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E-mail Jazz Forum Arts Mark Morganelli "Building a Jazz Buzz" ... The New York Times 7/30/06

Jazz Forum Arts Executive Director Mark Morganelli began presenting concerts in his first Jazz Forum loft at 50 Cooper Square in June 1979. By the time the second Jazz Forum loft closed its doors in April 1983, recordings, videos, films and radio broadcasts had documented performances by Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Woody Shaw, Red Rodney, Carmen McRae, Barry Harris and Max Roach. After brief residencies at the Village Gate and the Entermedia Theater, Morganelli established Jazz Forum Arts, a not-for-profit arts presenting organization, and in 1985 started the Riverside Park Arts Festival, which concluded on its 13th anniversary in August 1997. Morganelli has produced over fifty compact discs, most for Candid Records, twenty of which were recorded "live" at NYC's Birdland club, where he was the music coordinator for five years.

Fifteen years ago, Morganelli and his family moved to Westchester, and shortly thereafter, he inaugurated the Jazz at the Music Hall series in Tarrytown. Performers have included Ahmad Jamal, Billy Taylor, James Moody, Lionel Hampton, Betty Carter, Gerry Mulligan, Herbie Mann, Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Dave Brubeck, Chuck Mangione, and the Count Basie and Duke Ellington Orchestras. Morganelli produced the Sunnyside and Berkshire Jazz Festivals and was executive producer of "Reckson Jazz at Tilles", at C.W.Post for nine years. Other productions have included the Tarrytown Arts Festival, and concerts at Paramount Center in Peekskill, the Palace Theatre in Stamford, CT, NJPAC, The John Harms Center in Englewood, NJ, the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, SUNY, The Beacon Theatre and The Town Hall, NYC. Morganelli also produced the Dizzy Gillespie 75th Birthday concert at Carnegie Hall and co-produced the "Jazz Beats Breast Cancer" concert at Avery Fisher Hall. Recently, he began presenting a new concert series at for Jazz at Lincoln Center. He continues to perform with his Jazz Forum All-Stars on Wednesdays at Castle-on-the-Hudson in Tarrytown, and at many venues around the NY Metropolitan area.

Tarrytown Music Hall    The Hudson Valley's Landmark Theatre

In the historic countryside of Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow Legends stands Westchester's oldest legitimate theater. The Music Hall, built in 1885, has old world charm and graciousness, excellent acoustics and visibility and an 840-seat capacity that make it suited for drama, dance, concerts, lectures and films. The Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark, was designed by Philip Edmunds and was built by William Wallace, a local chocolate manufacturer. It was initially used for concerts, town meetings, and cotillions. In 1901, the Music Hall became one of the first theaters in Westchester to show moving pictures. Further renovations occurred in 1915 when the marquee was added, and in 1922 when a proscenium was built, permanent seating installed, and the interior decorated in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. In February 1980, The Friends of the Mozartina Musical Arts Conservatory, Inc., a non-profit, educational and cultural organization bought the Music Hall with the purpose of establishing a center for the arts.