Misstropolis

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

A Great Night in Harlem

by Robin Hauck

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It was the kind of night where strangers in the lobby seemed like close friends. Reading the program book felt like discovering buried treasure. And hearing the music… well it was enough to send a person right out of the Apollo Theater all the way down to New Orleans and back, jazz aficionado or not. It was A Great Night in Harlem.

For 18 years the Jazz Foundation of America has been supporting elder jazz and blues musicians experiencing great difficulties in their lives. What started as an effort to help a handful of musicians, run out of a Manhattan apartment, has grown into a full-fledged organization handling over 3,000 cases a year.

A Great Night in Harlem is the Jazz Foundation’s main fundraising event. This year’s theme “A History of the Music” told the story of jazz through the music of some of its original creators and legendary superstars. The list of performers itself is testament to the Foundation’s reach and impact. From the 5 original “Silver Belles” who opened the Apollo shows in the 1930’s, to the Duke Ellington Orchestra, to Roy Haynes “one of the most famous jazz drummers to walk the earth,” to Sweet Georgia Brown, the whole jazz world it seemed, was on the stage that night.

Elvis Costello commented after last year’s show that one of the things he loved about it was that it “wasn’t slick, it was heartfelt.” This year, hosts Bill Cosby, Paul Shaffer and Danny Glover kept that heartfelt tone alive. Danny Glover appeared at least three times on stage accompanied by his - at first eager, and then stage-frightened - 3 year old grandson.

Wendy Oxenhorn came on as Director of the Foundation 6 years ago, bringing with her a personal history rich with love of music and giving. She is not just a Director; she is the heart that beats inside the organization. She cares for the musicians like family members. 90 year old drummer, singer and writer of over 600 songs Johnnie Mae Dunson Smith, for example, calls a couple times a week and has become like a surrogate grandmother for Wendy, even as Wendy is a lifesaver for Johnnie Mae.

Wendy attributes much of the success of the Jazz Foundation over the last decade to Jarrett Lilien. Jarrett has supported the cause since the beginning when the first musicians were being helped in an apartment in the same building as his. President of ETrade Financial, Jarrett has been responsible for finding housing for hundreds upon hundreds of musicians and their families who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina.

To learn more about how you can get involved with the Jazz Foundation of America, visit, http://jazzfoundation.org/. 322 West 48th Street, 6th floor, New York, NY 10036; 212-245-3999, ext. 21; or . Anyone who donates to the organization will be put on the list for the Great Night in Harlem next year.

“Living in a state of giving is very different.” Wendy says. “There is no time for your own problems, your own trials. You are always uplifted. That makes you feel so good. To try to do it any other way just doesn’t feel right… I tried the nine to five life, it wasn’t for me.”