original Red Clay Ramblers and now with Robin and Linda Williams, said it clearly, “Without Mike many of us might never have started playing this kind of stuff.”
Nothing, no one is immortal, but Mike Seeger’s music will outlast us all, along with the music he documented and introduced to the world through his many beautiful recordings. We’ve lost a great one, but he left us his perfect pitch, lyrics, and tunes that will live forever.
–Tom Rankin
Director, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
mike seeger performed at cds on march 16, 2009, in a public event held in conjunction with alice gerrard’s course documenting traditional music. to see more photographs of his visit to cds, click here.
