For Immediate Release

July 1, 2010

Washington, D.C. -Today Thursday, July 1st, President Obama will make what is being described by the New York Times as "a major speech on immigration" at American University in Washington, D.C. The President is expected to step forward to reassert the leadership of the Federal Government on the issue of immigration.

While a federal lawsuit against Arizona's SB1070 now seems imminent, the President must address the underlying issues that led to passage of the Arizona law. We hope the President will squarely address the public's frustration with a lack of workable solutions on immigration. He must place this frustration in context - lack of federal action leads to growing impetus in the states to pass laws, no matter what their cost, simply to try to resolve the impasse. The President should address this frustration, but should also address the undisputed polling that shows that Americans want comprehensive immigration reform. This can be his moment to bring people together by laying out a framework that will actually move Congress to complete workable legislation.

We also hope that the President avoids some of the typical election chatter on immigration, which tends to turn the issue into a political contest of who can talk the toughest. Rarely does the debate move beyond the issue of further fortifying our southern border. While border security is a necessary component of comprehensive immigration reform, we cannot stop there. Real reform must look past campaign politics and find solutions that will allow communities to live and work together without the anger and recriminations that have dominated this issue for years. We hope the President's speech will go beyond issues of border security and discuss with the same enthusiasm strategies to create a 21st century immigration system - a system which invests in ideas and programs that support family and community cohesion, promotes fairness and individual accountability, supports immigrant integration, and helps us attract the best and brightest from around the world.

"The crisis in Arizona was created by an absence of leadership and commitment by the Federal Government to fix our broken immigration system. My hope is that the President will use this speech as an opportunity to reassert federal authority over immigration law and policy, and lay out his vision for a path forward," said Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council, who will attend the speech on Thursday. "Enforcement of our laws is important, but the President must rise above the angry and misguided political rhetoric that creates and then feeds a never-ending appetite for punishment. While a lawsuit by the Department of Justice is a necessary legal step, a lawsuit alone will not end the vacuum created by the lack of workable immigration laws and leadership to make that a reality. Over the last year, the President and his administration have expressed a willingness and desire to pursue a comprehensive reform strategy. Sadly, too few politicians have had the courage to stand with him on this important issue. The true measure of the President's commitment to this issue is whether he will create his own strategy for moving reform forward and whether he will expose those in both parties who refuse to step forward and create a workable, humane immigration policy that will strengthen America."

As the Department of Justice takes up the legal challenge, President Obama - through this speech and continuing actions - can place the responsibility for immigration reform back where it constitutionally belongs: in the hands of the Federal Government.

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For more information contact Wendy Sefsaf at 202-812-2499 or wsefsaf@immcouncil.org

For Immediate Release

June 23, 2010

Washington D.C. - The 2000 Census found that immigrants, while accounting for 12 percent of the population, made up nearly half of the all scientists and engineers with doctorate degrees in the United States. Nearly 70 percent of the men and women who entered the fields of science and engineering from 1995 to 2006 were immigrants. So it should come as no surprise that immigrants will help drive the green revolution. America's young scientists and engineers, especially the ones drawn to emerging industries like alternative energy, tend to speak with an accent. Yet, the connection between immigration and the development and commercialization of alternative energy technology is rarely discussed.

In IPC's lastest Perspective on Immigration piece, Why Immigrants Can Drive the Green Economy, Richard T. Herman and Robert L. Smith explain how policymakers envision millions of new jobs as the nation pursues renewable energy sources, like wind and solar power, and hightlight the voices that warn that much of the clean-technology talent lies overseas, in nations that began pursuing alternative energy sources decades ago.

To read this Perspective see: 

• Why Immigrants Can Drive the Green Economy (IPC Perspectives, June 23, 2010)

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For more information contact Seth Hoy at 202-507-7509 or shoy@immcouncil.org
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The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) is the research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council. IPC's mission is to shape a rational national conversation on immigration and immigrant integration. Through its research and analysis, IPC provides policymakers, the media, and the general public with accurate information about the role of immigrants and immigration policy on U.S. society. IPC reports and materials are widely disseminated and relied upon by press and policy makers. IPC staff regularly serves as experts to leaders on Capitol Hill, opinion-makers and the media. IPC, formed in 2003 is a non-partisan organization that neither supports nor opposes any political party or candidate for office.

