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Bertha Hope - March Performances Bertha Hope is a Jazz pianist and educator. Born in Los Angeles, California, she started having an interest in jazz through the playing of Bud Powell. In the late 1950s, Bertha began working professionally in Los Angeles Jazz clubs, where she met the great Elmo Hope, whom she later married and worked extensively with. In 1961, they moved to the East Coast and released a duo album for Riverside, entitled “Hope-Full.” Some years after Elmo died, Bertha created the ELMOllenium project to preserve the musical legacy of her late husband, by performing and teaching his work to other artists. Bertha was the director of the music program at the Goddard Riverside Community Center in New York City from 1969 to 1982. She co-created a band with the help of Cobi Narita, a music porter who worked to create collectives and venues for female musicians. In 1982, she joined the all-female Kit McClure Band as a pianist and vocalist. With Kit’s band, Bertha performed across the East Coast and toured extensively in Japan. During the same period, Bertha formed Jazzberry Jam!, an all-women quartet. Jazzberry Jam! performed throughout the tri-state area at some of the most prestigious Jazz clubs and venues, including: Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Bradley's, The Jazz Standard, Knickerbocker, Birdland, the Apollo Theater, the Schomburg Library, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, and The Brooklyn Museum. National tour performances included the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, The Savannah Jazz Festival in Georgia, and the Renaissance Jazz Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1998, at the invitation of the legendary trumpet virtuoso, the late Nat Adderley, Jazzberry Jam! performed at Florida Southern College’s annual Child of the Sun Festival, resulting in their first CD together, entitled “Jazzberry Jam!Live.” Internationally, in 1999, Jazzberry Jam! was featured in a documentary entitled “Les Femmes du Jazz” for the French Arts Channel. Written and directed by Gilles Corre, this film received the award for Best Documentaryat France’s Bairritz Film Festival. They also performed at Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland. Bertha is the recipient of two lifetime achievement awards. The first in 2002 from Cobi Narita's Jazz Coalition. The second, given by the late Dr. Billy Taylor in 2005, at the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The International Women in Jazz honored Bertha in 2012 with its Jazz award. In 2014, her 3-year oral history project was made available at the Library of Congress, and the following year, she was presented with the Bronx Living Legend Award by fellow artist Bobby Sanabria at the Bronx Music Heritage Center where Bobby is the co-artistic director, together with his wife, Elena Martinez. In 2018, Berthawon the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s Legends of Jazz Award. Additionally, in 2021, Bertha was feted as a Jazz Trailblazer, receiving an Osceola Macarthy Adams Award. There are 4 CDs released by Bertha Hope, all of which are available on Amazon. They are entitled: “Elmo’s Fire, ” “In Search Of Hope, ” “Between Two Kings, ” and “Nothin’ But Love.” |
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