The National Jazz Museum in Harlem continues to offer a wide range of top quality free programming and affordable concerts from jazz’s most celebrated musicians, educators and historians. June’s focus on Gordon Parks brought in a fascinating array of contemporary jazz polymaths for the Jazz For Curious Listeners series and we sparked new discussion on the Harlem Arts community and representations of African Americans in art with the third installment of our Parallax Conversation Series. This month's Jazz For Curious Listeners events reach across the world, highlighting the connections jazz between Arab, Israeli, North African, and Spanish musical traditions. We are making a strong case against the artificial divisions that stop us from hearing what these great traditions share with jazz. Join us as we delve into the connections between Jewish and North African music with Nadav Remez and his work with the New Jerusalem Orchestra, explore the Arab musical tradition as transplanted to New York City with Sami Abu Shumays, and hear Middle Eastern, Israeli and Latin inspired jazz with Alon Nechushtan.The fourth installment of the Parallax Conversation Series continues on the same theme of musical unity with what promises to be a scintillating conversation between Spanish Flamenco singer Alfonso Cid and Israeli trumpeter-composer Itamar Borochov. They have both collaborated with a Jewish-Moroccan linguist so with this as a jumping off point we hope you’ll come along for our Pan-Arab, Pan-African, Spanish conversation right here in Harlem!Our Harlem Speaks guest this month, David Chevan has long been championing and creating new music with his work as co-founder of the Afro-Semitic Experience- an ensemble dedicated to preserving, promoting and expanding the rich cultural and musical heritage of the Jewish and African diaspora. Come listen to him discuss and share examples of how these traditions overlap. Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Jazz for Curious ListenersNadav Remez7:00 – 8:30pm Location: The National Jazz Museum in Harlem(104 East 126th Street, Suite 2C)Donation Suggested | For more information: 212-348-8300 Israeli-born guitarist Nadav Remez is one of today’s emerging voices on the NYC Jazz scene, and his music is gaining the attention of both fans and music critics worldwide. His melodic abilities on the guitar have been described as “haunting”, and his music as an intriguing combination of modern Jazz, Alternative Rock and Jewish Folk. Join us as he discusses his career and plays selections of his projects that highlight the connections between his Israeli and jazz musical style.Nadav is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory. His latest CD, “So Far” was released on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records and has been critically acclaimed (4-stars on Jazzwise). Nadav has collaborated with some of today’s leading figures in Jazz: Omer Avital, Greg Tardy, Jason Lindner, Myron Walden and Jamey Haddad, to name a few, at some of the world’s largest jazz festivals, including Montreux Jazz Festival, Bologna Jazz Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, and Palatia Jazz FestiTuesday, July 9, 2013 Jazz for Curious ListenersNew Jerusalem Orchestra- Eternal Love (“Ahavat Olamim) hosted by Nadav Remez 7:00 – 8:30pm Location: Maysles Cinema(343 Lenox Avenue between 127th & 128th)Donation Suggested | For more information: 212-348-8300 The New Jerusalem Orchestra (NJO) is a world-class musical ensemble dedicated to creating new music that draws on African and Middle Eastern musical traditions, including Middle Eastern piyyut (Jewish traditions of sacred music), and is informed by a sophisticated and joyous jazz sensibility. The film, "Eternal Love," documents a spirited and moving live performance from the 2010 Israel Festival, featuring the virtuoso musician, gifted bandleader and founding member of the NJO, the bassist Omer Avital, together with the celebrated saxophonist, Greg Tardy, and the master of Moroccan piyyut, Rabbi Haim Louk. Thursday, July 11th, 2013 Special Event: The Jazz and Democracy Project with Wes Watkins6:30-8:30Location: The National Jazz Museum in Harlem(104 East 126th Street, Suite 2C)Donation Suggested | For more information: 212-348-8300 The Jazz & Democracy Project manifests a hypothesis that Wesley J. Watkins, IV, Ph.D. has been investigating since he was an undergraduate: a music-centered curriculum with genuine links to the other subject areas can increase student identification with school, impact academic engagement, and have a subsequent positive effect on overall academic success among students who have an affinity for music. “Dr. Wes,” as his students now call him, first proposed such a curriculum as part of the Stanford University