NYC Tribute to Jazz Artist, Consuela Lee, Oct. 29

Web Announcement

See Press Release Below

You are invited to

A Public Memorial and Cultural Tribute

at the Abyssinian Baptist church

SAT - OCT 29

12 p.m. - 3 p.m. 

To Consuela Edmonia Lee

Nov. 1, 1926 - Dec. 26, 2009

aka Consuela Moorehead

Jazz pianist - Composer - Arranger - Educator 

Join Rev. Calvin Butts

• Malcolm Lee & Spike Lee, filmmakers

• Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General

• Melba Joyce, Theonita Valentin, singers

• Steve Wilson, Arnold Tone Kaplan Lee, Clarence Patterson, saxophonists

• Billy Drummond, Sangoma Everett, Roy Wooten, drummers

• Composer Bill Lee, Lisle Atkinson, Richard Davis, Michael Fleming, Jacqueline Pickett, Luques Curtis, James King, bassists

• A. Grace Lee Mims, soprano • Augusta Grubb, program emcee

• Reggie Wooten, Victor Glaude, Charles Epps guitarists

• Clifton Lee, flugelhorn player

• Jim Davis, Deirdre Thompson, Maxine Clemmons, Harold Mayburn, Helen Sung, George Burton, pianists

• Courtney M. Jackson, dancer

• Pierre Sprey, founder, Mapleshade Records and other musicians, family, friends and admirers to honor this “musicians’ musician.” 

Abyssinian Baptist church

132 Odell Clark Pl., (formerly W 138th Street) Harlem, N.Y.

Located between 7th & Lenox Aves, aka Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd & Malcolm X Blvd

Take # 2, 3, B or C uptown trains to 135 Street. 

A Special Appeal

In 2010, the Consuela Lee Foundation for Music Education Inc. was formed by her family to carry on Ms. Lee’s far-reaching educational work.  

We are presently archiving songs, sheet music and school lesson plans of Consuela Lee’s innovative teaching techniques on the role of music in the process of learning. Her projects developed especially to build self-esteem for Black children in the rural South are an important resource for today’s educators. This educational material deserves to be preserved and made widely accessible to a new generation of appeal.

The Foundation is hoping, with proper funding, to digitize the wealth of Ms. Lee’s written, recorded and videotape material. All tax-deductible donations from the Memorial or sent through Ms. Lee’s website (click the donate button above) will be utilized to ensure the Foundation’s future.  

Checks can be written out to and mailed to:

Consuela Lee Foundation for Music Education Inc.,

225 W. 34th St. Suite 1611, New York, NY  10122-1615.

www.consuelalee.com/donate.shtml  

Look and listen to a sampling of the material that we have already made available. With your help we can do so much to provide innovative new programs to professionals and academics in the fields of African-American History and Studies, Music Education/History and Teacher Education. 

In the coming year we plan to publish a book of Consuela Lee’s writings. It will help to tell the story of the importance of music and culture during segregation and the struggle to maintain a vibrant African-American culture in the U.S. This will open new possibilities.

There is a wealth of material. But it needs your support. 

Please be generous. Donations are tax-deductible.

Our children are our future. 

Sponsored by: Consuela Lee Foundation for Music Education

Go to the Consuela Lee Foundation Music Education at www.consuelalee.com/donate.shtml

for memorial updates,to donate and learn more about Ms. Lee’s contributions.   

http://www.consuelalee.com/tribute.html 

http://www.billhackwell.com/photos/projects/snow-hill/

The Consuela Lee Foundation needs your support.  www.consuelalee.com. Distribute widely.  

