Afri-Garifuna Ensemble featuring Lucy Blanc

A Celebration of Garifuna Culture

May 17, 2014 @ 6:00pm

In honor of the 13th anniversary of the Proclamation of the Garifuna Language, Music and Dance as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO The program will open with a screening of the film, Revolutionary Medicine: A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital followed by a Q&A.
The Maxine Sullivan Women in Jazz Series
curated by Valerie Capers, Elena Martínez and Bobby Sanabria
Maxine Sullivan (1911-1987) was born Marietta Williams in Homestead, Pennsylvania. She came to New York City in 1937. During her first week here she went to “Swing Street,” as 52nd Street was known, and became the vocalist for the house band at the Onyx Club. Her first week also saw her debut at a recording session with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Thornhill suggested she sing a swing version of the Scottish folk song, “Loch Lomond.” This song was a hit and gave her international acclaim. In 1938 she appeared in the movie Go- ing Places with Louis Armstrong, where they introduced the song, “Jeepers Creepers.” She also appeared on Broadway with Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman in a jazz version of “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.” In 1940 she performed with John Kirby (a bandleader and her husband) on a national weekly radio program called “Flow Gently Sweet Rhythm.” They were pioneers in that they were among the first Black jazz musicians to have their own radio program. In 1958 she was one of three women to appear in the legendary “A Great Day in Harlem” photograph (along with Marian McPartland and Mary Lou Williams). By 1957 she had remarried to stride pianist Cliff Jackson. She temporarily retired to stay home and raise her daughter, and during this time was involved in Bronx civic affairs and community organizing from her home at 818 Ritter Place. The home also became the setting of jam sessions involving local jazz musicians. In 1945 Maxine and her husband bought another house at 1312 Stebbins Avenue which had previously been the home of musician Eddie Mallory and his wife vocalist Ethel Waters. Maxine and Cliff convert- edit to a boardinghouse where musicians such as trombonist Vic Dickenson and drummer Marquis Foster stayed. When Jackson died in 1979 Maxine wanted to open a jazz community center and museum dedicated to her late husband, and thus the home on Stebbins Avenue became known as “The House That Jazz Built,” having its grand opening on July 19, 1975. Sullivan’s generosity is remembered in other ways as well. Jazz pianist Valerie Capers, who grew up in the Morrisania area on Union Street, remembers seeing Maxine in the neighborhood at Ritter Place. As a teenager interested in jazz, Valerie and a friend went to Maxine’s house and were invited in to talk. Valerie has always remembered this kindness for a “celebrity” to take the time to talk to young people in the neighborhood. In recognition of this, and to also recognize the many unsung women musicians in jazz, we have decided to name the new featured series at the Bronx Music Heritage Center in her honor: celebrating someone who has opened doors both literally and figuratively.
Film Screening: Revolutionary Medicine: A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital
Revolutionary Medicine: A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital is a documentary film about a community that got fed up and built their own hospital.
Since their expulsion from the island of Saint Vincent 215
years ago, the Garifuna have struggled against exclusion,
racism, and dispossession of their land and territory. Today, their very first hospital serves as a bastion of self-determination. Revolutionary Medicine tells the story of how the hospital’s alternative health model is transforming communities on Honduras’ northern coast and standing as an alternative to the increasingly privatized national health system. You will see if a remote hospital that runs on solar panels, in a community without paved roads or electricity, can provide a new global model for health care? The film is co-directed by Beth Geglia and Jesse Freeston. Media makers who have been working in solidarity with Honduran communities since the 2009 military coup. A Q&A will follow by Nixon Arauz, who participated in the film.
The Maxine Sullivan Women in Jazz Series, Pt. III The Afri-Garifuna Jazz Ensemble featuring Lucy Blanco
Afri-Garifuna Jazz originated at 1474 Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn in the spring of 2011. The new musical art form has a unique and distinct sound because it incorporates the traditional Garifuna rhythms such as punta, paranda, and hungu hungu with jazz to create music from a Garifuna perspective. New York City has always been a place where vibrant fusions have emerged. Big band jazz and Afro-Cuban son fused in 1939 by Machito & the Afro-Cubans to form Afro-Cuban jazz; R&B mixed with Cuban rhythms in the 1960s to form Latin bugalú (or boogaloo). Now NYC is the home to the new fusion led by the Afri-Garifuna Jazz Ensemble.
The group had its beginnings in Los Angeles in 2008 when jazz vocalist Lucy Blanco began learning more about her Garifuna heritage. She began blending the Garifuna language and percussive rhythms with jazz aided by her music director, Michael Andres. The first piece recorded this concept in 2009 with a demo of Wayne Shorter’s, “Speak No Evil.” Lucy returned to her hometown and Jazz Mecca, New York City that same year, and was able to work with some of the best jazz musicians in the city, continuing to fuse jazz standards with traditional Garifuna songs. The Garifuna jazz sound continued to evolve as Lucy collaborated with James Lovell, becoming the Afri-Garifuna Jazz Ensemble.