A division of the American Immigration Council.

Visit our website at www.immigrationpolicy.org.

For Immediate Release

 
June 22, 2010

Washington D.C. - Today, the small town of Fremont, Nebraska is in the headlines after passing an ordinance that requires, among other things, that renters apply for an occupancy license - which also requires a legal immigration status check - before renting an apartment or home.

Although Fremont, Nebraska, and Arizona are the latest localities to propose measures designed to control and manage immigration, there have been many more attempts over the past seven years to pass similar bills. Like the other efforts before them, there will be rationalizations for their passage and legal challenges to their implementation. Millions of dollars will be spent as these laws are battled in state houses, city halls, and the courts. However, the larger question is whether the federal government will continue to sit idly by as a patchwork of legislation proliferates around the country or will it finally assert its role, as defined by the Constitution, and delineate local authority with respect to federal immigration law?

States have always played a role in federal immigration enforcement. While the inherent authority of the states was historically limited to criminal violations of immigration law, the federal government could delegate broader authority to the local level. Programs like 287(g) have formalized this delegation process, while still maintaining some level of federal oversight. However, with laws like SB 1070 and local ordinances taking root, the states are taking it one step further in deciding for themselves what role they will play in federal immigration law. In other words, the authority that what was once given by the federal government is now being taken by the states. What we are also losing in this process is the ability of the federal government to establish a uniform immigration policy that they can then be held accountable for. In the current environment it is unclear who is responsible for setting immigration enforcement priorities and who is responsible for their success or failure.

"The federal government needs to act swiftly to reassert its authority over immigration law and policy," said Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council. "This is why a legal challenge by the Department of Justice against Arizona's SB1070 is relevant and necessary. A federal lawsuit isn't meant to discount the frustration with our broken immigration system, it's meant to define and then protect the federal government's Constitutional authority to manage immigration. The Administration can and should also withdraw a hastily crafted and politically motivated 2002 White House Office of Legal Counsel opinion that opened the floodgates for state involvement in enforcing the civil provisions of federal immigration law."

At the end of the day, a lawsuit alone will not end the vacuum created by the lack of workable immigration laws. While the Department of Justice takes up the legal challenge, the Obama Administration and Congress must put the immigration issue squarely back where it belongs - in the halls of Congress and on the desk of the President of the United States.

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For more information contact Wendy Sefsaf at 202-507-7524 or wsefsaf@immcouncil.org
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The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) is the research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council. IPC's mission is to shape a rational national conversation on immigration and immigrant integration. Through its research and analysis, IPC provides policymakers, the media, and the general public with accurate information about the role of immigrants and immigration policy on U.S. society. IPC reports and materials are widely disseminated and relied upon by press and policy makers. IPC staff regularly serves as experts to leaders on Capitol Hill, opinion-makers and the media. IPC, formed in 2003 is a non-partisan organization that neither supports nor opposes any political party or candidate for office.

A division of the American Immigration Council.

Visit our website at www.immigrationpolicy.org.

NEWARK — They applied for mortgages using phony pay stubs showing wages never earned. They forged tax documents and bank statements. And they assumed the identities of people who had moved out of the country, hoping to use their clean credit records to trick bank officials.

Those were among the allegations federal prosecutors outlined Wednesday as they unveiled charges against 28 real estate agents, investors, accountants and others caught in a sweeping mortgage-fraud sting in northern New Jersey.

Authorities said the investigation provided a window into shadowy criminal enterprises in which the defendants acted like con artists to dupe banks into loaning hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who had no intention of paying it back.

"Mortgage fraud is not limited to people who steal millions at a time. It is more insidious. It is more pernicious. And it is more prevalent," U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

The investigation targeted a string of separate schemes involving more than 17 properties in New Jersey. But the defendants didn’t really want the property; they wanted the money, authorities said. In total, the defendants tried to bilk more than $5.5 million from lending institutions.

Most of those loans never transpired. Unbeknownst to the defendants, many were working with a loan officer who was secretly cooperating with investigators, authorities said. The total loss to banks was less than $1 million, Fishman said.

After months of investigating, more than 160 agents from the FBI, IRS, Secret Service and other law-enforcement agencies fanned out across the state shortly after dawn Wednesday and arrested 23 of the defendants. One was already in custody. Another has agreed to surrender. Three remained at large Wednesday night.

