AS a rainstorm battered the Hudson
River waterfront on a recent Wednesday evening, Mark Morganelli stepped briskly
into the Embassy Community Center here, carrying drumsticks and a cymbals bag.
A crowd of about 40 sat inside, and a jazz band from Hastings-on-Hudson, the
David Janeway Quintet, milled around three microphones. The concert was part of
the Dobbs Ferry Summer Music Series, a program of free weekly shows that
usually draws hundreds to the village's waterfront park. But the weather had
forced the concert inside and kept most of the crowd away. Even the drummer was
late, delayed by tornado-induced road closures.
Mr. Morganelli, a short, tan man
with curly black hair, rearranged the drum set and set up his cymbals, saying
with a chuckle, ''Whoever set this up doesn't play drums.'' Then he introduced
the band, as he does five times a week at regular concerts throughout
Westchester. After waiting a few more minutes for the delayed drummer, Mr.
Morganelli, a trumpet and flugelhorn player by trade, sat down at the drum set.
He kept crisp rhythms for a half-hour, then excused himself; he was late for
his weekly gig at the Equus Restaurant in Tarrytown, where he would play with
his band, the Jazz Forum All-Stars, for two more hours.
Mr. Morganelli may not be a
household name, but he has been a familiar and influential presence in inner
New York jazz circles for more than 25 years. He has been playing
professionally since the 10th grade, has recorded four albums of his own and
produced more than 50 others. He started a popular underground performing space
in a Greenwich Village loft in the late 1970's, and has presented concerts at
Carnegie Hall, the Beacon Theater and Lincoln Center. Since moving to Dobbs
Ferry in 1991, he has assumed the role of jazz ambassador to Westchester, where
he presents 50 free outdoor concerts a year and runs the Jazz at the Tarrytown
Music Hall series.
Mr. Morganelli grew up on Long
Island, listening to Count Basie and Frank Sinatra. His career as a performer
and impresario started at Bucknell University, where he directed the school's
jazz-and-rock ensemble, coordinated a European tour for the group and presented
concerts in his dorm.
After graduation, he spent a year
playing hotel gigs in Pennsylvania and Florida, then moved to Manhattan in
1978, at the height of the era when jazz concerts in lofts were popular. At age
24 he rented a loft in Cooper Square, renovated it and started performing and
presenting concerts. His roommates served as the house rhythm section.
''It was a different time,'' Mr.
Morganelli said. ''You could rent a raw loft for almost nothing, tear out the
floor, sand it, and just start putting on concerts.''
After a year at Cooper Square, he
moved to a space on Bleecker Street, and the Jazz Forum took off. The loft's
low ticket prices helped -- concerts rarely cost more than $4 -- and so did its
location. Wynton Marsalis, the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center,
lived across the street and performed regularly, as did the drummer Art Blakey.
Mr. Morganelli presented shows in
his home seven nights a week for four years. The Jazz Forum closed when it was
priced out of its neighborhood by the booming downtown real estate market, a
fate that befell most jazz lofts of the era. His landlord evicted him in 1983,
even though Mr. Marsalis and Mr. Blakey offered to cover Mr. Morganelli's rent
to save the concerts.
Mr. Marsalis remembered the
episode in an e-mail message sent from Spain, where he was on tour, and added:
''Mark brings a consistent energy and love of the music to his concert
promotion. As a musician, he also brings a deep knowledge of the music.''
After moving uptown and working as
the music coordinator at Birdland for five years, Mr. Morganelli relocated to
Dobbs Ferry. At the time Westchester had a small jazz scene, centered around
DeFemio's, a restaurant and jazz club in Yonkers.
Mr. Morganelli's first attempts to
promote jazz in the suburbs did not go smoothly. After a successful concert at
the Tarrytown Music Hall in June 1992, he persuaded organizers at the hall to
let him present a fall series -- and only 140 people showed up in the 843-seat
hall for the first concert. But three weeks later, Sonny Rollins played, and
Mr. Morganelli sold 750 tickets.
Now he emcees 10 shows a year at
the Music Hall, selling most of the tickets himself. Dave Brubeck, Cassandra
Wilson, Joshua Redman and Lionel Hampton are a few who have played.
''There was jazz when Mark
arrived, but he's taken it to another level by making it accessible and
affordable,'' Janet Langsam, executive director of the Westchester Arts
Council, a Jazz Forum Arts sponsor, said in a telephone interview. ''He's
brought it outdoors, out of the bars and into the communities.''
With well-attended free summer
concert series in Yonkers, Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown, Ossining and Mount Vernon,
the suburban jazz movement seems to be working. But Mr. Morganelli said that
securing financing for it was a constant struggle. ''The old adage goes, if you
want to be a millionaire in jazz, start with two million,'' he said. ''My
parents go to Atlantic City to gamble; I present jazz.''
Mr. Morganelli has begun his
second gig of the evening -- at Equus, where his quartet plays softly in a
corner while elderly couples dine in the luxurious, wood-paneled room.
''When I was in the city, there
was music all over the place,'' Mr. Morganelli said. ''We were in this totally
trunky bohemian loft in the village, and now it's Wynton in Armani suits at
Lincoln Center. Jazz has undergone some changes.''
He then added, ''But I like my
life now.''
Mark Morganelli and the Jazz Forum All-Stars Brazilian Project will be
performing on Tuesday in Mount Vernon, at 7 p.m. at City Hall Plaza at One
Roosevelt Square; on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park,
adjacent to the train station; on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Law Park, 48 Macy
Road, Briarcliff Manor (presented by Pace University); and on Friday at 6:30
p.m. at Pierson Park on West Main Street in Tarrytown. All shows are free;
information on other summer concerts can be found at jazzforumarts.org.