MARK MORGANELLI

Candid Recording(s):

Speak Low (CCD 79054)

Biography

Trumpeter 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 celebrated its 16th anniversary this August.

Morganelli has produced over forty compact discs for Candid Records, half of which were recorded "live" at NYC's Birdland Club, where he was the music coordinator for five years. Ten years ago, Morganelli and his family moved to Westchester, and shortly thereafter, he inaugurated the Jazz at the Music Hall series. Performers have included Ahmad Jamal, Billy Taylor, Harry "Sweets" Edison, James Moody, Lionel Hampton, Betty Carter, Gerry Mulligan, Herbie Mann, Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, Dave Brubeck, Chuck Mangione, and the Count Basie Orchestra. For three years, Morganelli has produced a jazz concert series at the Emelin Theater in Mamaroneck and is executive producer of "Reckson Jazz at Tilles", at C.W. Post College in Greenvale, Long Island.

Jazz Forum Arts collaborated with Historic Hudson Valley to present the 6th annual Sunnyside Jazz Festival at Washington Irving's Hudson River estate, and Morganelli co-produced the 1996 Jazz Cares! "Jazz Beats Breast Cancer" concert at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, in NYC. Morganelli continues to perform and record with his Jazz Forum All-Stars at home and abroad, most recently in Italy and on the QE2.