They were led shackled into FBI headquarters in Newark, then loaded onto a bus bound for federal court. They appeared for brief hearings. Some were translated into Portuguese for defendants, several of whom are from Brazil. At least five were released on bond. Others were ordered detained after prosecutors said their immigration status made them a flight risk. They are charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. If convicted, they face up to 30 years in prison.

Authorities said the separate schemes followed a familiar pattern. Working in small groups, the defendants identified properties on the market, found people to pose as straw buyers and then tried to trick banks into giving them loans.

In some cases, they gave the straw buyers forged documents inflating their incomes and assets. One of the defendants, Viviane Bernardim, a 33-year-old mortgage consultant from Aberdeen, offered to sell the informant a Social Security card, W-2s, tax returns and a copy of a drivers license that would enable them to assume the identity of someone who had moved out of the country, authorities said. The price was $15,000, authorities said.

Several of defendants allegedly used "document makers" who manufactured fake tax returns, bank statements, pay stubs and other records. One of alleged "document makers," Jairo Nunes, a 33-year-old Brazilian national who lives in Newark, was arrested March 9 and remains in custody.

But authorities say the fraud went beyond documents. In one case, authorities found several telephones in the home of a 31-year-old real estate agent from Kearny. Each receiver was labeled with the name of a fake company. Authorities say the woman, Lucilene Guido, gave the numbers to those phones to banks officials if they wanted to verify the nonexistent employment of straw buyers.

"For decades, home ownership has been the American dream, a way to establish roots in a community, build personal wealth, and secure a peaceful retirement," said Michael B. Ward, head of the FBI’s Newark office. "Mortgage fraud places this dream at risk."

Newark Star Ledger   via  Jornal.us

For Immediate Release

June 17, 2010

Washington D.C. - In the Immigration Policy Center's latest Perspective on Arizona, Arizona's Anti-Immigration Law is also Anti-Faith, Jenny Hwang, Director of Advocacy and Policy for the Refugee and Immigration Program at World Relief, discusses the difficult situation faith-based organizations are put in when punitive immigration measures like Arizona's SB1070 are enacted. "With a stroke of a pen, the activities of ministries that have existed for over 30 years to empower immigrants to gain life skills, learn English, and become self-sufficient will be considered illegal." Hwang continues, "asking for someone's legal status was never a requirement for a church to serve those in need, but because this law makes so many of the activities that churches engage in illegal, many churches will be forced to choose between following what they feel like God has called them to do (serving immigrants in their communities) and disobeying the Arizona law, or obeying the Arizona law and not being able to carry out what they feel is so central to their identity as a faith-based organization."

To read this Perspective on Arizona see: 

• Arizona's Anti-Immigration Law is also Anti-Faith (IPC Perspectives on Arizona, June 17, 2010)

For other Resources on Arizona see:

• Q&A Guide to Arizona's to New Immigration Law (June 2, 2010)
• New FBI Data Confirms Falling Crime Rates in Arizona (June 17, 2010)

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For more information contact Wendy Sefsaf at 202-507-7524 or wsefsaf@immcouncil.org
Join Our Mailing List

Follow us on:

The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) is the research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council. IPC's mission is to shape a rational national conversation on immigration and immigrant integration. Through its research and analysis, IPC provides policymakers, the media, and the general public with accurate information about the role of immigrants and immigration policy on U.S. society. IPC reports and materials are widely disseminated and relied upon by press and policy makers. IPC staff regularly serves as experts to leaders on Capitol Hill, opinion-makers and the media. IPC, formed in 2003 is a non-partisan organization that neither supports nor opposes any political party or candidate for office.

A division of the American Immigration Council.

Visit our website at www.immigrationpolicy.org.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/15/1682659/brazil-fans-whoop-it-up-on-south.html#ixzz0r7Oot9US

I. Lucky 7’s

If the World Cup is, as those incessant Bono-voiced commercials suggest, outside of the text of serious world politics — some brief respite from global concerns petty or epidemic — it doesn’t mean an end to the speculation of what is actually going on in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, at least among the employees at Lucky 7’s. A mostly quiet Tuesday afternoon game between Brazil (the highest ranked team in the world) and DPR Korea (at FIFA-ranked 105, the lowest ranked in the tournament) becomes a forum for foreign policy.

