contacts
jazz

Abbey Lincoln and Moseka House – Presented by Marc Cary and Healdsburg Jazz

Free Zoom Presentation

Abbey Lincoln and Moseka House – The House that She Wanted to Build
Presented by Marc Cary

With special guests Gary Bartz and Michael Bowie

Sunday, October 18, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM (Pacific Time)

Our Zoom series, celebrating jazz history and culture,

are curated by Jessica Felix and hosted by Marcus Shelby

Moseka House was a physical home that Abbey Lincoln always wanted to build where musicians could come to feel safe and free. In this presentation, Marc Cary will be keeping this dream alive with her music and conversation about her dreams and her ongoing quest for freedom using her music and words for social change.

After a tour of Africa in the mid-1970s, she adopted the name Aminata Moseka Traveling to Africa with Miriam Makeba, she was given the name "Aminata" by the President of Guinea, and "Moseka" by the Minister of Information of Zaire. One of Lincoln's unfulfilled dreams was to create a physical place for musicians called Moseka House. Almost like a monastery, a place where musicians can go and be safe; where they can speak about things that they think about Moseka House had only existed for Lincoln in her mind. Cary has been keeping the dream of Moseka House alive. "Because she could realize it in her head, " he says, "it lives."

In this presentation, the panel will discuss the lessons learned from Abbey Lincoln on etiquette, how the social justice movement of the 1960s influenced her music and lyrics, and how she wove the social context of the day into her music. We will learn about her years in hibernation, and what that meant for her growth as an artist, and we will also learn how Abbey felt about the importance of owning your own legacy and how that compares to today.

Each participant will share recordings and videos, reflecting on the music they played with her and their unique experiences as young apprentices with Abbey Lincoln including Gary Bartz’s experience with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln on the “Freedom Now Suite”.

In a jazz world brimming with brilliant and adventurous pianists, Marc Cary stands apart by way of pedigree and design. None of his prestigious peer group ever set the groove behind the drums in Washington DC go-go bands nor are any other graduates of both Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln's daunting bandstand academies.

Cary remains one of the progenitors of contemporary jazz, evident in his influence on peers. Live gigs with vibraphonist Stefon Harris and bandmate Casey Benjamin began the genesis of Robert Glasper’s recording Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit, " and Cary's record "Taiwa" from Focus in 2006 evolved into "For You" on Glasper's Double Booked and Harris' Urbanus. Cary collaborator Roy Hargrove exalted him with "Caryisms" on 1992's The Vibe, an album whosetitle track is one of two Cary originals including "Running Out of Time"--now part of the lexicon of live repertoire among jazz stalwarts Hargrove, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Igmar Thomas' Revive Big Band.

As New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen observed recently, “There isn’t much in the modern-jazz-musician tool kit that Marc Cary hasn’t mastered, but he has a particular subspecialty in the area of groove…with a range of rhythmic strategies, from a deep-house pulse to a swinging churn.” Mr. Cary richly embodies the spirit of diverse streams that feed into the ample body of what we consider jazz history today.

Gary Bartz is an award-winning alto saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, instructor, and sideman. Though he began his career with the Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln group in 1964, he also played extensively with McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Woody Shaw, and Terumasa Hino. Critics considered him one of the standout soloists on Miles Davis' groundbreaking Live Evil. Bartz also founded the pioneering NTU Troop, who issued a series of pioneering albums that seamlessly integrated soul, funk, African folk music, hard and post-bop, and spiritually informed avant-garde jazz, with albums including Follow the Medicine Man and I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies. Bartz worked extensively with groundbreaking musicians and producers including Norman Connors, Donald Byrd, and producers the Mizell Brothers. Though he led fewer dates during the '80s and '90s, he remained active as both collaborator and sideman.

In 2003, Bartz joined the faculty of the Jazz Studies department at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He won a Grammy for his playing on Tyner's Illuminations in 2005 and released the acclaimed Coltrane Rules: Tao Music Warrior in 2012. In 2015 he was awarded the BNY Mellon Jazz 2015 Living Legacy Award. As he turns 80, he continues to inspire and shape future generations, as evidenced by his recent recordings with UK spiritual jazz outfit Maisha, and his collaboration on Jazz Is Dead with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Yonge.

With roots in the Washington D.C. jazz and gospel community, Michael Bowie is a recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Award in Jazz Studies and trained with Betty Carter and Keter Betts. Soon after, Michael signed with Verve Records as an original member of “The Harper Brothers”. He went on to perform, record and tour with Abdulla Ibrahim, Michel Petrucciani, including the Grammy Award-winning “Look What I Got” with Betty Carter.

Michael has expanded his musical interests and performance to include a wide variety of musical forms from jazz to symphony to rock. As a musical director, he has worked with many artists worldwide including Patti Labelle, James Ingram, Jeff Majors, Abbey Lincoln, Angie Stone, Isaac Hayes. He has shared his talents in the recording studio and on the stage with Sarah Vaughn, Joe Williams, Abbey Lincoln, Manhattan Transfer, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, Della Reese, and Michel Camilo and Ricky Skaggs. He has appeared on countless television shows such as BET, Austin City Limits, Charlie Rose, Radio One, as well as having performed at major venues and festivals such as Carnegie Hall, the Newport Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival, Montreux, and most other major festivals world-wide.
 
press contacts

Jazz Promo Services · 269 State Route 94 South · Warwick, Ny 10990 · USA
jazz

© 2007