School of Education Undergraduate Honors Program. The key ingredient, Dr. Wes hypothesized, is genuine connections to the other subject areas. That is, having students create a rap to memorize their history lesson is one way to integrate music, but integration can occur at much deeper levels when the arts content in some way mirrors or demonstrates core concepts from social studies, literature, science, or mathematics. Such is the depth of integration found in The Jazz & Democracy Project: to learn about the jazz process is to learn about the democratic process.Dr. Wes is an avid music lover—especially Jazz and Latin Jazz—who enjoys interviewing and writing about his favorite artists. Beginning in 2003, Dr. Wes operated “The List”—first an e-mail notification and then a blog—that educated the public about great live music in the Bay Area. In 2009, Dr. Wes began posting his interviews with top musicians, including international and local stars Poncho Sanchez, Rebeca Mauleón and Marcus Shelby, as well as world renowned masters Horacio “El Negro” Hernández and Ahmad Jamal. In April, 2009, he began hosting the We’re Talkin’ Jazz series of pre-concert talks at The Jazz Heritage Center. In partnership with the San Francisco Yoshi’s this series opened with a sold-out interview with Terence Blanchard, followed by interviews with Rachelle Ferrell, Pat Martino, Tony Lindsay, Jacky Terrasson, and Mike Stern with Randy Brecker.To learn more visit www.jazzanddemocracy.com.Tuesday, July 16, 2013Jazz for Curious ListenersSami Abu Shumays 7:00 – 8:30pm Location: The National Jazz Museum in Harlem(104 East 126th Street, Suite 2C)Donation Suggested | For more information: 212-348-8300 In our efforts to illuminate the musical continuities within the Middle East and draw out the region’s relationship to jazz, we are thrilled to have Palestinian-American violinist Sami Abu Shumays as part of Jazz For Curious Listeners to discuss how his musical career fits and reflects contemporary New York City. Originally a composer and scholar of Western Classical music, he began studying Arabic violin with renowned Arabic violinist and oud player Simon Shaheen in New York, where he concurrently pursued graduate studies in composition and ethnomusicology at C.U.N.Y. after receiving his B.A. in Music from Harvard. Seeking a deeper immersion in Arab musical culture, Sami studied in Cairo, Egypt on a Fulbright fellowship, with Dr. Alfred Gamil, and continued his studies in Aleppo, Syria, with Mohammed Qasas, Abdel-Basit Bakkar, and Abdel-Minaim Senkary–experiences that led him to devote himself to Arabic music. Thursday July 18th, 2013Harlem SpeaksDavid Chevan6:30-8:30Location: The National Jazz Museum in Harlem(104 East 126th Street, Suite 2C)Donation Suggested | For more information: 212-348-8300 As co-founder of the Afro-Semitic Experience, Jewish-American jazz bassist David Chevan is a perfect fit for Harlem Speaks with his extensive study on the connections between Jewish and African American sacred traditions. When the group was first formed they collaborated on a mission statement: “The Afro-Semitic Experience is an ensemble dedicated to preserving, promoting and expanding the rich cultural and musical heritage of the Jewish and African diaspora.”Bassist and composer, David Chevan was born in Philadelphia in 1960, and grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. His early passion for music has led him to explore a wide range of musical realms from singing in synagogue, to playing in Gospel groups, Polka bands, Klezmer bands, and Italian wedding bands, and finally to Jazz and contemporary composition. He has composed music for a wide range of artists and ensembles, including several collaborations with dance and film. His most recent compositions have focused on melding jazz improvisational practice with Jewish liturgy. In addition to performing regularly in a duo with pianist Warren Byrd and leading their group, The Afro-Semitic Experience, Chevan has had the opportunity to perform and record with, Joe Beck, Harold Danko, Mat Darriau, Jason Kao Hwang, Laura Wetzler, Giacomo Gates, Frank London, Herb Robertson, and Cookie Segelstein. He is a Professor of Music at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven and is proud to be a member of the board of trustees of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation. "Never before have I heard this lyrically powerful a fusion of Jewish and jazz souls on fire.” Nat Hentoff, The Wall Street Journal on The Afro-Semitic Experience Tuesday, July 23, 2013Parallax Conversation SeriesAlfonso Cid and Itamar Borochov7:00 – 8:30pm Location: The National Jazz Museum in Harlem(104 East 126th Street, Suite 2C)Donation Suggested | For more information: 212-348-8300 Parallax: noun- The effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions.For our fourth installment of the Parallax Conversation series we are thrilled to bring together the virtuosic, Spanish Flamenco singer, Alfonso Cid, with unique Israeli trumpeter-composer, Itamar Borochov. You might ask what these two could possibly have in common, they’ve both worked with the famous Jewish-Moroccan liturgist Rabbi Haim Louk for starters, but that’s what we hope you’ll join us to find out!More about the participants:Alfonso Cid was born and raised in Seville, the heartland of Flamenco music. His mother, an amateur singer from Triana, a Flamenco enclave in Seville, and his grandfather, an aficionado of Flamenco were his earliest influences. He also had the opportunity of attending the activities of one the most significant Flamenco clubs in Andalusia, the Peña Flamenca Torres-Macarena since 1987. Alfonso enrolled at the Seville Conservatory in 1990 to study flute and music theory. For the following 5 years he received a classical training. He also attended the classes at the Cristina Heeren Foundation for Flamenco Art in 2007 and 2008 in Sevilla, Spain, where he studied with maestro Paco Taranto and the new talent of Rocío Márquez and Elena Morales.In 1997 Alfonso moved to the United States, since then he is based in New York City. He has made many guest appearances at important venues including Madison Square Garden, American Airlines Arena (Miami), Amway Center (Orlando) and Staples Center (Los Angeles) with the popular Latin artist Romeo Santos. He had the honor of recording backing vocals in the song titled “Mi Santa” by Santos in which the great flamenco guitarist Tomatito was a featured guest artist. He also performed at the 92 Y with singer songwriter and peace activist David Broza; Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, Town Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Sala Covarrubias in Mexico City to name a few. He has worked with all of the significant artists in the flamenco ambiance through out the USA, performing and touring in the Tri-State area, Washington DC, San Francisco, Portland, OR; Chicago, Detroit, Kentucky, Toronto, Ottawa, British Columbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and Spain. Since February of 2008 he has been teaching flamenco “cante” (flamenco song) at Flamenco Latino Studios and has given several flamenco “cante” for dance workshops at Lotus Music and Dance Studios. That includes a series of lecture/demonstrations in 2010, 2011 and 2012 titled “El Baile Flamenco” in which he shares the structure of flamenco singing, guitar playing and choreography. In partnership with Carlota Santa’s Flamenco Vivo Alfonso produced in 2010 “La Música Flamenca” (The Flamenco Music) for the Lincoln Center Institute. Itamar Borochov brings a unique sound with him wherever he goes. Deeply immersed in the Jazz tradition, Borochov’s search for his personal roots resulted in an ever-expanding love for Arab and Pan- African musical sensibilities – a natural palette for a trumpeter-composer raised in Jaffa, an integrated Muslim-Jewish-Christian city. Itamar fell in love with Jazz in his teens, and dedicated himself to its study, eventually moving to New York in 2006, to attend The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. There he studied with Junior Mance, Charles Tolliver, Jimmy Owens, Cecil Bridgewater, Jo Chambers, and quickly gained international recognition as a young innovator on today’s Jazz scene. Since then, Itamar has had the privilege to both perform and record with legendary artists such as Curtis Fuller, Candido Camero, Arnie Lawrence, Bobby Sanabria, Aaron Goldberg, Greg Tardy, and Omer Avital.While deeply immersed in the Jazz tradition, Borochov’s search for his personal roots resulted in an ever-expanding love the musical traditions of the Arab world. Resulting in collaborations with the great Jewish-Moroccan liturgist Rabbi Haim Louk, the world music phenomenon Debka Fantasia, The New Jerusalem Orchestra, and Israeli rock singer Dudu Tassa. In 2009, his good friends and collaborators, Ravid Kahalani and Omer Avital, invited Itamar to become a core member of the world music sensation Yemen Blues and to help build its unique sound. Itamar Has performed in prestigious venues and festivals around the globe, such as Lincoln Center (NY), The Kennedy Center, (Washington DC), Summer Stage at Central Park (NY), Roskilde Festival (Denmark), Ethnoport Festival (Poland), and more. He has performed at music showcases such as Babel Med (France), Womex (Denmark), and International Exposure (Israel). Nowadays, Itamar is quickly gaining international recognition as a young Jazz innovator. His music reflects on his rich global-landscape through the Jazz tradition. We can’t wait to hear where he goes next.