The first order of discussion is, appropriately, Kim Jung Il, DPR Korea’s “Dear Leader.”

“Did you hear that?” asks manager Charles Stanton, looking up for a moment from the laptop on which he plans out employee shifts for the week. “The ESPN announcers just said that Kim Jung Il claims to have an invisible link to the team’s head coach so he can direct the play from Pyongyang.”

The television panel of soccer-knowledgeable American and Brits laugh, as do those in the bar, but given the impressive display exhibited in the first half of the game, maybe there is something to it? Or anyway, DPR Korea’s back line has something going on — the spirit of ‘66 is, it is fair to say, alive and well.

Oh, and those North Korean fans shouting wildly in the stands are, according to the New York Times, actually Chinese “volunteers” — apparently sometimes paid, or at least paid pro bono, for their services. That, coupled with DPR Korea’s rejecting South Korea’s offer to televise the games to their neighbor’s to the north, means that there aren’t any fans watching back home.

But they’ve picked up at least one at the bar. DPR Korea intercepts an errant Brazilian pass (one of many in the first half), and Jong Tae-Se — also known as “the People’s Rooney” after his penchant for powerful runs reminiscent of English striker Wayne Rooney — sends the ball from 20-odd yards out just wide of the Brazilian goal posts.

A man at the bar curses loudly.

“I can’t believe I’m rooting for North Korea,” he says. “I guess I just like the underdogs.”

From the other end of the bar someone asks, “Where were you born again … Cuba, right? Of course you have to support those communists.”

“If my mother heard you,” he says, “she’d kill you.”

II. Guillo’s Place

Tom Rosenberg’s left pinky finger is purple at the knuckle and sticks out awkwardly from his Coors Light bottle when he takes a drink from it — not dissimilar to an attempt at overly dignified champagne drinking. Which for Guillo’s Place, with its darkly tinted windows and meager light, its stacked cases of cheap beer against the back wall and daytime drinking, is maybe misplaced.

“I’ve got insurance, yeah,” he says of the curious case of his bent finger, “but am I going to wait for four hours in an emergency room for a little bruise?” The bruise, however faded, is anything but little — it’s lumpy and discolored and it’s been that way for who knows how long. Later on he admits that he thinks it was broken but now it doesn’t hurt so much anymore.

“I just need a distraction, like the game,” he says, looking at how the finger is splayed from his hand even when not holding a bottle.

Rosenberg had been on vacation in Florida and didn’t know the World Cup had started until he arrived at a bar showing the USA-England match. Since then, he’s made a point to try to watch when he can, and this brings him to Guillo’s Place for Brazil–North Korea. It’s been years since he’s watched a soccer game before this World Cup, he says, but the last time was in person — sort of. The last time he heard a game was in person, waiting outside in the Giants Stadium parking lot during the U.S.-hosted 1994 games. A transplant to New Jersey from Manhattan’s Upper East Side, he’d been working for NJ Transit as a bus dispatcher and a feeder, which involved the complicated algorithm of masses of people meeting up with their respective buses, with all parties in a rush.

“Dispatching was fine,” he recalls. “I can multitask and I like being busy, even though we were sending out three, sometimes four hundred buses at a time. At least we were indoors and we were given food.”

“But as a feeder they had me out in the heat — you remember how hot it was that summer? — trying to get the buses in line to pick up the fans from the game. NJ Transit forgot about us out there.”

Throngs of fans, mostly international visitors, drunk but friendly even in the humid New Jersey sun, were eager to tip him for his help finding their way to their bus (tips which he refused). He’d direct them to wherever they needed to go all the while also trying to get the buses in and out on time. In his brief and rare spare moments he’d look for, and not find, a much-needed bottle of water.

“The World Cup organizers paid us a flat fee, and we gave out tickets when people boarded the bus in New York City, but you know how many guys lost their tickets by the end of the game? Some drivers were giving them a hard time, saying they wouldn’t let them on the bus, but what were they supposed to do?”

He continues: “These guys from Italy were just standing around the Meadowlands parking lot, no clue what they should do, so I told the drivers to let them on anyway.”

