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Eli Yamin

Eli “Dr. E” Yamin was born in East Patchogue, Long Island and has performed as a jazz and blues ambassador for the United States, in over 25 countries and in the U.S. at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the White House. Eli’s recordings include Squeeze In Tight, jazz and blues songs for solidarity with his jazz and blues band; You Can’t Buy Swing with his jazz quartet; I Feel So Glad, with his blues band; Louie’s Dream, dedicated to “our jazz heroes,” with clarinetist Evan Christopher, and Live In Burghausen with jazz icon, Illinois Jacquet. Eli’s three published youth-centered musicals: Nora’s Ark, the jazz musical, Holding the Torch For Liberty, and Message From Saturn, have been performed internationally in four languages and across the United States, bringing diverse communities together through jazz and blues to tell socially uplifting stories. Eli is the co-founder, Managing and Artistic Director of the Jazz Power Initiative, the 22 year-old Northern Manhattan based nonprofit organization that transforms lives through jazz arts education and performance. Rooted in the belief that the blues heals, Eli wrote a book, So You Want to Sing the Blues, published by Rowman and Littlefield and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). The recipient of the 2024 AATS Award in recognition of leadership and excellence in youth jazz education from the American Academy of Teachers of Singing, Eli credits his success to receiving mentorship from music legends Walter Perkins, Barry Harris, Mercedes Ellington, Jeanette LoVetri, Amiri and Amina Baraka. With a Doctorate in Musical Arts from Stony Brook University, Masters in Music Education from Lehman College, and BA in Music from Rutgers, Eli still practices his Steinway piano every day (he is a Steinway artist) while miraculously maintaining a 30+ year marriage to Lorraine Yamin. They live with their daughter Manika and dog Bailey in New York City.

Gear

“I have to congratulate you…for your creative approach.” Dave Brubeck, pianist, composer

“Pianist Eli Yamin is a communicator who believes jazz can foster a sense of community. His work is expansive and extroverted, populist in the best sense.”

George Kanzler, All About Jazz New York

"For anyone needing a boptism and rebirth in the blues, look no further." Tom Greenland, All About Jazz New York

"I learn from him every time I see him work." Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter, compoaser, and educator

"This man has met Thelonious Monk." Amiri Baraka, writer

"The most imaginative pianist I've heard in years." Gordon Parks, photographer, filmaker

“Eli reminds me of Pete Seeger. He’s a musician playing for a better world. Eli doesn’t just play for you. He wants the essence of his jazz to infiltrate your community.” Becca Pulliam, Executive Producer, National Public Radio.

Claire Daly: Rah! Rah!

Read "Rah! Rah!" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 19, 2021

If you could thank your muse, to whom would you write and how? Baritone saxophonist Clare Daly recorded Rah! Rah! to thank the legendary Rahsaan Roland Kirk, an iconic multi- instrumentalist who seemed equal parts man and myth even while he was still alive. Kirk loved to stretch out cover versions as if they were his own tunes, which Daly honors by not only including “I'll Be Seeing You" but by playing and singing on “Alfie." She honors ...

Album Review

The Claire Daly Band: Rah! Rah!

Read "Rah! Rah!" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 25, 2020

Award-winning baritone saxophonist Claire Daly isn't blowing her own horn on Rah! Rah! (well, she is, but more about that in a moment)--she's saluting one of her musical inspirations, the late Rahsaan Roland Kirk, a once-in-a-blue- moon talent who left us far too soon. Kirk, who lived only forty-two years, was quite literally a multi-instrumentalist, often playing two or three horns at the same time, some of which (manzello, stritch) he invented himself. Even though blind, he was part musical ...

Album Review

Claire Daly: Rah! Rah!

Read "Rah! Rah!" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 18, 2020

Ask a casual fan about Rahsaan Roland Kirk's impact and you're likely to receive a remark about multi-horn madness—a man wielding three at once, brazenly blowing the walls down. But Kirk, of course, was so much more than that enduring image. His writing, performing, spirit and humanity spoke to the ages, reaching out and grabbing ahold of any listener open enough to hear the calling. Claire Daly knows that all too well. Having discovered Kirk's music through ...

Album Review

Eli Yamin: Message From Saturn

Read "Message From Saturn" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
November 12, 2016

The Jazz Drama Program was founded in 2003, in New York City, by pianist and composer Eli Yamin, and educator Clifford Carlson, to stimulate youth by offering diverse and imaginative jazz, theater, and dance programs with active participation of those enrolled. Message From Saturn takes its title from a famous Sun Ra comment: “I just got a message from Saturn. We're not playing enough blues." With this statement as a launching point, the cosmological theme also draws inspiration from “The ...

Album Review

Eli Yamin and Evan Christopher: Louie's Dream: For Our Jazz Heroes

Read "Louie's Dream: For Our Jazz Heroes" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 18, 2013

Hero worship has long been a magnetic force that helps to draw in the next generation of musicians, yet this very concept is often pooh-poohed by a segment of the musical and artistic community. These people feel that new is always better, and that originality can't thrive if artists acknowledge their forefathers and wear their influences on their sleeves. Pianist Eli Yamin and clarinetist Evan Christopher have never bought into this line of thinking. On Louie's Dream: For Our Jazz ...

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Album Review

Eli Yamin: You Can't Buy Swing

Read "You Can't Buy Swing" reviewed by George Kanzler

by George Kanzler
November 18, 2008

Pianist Eli Yamin is a communicator who believes jazz can foster a sense of community. His work is expansive and extroverted, populist in the best sense. As a teacher--he's now part of Jazz at Lincoln Center's education program--he's created jazz dramas and the dramatic impulse is a strong component of his music. So is swing. This album's title comes from a saying by a drummer who worked often with Yamin, the late Walter Perkins: “You can't buy swing, baby sweets. ...