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PRESS RELEASE

For further updates and interviews, contact:

Monica Moorehead
646-823-5875
mmashcat@aol.com

Immediate release

THE LATE JAZZ ARTIST, CONSUELA E. LEE, TO BE
REMEMBERED IN PUBLIC MEMORIAL & CULTURAL
TRIBUTE AT THE ABYSSINIAN BAPTIST CHURCH

HARLEM, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 20, 2011 – On Saturday, October 29, 2011, the life and work of accomplished pianist and theatrical performer, Consuela Edmonia Lee (aka Consuela Moorehead), will be honored at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York by an impressive list of renowned filmmakers, musicians and artists.  Officiated by Abyssinian’s pastor, Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, doors open for the free, public event at 11 a.m.  A pictorial tribute will be presented from 11:30 a.m. to 12 noon, immediately followed by the Memorial service.  Ms. Lee resided in Atlanta, GA, until her death from Alzheimer’s disease at age 83 in 2009.

Critically-acclaimed filmmakers, Spike Lee and his cousin, Malcolm Lee (both nephews of Ms. Lee), along with former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, are slated to make tributes at the Memorial event, and Sangoma Everett, an internationally-renowned drummer and former student of Consuela Lee, will assist in conducting the musical segment of the Memorial.  Performances by Lee’s other past students include Charles Epps, Theonita Valentin, Clarence Patterson, Roy and Reggie Wooten.   Gordon Banks, (former musical director for Marvin Gaye) and guitarist, Kathy Dyson, accompanist to Prince, as well as Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, also grace the résumé of Lee’s previous students. Singer Melba Joyce, members of the New York Bass Choir, Harold Mayburn, former pianist for Wes Montgomery and saxophonist Steve Wilson, among many others will also honor Ms. Lee. 

Consuela Lee’s tireless efforts to educate and promote pride and self-esteem through jazz were rooted in her belief that African-American culture evolved through its resistance to slavery.  She not only revitalized Snow Hill Institute (established by her grandfather, William James Edwards in 1893), as a performing arts school, but also founded Bright Glory, a xylophone chorus for whom she created original jazz arrangements and compositions (the xylophone, an equivalent of a piano keyboard, was more affordable for Ms. Lee and her students).  Bright Glory toured churches (including Abyssinian Baptist Church), campuses and festivals.  They also performed on the Emmy Award-winning ABC-TV show hosted by Gil Noble, “Like It Is.” (Photos attached by Bill Hackwell; video footage also available upon request.)

As Artistic Director of Snow Hill for nearly 23 years, Lee received support for her work and struggles in rural Alabama from major musicians like Odetta, Max Roach, Milt Jackson and actors Ruby Dee and Delroy Lindo.

In the 1970’s prior to Bright Glory, Lee taught at Black colleges such as Alabama State, Norfolk State University and Hampton Institute.  She also performed spirituals and popular jazz pieces on tours with the Descendants of Mike and Phoebe, and with siblings Bill, Clifton and A. Grace Lee.  In addition, Consuela Lee was Choir Director of the highly-acclaimed Phyllis Wheatley High School Glee Club of Houston, Texas  in the early 1960s.

 Ms. Lee continued to perform nationally and internationally as a solo artist into her late 70’s.  Her CD, “Piano Voices” (which includes a tribute by Gil Noble) was released on Pierre Sprey’s Maple Shade Records and will be available at the Memorial.  Lee acted as Assistant Musical Director on “School Daze” (Spike Lee, director, 1988) and contributed original music to “The Best Man” (Malcolm Lee, director, 1999).

In 2010, the Consuela Lee Foundation for Music Education was formed by her family to carry on Ms. Lee’s far-reaching educational work.  The Foundation is hoping, with proper funding, to digitize the wealth of Ms. Lee’s written, recorded and videotape material.  All donations from the Memorial or sent through Ms. Lee’s website (www.consuelalee.com) will be utilized to ensure the Foundation’s future. 

In her Epilogue to the 1993 edition of her grandfather’s book “Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt,” Ms. Lee vowed to continue his life-long goal of “honoring and glorifying his people by sacrificing immeasurably to bring them out of the bleakness of dependence into the light of independence….”

Bright Glory