In the meantime, back in 2010, the Brazilian defender Maicon hooks a ball from the right side and it somehow finds its way past the North Korean keeper. No one — not the Brazilian squad, the North Korean defenders, the television commentators or fans — seem to have expected it, and there’s a momentary pause before the typical on-pitch goal celebration. Adrian Healey, announcing the game for ESPN, stutters for a moment before finding his voice. “Only Maicon can know if that was intentional or not,” he finally says, his understated observations, so often associated with commentary from Brits, becoming something of a caricature.

Rosenberg seems the only one left less than baffled.

“Good shot” is all he says. “Now when’s North Korea going to score?”

I knowingly tell him that they probably won’t, but then — of course — some thirty minutes later they do.

“There we go,” is all he’ll say, regardless of the fact that the game is more or less out of reach at this point.

“Yeah …” he continues. “Soccer.”

Matt Hunger

jerseycityindependent.com   via  Jornal.us

Growing up in the Catholic faith, Trudi Berglin noticed her mother had a "compulsion" to buy a new set of dishes every spring. No one knew the origin of this family tradition — not even her mother.

Only after Berglin, 70, of Fort Lauderdale, became an adult did she learn about the Jewish custom of using a special set of dishes for Passover, which falls around Easter.

She also figured out her family fled from Spain to Italy at the time of the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century. Under that royal Catholic tribunal for rooting out the unorthodox, Spanish Jews had three choices: leave, convert or die.
Some pretended to convert but went on performing Jewish rituals secretly. Even explaining why to the next generation would be risky. Over the centuries some practices survived, but none of the practitioners knew why they were doing what they did.

Those closet Jews are called conversos, or marranos, a disparaging term for someone who converts in name only to avoid persecution. ((Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal fled mostly to Turkey, Holland and Bulgaria. Later, they settled in Brazil, France, Italy, Mexico and Peru)). Some, like Berglin's family, eventually emigrated to America.
Now people like her are asking questions that spring from a lifetime of nagging feelings about their true background. Some are even turning to DNA testing to see if they have the markers that show they are, at the most basic genetic level, Jewish.

The Rev. William Sanchez, a Catholic priest in Albuquerque, N.M., is one of them. As a child he was warned away from eating pork and bacon. As an adult he took a test for the Jewish DNA marker, and it came back positive.

Today he helps run the Sephardim- New Mexico Project. It opened in 2002 to identify Jewish Hispanics in New Mexico, a state with a high concentration of Hispanics, much like Florida. Sanchez estimates about one-third of the 210 men who have sought testing are Jewish.

"Most of the time it's to have some type of DNA or scientific way of verifying what they already know or believe," he said.

In Fort Lauderdale, Berglin became so convinced of her heritage that she converted to Judaism in 1989. Her mother's reaction: "Oh, I wondered if anybody would ever go back."

"I still get chills myself," Berglin said. "I said to her, 'Now I know why you bought all the damn dishes.' She said, 'Is that what they do?' "

Lisa J. Huriash, Sun Sentinel

sun-sentinel.com   via  Jornal.us

PRESS RELEASE

June 17, 2010 - FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Jun. 9, 2010 – Plush Swimwear announced today the addition of Salinas Swimwear to its online offerings of high fashion designer swimwear. Available to purchase immediately are select pieces from Salinas Swimwear 2010 Summer Collection.

Salinas is a leading swimwear brand from Brazil, known for vibrant, comfortable and conceptually original creations. Designed with the savvy, fashion-conscious woman who frequents Rio de Janeiro's trendiest beaches in mind, Salinas's creations translate the relaxed attitude, creativity and the inherent joie de vivre of Rio's residents. Established in 1982 by designer Jacqueline De Biase, Salinas quickly gained popularity in Brazilian beaches and soon after, the world over. Today, Salinas is present in 42 countries and is known for setting trends across Brazilian coastlines and the swimwear industry as a whole.

The Salinas Swimwear 2010 Collection was inspired in the universe of Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar and the women represented in his films. Swimwear designer Jacqueline De Biase employs ruffles, bows, hearts, bandeau tops, velvety fabrics and vibrant shades to her collection. Immediately available at Plush are the Alicia bikini, featured in this year’s Sports Illustrated by model Daniella Sarahyba, the Cupido skirt bottom bikini and the Becky ruffle bikini, among others. The innovative one-shoulder bandeau New Touch bikini, made with Xtra Fine Lycra for added fluidity of movement, is also available.