Event

Drummer - Educator David F. Gibson’s Last Performance Is On Collaborative Project – Squeeze In Tight

Source: SM Communication Solutions
August 17, 2025

Album is a tribute to the joy this gentle man left though his music and his life Jazz Power Initiative (JPI) co-founder, Managing and Artistic Director Eli Yamin, better known as Dr. E., got together with some of his favorite musicians and friends to make an album under the JPI label some months ago. The album, Squeeze In Tight, set for release on September 1st, is meant as a tribute “…to the joy that jazz and blues inspire,” said Dr. ...
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Performance / Tour

Jazz Power Initiative Kicks Off 20th Anniversary Season With The Intergenerational Jazz Power Jam Series

Source: Janny Gonzalez
October 2, 2023

Jazz Power Initiative (JPI), an Inwood-based non-profit organization founded in 2003 with the mission of transforming lives through jazz music, arts education and performance, kicks off its 20th anniversary season with the acclaimed Intergenerational Jazz Power Jam series starting in October. Held twice-monthly, the Intergenerational Jazz Power Jam presents professional and emerging jazz artists with a different featured guest, offering audiences cross-cultural and multidisciplinary sets of new works and jazz standards; the audience is then invited to join in and ...
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Performance / Tour

Eli Yamin And The Astro-Intergenerational Arkestra At Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola January 17, 2017 - "Message From Saturn"

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations
December 18, 2016

Eli Yamin and the Astro-Intergenerational Arkestra Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola January 17, 2017- 2 Sets One Night Only! Message From Saturn A Space Odyssey “I just got a message from Saturn. We are not playing enough blues!"—Sun Ra Eli Yamin and the Astro-Intergenerational Arkestra recently returned from their triumphant performances in Russia that amazed audiences with standing ovations, now brings his inspiring Sun Ra blues to Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola for one night only on Tuesday, ...
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Performance / Tour

Russia Welcomes Sun Ra - November 19 With The Jazz Drama Program Presentation Of "Message From Saturn"

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations
November 1, 2016

Sun Ra Heads To Russia! Euro-Asian Premiere November 19, 2016 “Saxophonist Knoel Scott told me Sun Ra came into rehearsal and said, 'I just got a message from Saturn. We are not playing enough blues!' I thought about this for ten years, then joined up with Clifford Carlson to write this story." —Eli Yamin Eli Yamin and friends bring the Blues to Russia for the Euro-Asian premiere of Message From Saturn in Yekaterinburg on November 19! ...
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Recording

Sun Ra Tribute "Message From Saturn" by Eli Yamin - Available on October 10th

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations
October 8, 2016

"Saxophonist Knoel Scott told me Sun Ra came into rehearsal and said, 'I just got a message from Saturn. We are not playing enough blues!' I thought about this for ten years, then joined up with Clifford Carlson to write this story." —Eli Yamin Liner notes from Message From Saturn A Space Odyssey of three young people on a galactic adventure to learn the healing power of The Blues. The Jazz Drama Program is a non-profit organization that helps youth ...
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Event

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center Presents Eli Yamin Blues Band on October 26

Source: Allyson Morgan
October 18, 2012

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan, proudly presents the Eli Yamin Blues Band performing on Friday, October 26 at 8PM. The band will kick off our annual Tribeca Spotlight series, The Next Voice You Hear, with its debut recording, I Feel So Glad and a number of other rich and culturally insightful tunes off the newly minted album. Exploring a range of sounds, the Eli Yamin Blues Band’s music touches on spiritual, classical, ...
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Performance / Tour

Eli Yamin and Friends at Sweet Rhythm, Sunday April 30th

Source: All About Jazz
April 28, 2006

Eli Yamin and Friends Sweet Rhythm 88 7th Avenue Sunday April 30th 8 and 10PM

Dear Friends: As some of you know, Eli has been undergoing chemotherapy. He and Lorraine are doing well under the circumstances and would love for you to join them at Sweet Rhythm for an uplifting musical event! Eli's treatment is working and his prognosis is good.

Sunday, April 30 Sweet Rhythm 88 7th Avenue (near Barrow Street) ...
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Performance / Tour

Count Basie Centennial Celebration with EYO ~ The Eli Yamin Orch. Tues., Dec. 28th at the Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: All About Jazz
December 23, 2004

December 23, 2004 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street Greenwich Village, NY 10014 Tel: 212-989-9319 Fax: 212-243-4207 Web: corneliastreetcafe.com “a culinary as well as a cultural landmark" Mayoral Proclamation, City of New York1987 Tuesday, December 28th 8:30 - 11 PM Count Basie Centennial Celebration with EYO ~ The Eli Yamin Orchestra Eli Yamin, piano Brad Leali, alto saxophone Harold Ousley, tenor saxophone Claire Daly, baritone saxophone Ravi Best, trumpet ...
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“I have to congratulate you…for your creative approach.”

Dave Brubeck, pianist/composer

“Pianist Eli Yamin is a communicator who believes jazz can foster a sense of community. His work is expansive and extroverted, populist in the best sense.”

George Kanzler, All About Jazz New York

“"For anyone needing a boptism and rebirth in the blues, look no further,"…one of [the] miracle workers in this arena is pianist/composer Eli Yamin, the driving force behind an extremely successful series of jazz musicals…”