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Baritone Milt Grayson Honored by Harlem Speaks on Thursday, April 21st 6:30PM
April 18, 2005
To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected]
The Jazz Museum in Harlem 104 East 126th Street New York, NY 10035 www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Baritone Milt Grayson Honored by Harlem Speaks on April 21st
New York, NY (April 18, 2005) Harlem Speaks, the ongoing discussion series of the Jazz Museum in Harlem (held on Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm), which honors people whose lives and legacy keep jazz alive in Harlem, has featured four illustrious sidemen and singers during March and April of 2005.
Milt Grayson, a Juilliard graduate with a uniquely rich and velvety baritone voice, closes out the set on April 21st. He began his career by touring Europe and South America with dance legend Katherine Dunham during the 1950s, and recorded and toured with Duke Ellington from 1960-1963. Grayson is also an accomplished actor who has performed on Broadway (Raisin, Bubbling Brown Sugar, and Purlie), and, recently, in Black Nativity, with whom he sang for Pope Paul II by special invitation. The Harlem baritone played the role of The Undertaker in George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with the Metropolitan Opera during the mid-1980s. Grayson’s resonant pipes are a preference of Wynton Marsalis’, who tapped the elegant gent to hold forth with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra from 1991-1995, and more recently on its “For Dancers Only" Spring 2000 U.S. Tour.
To the delight of the audience members in attendance at Harlem Speaks on Thursday, April 7, 2005, Mr. Grayson sang a rendition of Ellington’s “Sophisticated Ladies” during a special jam session that featured Executive Director Loren Schoenberg on tenor sax, guitarist Gene Bertoncini, and young turks Jumaane Smith on trumpet, Ivan Taylor on bass, and Ulysses Owens on drums. Swinging through a set of standards, these musical friends of the Jazz Museum in Harlem invited audience members to join in, including Vinnie Knight on a rousing blues: “Baby, Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On”! Knight first performed with Schoenberg over 20 years ago.
On Thursday, March 24th, renowned session drummer and baritone vocalist Grady Tate beamed in remembrance of his remarkable career. This interview, as are all in this continuous series, is preserved on video for the museum archives.
The wondrous Gloria Lynne, a member of a generation of contralto singers embodying the sound of the golden era of jazz, was a pure delight on Thursday, March 10, 2005. Ms. Lynne related stories of her early years as a songstress, and with grace and poise, and discussed everything from her times with Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dinah Washington to difficult dealings in the recording industry and her hit recordings from the 1960s.
If you haven't yet checked out this free bi-weekly series, you are missing history in the making! It's co-produced by the Jazz Museum in Harlem and Greg Thomas Associates, held at the offices of the Jazz Museum in Harlem, located at 104 East 126th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues. Time: 6:30pm-8:00pm.
Be on the lookout for our next release, in which the next set of four honorees will be announced! But here’s a preview of several: Dr. Billy Taylor, Mercedes Ellington, as well as a 32-year veteran sports writer from the New York Times who lives in Harlem, and has a long history of supporting jazz, Bill Rhoden!
The series, as always, is free to the public. Please call for reservations:
212 348-8300.
Loren Schoenberg Executive Director The Jazz Museum in Harlem 104 E.126th Street New York, N.Y. 10035 212.348.8300 p 212.348.5030 f www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org
To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected]
The Jazz Museum in Harlem 104 East 126th Street New York, NY 10035 www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Baritone Milt Grayson Honored by Harlem Speaks on April 21st
New York, NY (April 18, 2005) Harlem Speaks, the ongoing discussion series of the Jazz Museum in Harlem (held on Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm), which honors people whose lives and legacy keep jazz alive in Harlem, has featured four illustrious sidemen and singers during March and April of 2005.
Milt Grayson, a Juilliard graduate with a uniquely rich and velvety baritone voice, closes out the set on April 21st. He began his career by touring Europe and South America with dance legend Katherine Dunham during the 1950s, and recorded and toured with Duke Ellington from 1960-1963. Grayson is also an accomplished actor who has performed on Broadway (Raisin, Bubbling Brown Sugar, and Purlie), and, recently, in Black Nativity, with whom he sang for Pope Paul II by special invitation. The Harlem baritone played the role of The Undertaker in George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with the Metropolitan Opera during the mid-1980s. Grayson’s resonant pipes are a preference of Wynton Marsalis’, who tapped the elegant gent to hold forth with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra from 1991-1995, and more recently on its “For Dancers Only" Spring 2000 U.S. Tour.
To the delight of the audience members in attendance at Harlem Speaks on Thursday, April 7, 2005, Mr. Grayson sang a rendition of Ellington’s “Sophisticated Ladies” during a special jam session that featured Executive Director Loren Schoenberg on tenor sax, guitarist Gene Bertoncini, and young turks Jumaane Smith on trumpet, Ivan Taylor on bass, and Ulysses Owens on drums. Swinging through a set of standards, these musical friends of the Jazz Museum in Harlem invited audience members to join in, including Vinnie Knight on a rousing blues: “Baby, Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On”! Knight first performed with Schoenberg over 20 years ago.
On Thursday, March 24th, renowned session drummer and baritone vocalist Grady Tate beamed in remembrance of his remarkable career. This interview, as are all in this continuous series, is preserved on video for the museum archives.
The wondrous Gloria Lynne, a member of a generation of contralto singers embodying the sound of the golden era of jazz, was a pure delight on Thursday, March 10, 2005. Ms. Lynne related stories of her early years as a songstress, and with grace and poise, and discussed everything from her times with Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dinah Washington to difficult dealings in the recording industry and her hit recordings from the 1960s.
If you haven't yet checked out this free bi-weekly series, you are missing history in the making! It's co-produced by the Jazz Museum in Harlem and Greg Thomas Associates, held at the offices of the Jazz Museum in Harlem, located at 104 East 126th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues. Time: 6:30pm-8:00pm.
Be on the lookout for our next release, in which the next set of four honorees will be announced! But here’s a preview of several: Dr. Billy Taylor, Mercedes Ellington, as well as a 32-year veteran sports writer from the New York Times who lives in Harlem, and has a long history of supporting jazz, Bill Rhoden!
The series, as always, is free to the public. Please call for reservations:
212 348-8300.
Loren Schoenberg Executive Director The Jazz Museum in Harlem 104 E.126th Street New York, N.Y. 10035 212.348.8300 p 212.348.5030 f www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org
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