About Plush Swimwear
Plush Swimwear is an online boutique specialized in women’s designer swimwear and luxury beachwear, dedicated to providing customers with a unique online shopping experience and the utmost stylish and sophisticated swimsuits.

For more information about Plush Swimwear, please visit:
http://www.plushswimwear.com

To view the Salinas Swimwear collection, please visit:
http://www.plushswimwear.com/designer-swimwear/salinas-swimwear/

The National Jazz Museum's June line-up includes discussions with musical artists Paquito D'Rivera and Craig Harris for Harlem Speaks; a talk with a living literary legend, Peter Straub, at Jazz for Curious Readers; and our adult education series, Jazz for Curious Listeners, features instrumentalists Jeremy Pelt, Nicholas Payton and Orrin Evans taking the reins of discourse on jazz in the 21st century.  For more information visit http://jazzmuseuminharlem.org/

On the performance tip, Craig Harris will let his horn do the talking as he headlines the first Harlem in the Himalayas concert of the month, followed by the sax/piano duo of Loren Stillman and Russ Lossing in the intimate performance space at the Rubin Museum of Art. Saturday afternoon is piano jazz, on the Steinway piano of Dick Katz, in honor of whom the musicians will play in a range of stylistic approaches that Katz performed with aplomb for 50+ years.

The Afro-Cuban tradition will be celebrated for Jazz at the Dwyer, with David Oquendo and Havana 3. A special collaboration with the Riverside Theatre features percussionist Vanderlei Pereira binding the ties between jazz and Brazilian music with groove and soul.

The list of June Events Follows:

Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Jazz for Curious Listeners
Hear Me Talkin' To You: Jeremy Pelt
7:00 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300>

Jeremy Pelt arrived in New York in 1998 after graduating from Berklee College of Music. Once he got there, it wasn't long before he started being noticed by a lot of top musicians in the city. His first professional Jazz gig was playing with the Mingus Big Band. That gig lead to many long lasting associations with many of the talent in the band, and a great opportunity for growth. Since his arrival, he has been fortunate enough to play with many of today's and yesterday's Jazz luminaries, such as Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess,Charli Persip, Keter Betts, Frank Foster, John Hicks, Ravi Coltrane, Winard Harper, Vincent Herring, Ralph Peterson, Lonnie Plaxico, Cliff Barbaro, Nancy Wilson, Bobby Short, Bobby "Blue" Bland, The Skatalites, Cedar Walton, and many, many more. Jeremy has also been featured in a variety of different bands, including the Roy Hargrove Big Band, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Big Band. Currently, he is member of the Lewis Nash Septet, and The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band featuring Louis Hayes.

Thursday, June 3, 2010
Harlem Speaks
Craig Harris, Trombonist/Composer
6:30 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

When Craig Harris exploded onto the jazz scene in 1976, he brought the entire history of the jazz trombone-from the growling gutbucket intensity of early New Orleans music through the refined, articulate improvisation of the modern era set forth by J.J. Johnson, into the confrontational expressionism of the '60s avant-garde.

Yet the contemporary music world quickly realized that his talents went far beyond his superb skills as a trombonist. While he performed with a veritable Who's Who of progressive jazz, including Sun Ra, Sam Rivers, Lester Bowie, Abdullah Ibrahim, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Jaki Byard, Cecil Taylor, MuhAl Richard Abrams, and so on, his own projects displayed both a unique sense of concept and a total command of the sweeping expanse of African-American musical expression.

Those two qualities that have dominaTed Craig's past two decades of activity, bringing him far beyond the confines of the jazz world and into the sphere of multimedia and performance art as composer, performer, conceptualist, curator and artistic director.

Harlem Speaks discussion, Harris will venture forth on his life and career, especially as it intersects with Harlem, where he has lived since 1976.

"I used to visit Harlem a lot before moving here. I went to Paris in July 1976 and returned in October 76. I walked the street with Sun Ra back then. I worked in Aaron Davis Hall. I did a piece entitled 'Brown Butterfly,' based on the physiology of Muhammad Ali, which included seven dancers and seven musicians," said Harris, who more recently composed a long-form composition on Harlem called the TriHarLenium. "I sought to capture the beauty, history and culture of a people who have always been originators. Harlem is currently undergoing gentrification and transition so I wanted to share its history through my TriHarLenium composition with Harlem's people."

Monday, June 7, 2010
Jazz for Curious Readers
7:00 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

In an excellent overview of the oeuvre, themes, and achievements of renowned contemporary author Peter Straub, writer Stefan Dziemianowicz calls Straub "a jazz stylist of modern horror. Like the musicians whom he references frequently in his stories, he works at an art with deep-rooted traditions that he respectfully acknowledges. But also like those musicians, Straub works tirelessly to extend the range of those traditions, pushing them boldly into hitherto unexplored territory." Critics and fans alike appreciate that Straub is knowledgeable of horror standards since his fiction abounds with ingenious riffs and variations on its classic themes. Yet he is also a restlessly imaginative artist who synthesizes original and deeply personal creations from seemingly disparate elements of his compositions as well as a versatile improviser who never approaches recurring ideas in his work the same way twice.

Straub came to writing horror by way of mainstream fiction, and he is arguably the most literary of contemporary horror writers, with influences that range from D. H. Lawrence to Vladimir Nabokov and John Ashberry. He was an established poet with two volumes of verse to his credit when his first novel, Marriages, was published in 1973. Like his second-written novel, Under Venus (not published until 1984), it was very much a tale of its time, concerned with characters in the grip of midlife emotional and spiritual crises and set in a realistically imagined post-1960s milieu. In much of his fiction to come, Straub would show readers that supernatural experience is an effective tool for expressing states of intense emotion.

But as with the greatest jazz artists, Straub's fiction moves beyond the bounds of simple genre. Jazz itself is a theme around and through which Straub plays variations, as in the title of his path-breaking 1988 novel, Koko. And in a brilliant interview with writer David Mathew, Straub discusses the origin of his novella story-within-a-story, "Pork Pie Hat," and gives a taste of the feeling tones in store for our talk with him tonight.

"The inspiration for Pork Pie Hat came from a long moment in a videotape of 'The Sound of Jazz,' a live television broadcast in 1957 or 1958 that assembled a lot of great jazz musicians in a studio and let them play whatever they felt like for the space of an entire hour. Just before its conclusion, Billie Holiday sat perched on a stool to sing a blues she had written called "Fine and Mellow" at the center of a circle made up of heroic figures like Ben Webster, Vic Dickenson, Jo Jones, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Rex Stewart, and - above all - the tenor saxophonist Lester Young, then only months from the end of his life and in terrible shape. Billie sang a chorus, two musicians played a chorus apiece, Billie sang another chorus, and so on...

"Lester Young wandered into view at the beginning of the second go-round. Someone had to give him a push in the back to get him on his feet and moving toward the microphone. You can see him lick his reed and settle the horn in his mouth. What he plays is one uncomplicated chorus of the blues that moves from phrase to phrase with a kind of otherworldly majesty. Sorrow, heartbreak, and what I can only call wisdom take place through the mechanism of following one note, usually a whole note, with another one, slowly. There he is, this stupendous musician who had once transformed everything about him by the grace of his genius, this present shambles, this human wreckage, hardly able to play at all, delivering a statement that becomes more and more perfect, more and more profound as it advances from step to step. I cried every time I watched it, and I watched it over and over. I played it for my friends and made them watch it. Eventually, I wondered: what could lead a person to a place like that, what brought him there? That was the origin of Pork Pie Hat."

Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Jazz for Curious Listeners
Hear Me Talkin' To You: Nicholas Payton
7:00 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

Considered by many the premier jazz trumpeter of his generation, Nicholas Payton is also an outspoken thought leader among his peers. His musings via blog, or his pithy questions and insights via Facebook are evidence of a deep, provocative thinker.

The son of bassist and sousaphonist Walter Payton, he took up the trumpet at the age of four and by the time he was nine he was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father. Upon leaving school, he enrolled first at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and then at the University, where he studied with Ellis Marsalis.

After touring with Marcus Roberts and Elvin Jones in the early 90s Payton signed a recording contract with Verve; his first album, From This Moment, appeared in 1994. In 1996 he performed on the soundtrack of the movie Kansas City, and in 1997 received a Grammy Award (Best Instrumental Solo) for his playing on the album Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton. After seven albums on Verve, Payton signed with Warner Bros. Records, releasing Sonic Trance, his first album on the new label, in 2003. Besides his recordings under his own name, Payton has also played and recorded with Roy Haynes, Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, and Joe Henderson.

In 2008, Payton became part of The Blue Note 7, a septet formed that year in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. His own latest release, Into the Blue, is a collection of ten tunes steeped in melody and groove that Nicholas says "embodies the sensibilities of beauty, elegance and simplicity" and delivers "danceable tempos."

Friday, June 11, 2010

Harlem in the Himalayas
Craig Harris Quartet
7:00pm
Location: Rubin Museum of Art
(150 West 17th Street)
$18 in advance | $20 at door |
For tickets: RMA Box Office or call 212-620-5000 ext. 344

Born in Hempstead on Long Island, N.Y. in 1953, Craig Harris is a graduate of the renowned music program of SUNY at Old Westbury. Profoundly influenced by its legendary founder and director, the late Makanda Ken McIntyre, Craig's move to New York City in 1978 quickly established him in the forefront of young trombonists, along with Ray Anderson, George Lewis and Joseph Bowie.

First playing alongside another of his teachers at SUNY, baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick in Sun Ra's Arkestra for two years, Harris embarked on a world tour with South African pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) in 1981. Highly affected by their stay in Australia, Craig played with Aborigine musicians and returned with a dijeridoo, a haunting wind instrument that has become a part of his musical arsenal ever since.

Upon his return, Harris became a member of such major groups as David Murray's Octet, the Beaver Harris-Don Pullen 360 Degree Musical Experience, Sam Rivers' various orchestral aggregations, Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy and many, many more. He also played for the now dearly-departed Lena Horne in her Broadway orchestra for a year.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Jazz for Curious Listeners
Hear Me Talkin' To You: Nicholas Payton
7:00 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

Since 1994 when Nicholas Payton made his recording debut as a leader with From This Moment, the trumpeter has been lauded as a significant, top-tier voice in jazz. Even though he started out as a "young lion of jazz," heralded as one of the new-generation guardians of the hard bop flame, Payton consistently committed himself to discovering his voice outside of the strict confines of that rearview mirror approach to the music.
While his jazz journey has taken him down many roads - from heritage artist to electric experimenter - the 34-year-old trumpeter has arrived at a new plateau of jazz maturity with Into the Blue, his ninth album and his first for Nonesuch. It's at once a nod to the past and a leap into the future. "It's an amalgam of every recording I've done up until now," says Payton. "As a musician, as an artist, you're always trying to zero in on the bull's eye as a means of becoming a better version of yourself. With Into the Blue, I've been able to find the kind of music that's more inclusive of all of my life. The approach and the ideas of my music have become more singular, more cohesive. I had no agenda in terms of a specific genre or style, only to be true to who I am now."

True to himself: that's a fitting way to describe Payton's approach to music and the issues that he addresses in writing, online, and at rare public discussion appearances such as last week's Jazz for Curious Listeners.

Thursday, June 17, 2010
Harlem Speaks
Paquito D'Rivera, Composer/Saxophonist/Clarinetist
6:30 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

Born on the island of Cuba, Paquito D'Rivera began his career as a child prodigy. A restless musical whiz during his teen years, Mr. D'Rivera created various original and ground-breaking musical ensembles. As a founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, he directed that group for two years, while at the same time playing both the clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. He eventually went on to premiere several works by notable Cuban composers with the same orchestra. Additionally, he was a founding member and co-director of the innovative musical ensemble Irakere. With its explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical and traditional Cuban music never before heard, Irakere toured extensively throughout America and Europe, won several Grammy nominations (1979, 1980) and a Grammy (1979).

Paquito D'Rivera is the first artist to win Latin Grammy's in both Classical and Latin Jazz categories (2003), for Stravinsky's Historia del Soldado (L'Histoire du Soldat) and Brazilian Dreams with the New York Voices. The other historic recipient who has won duo Grammy's in both Classical and Jazz categories is Wynton Marsalis.

D'Rivera is a recipient of the National Medal for the Arts, presented at the White House by President George W. Bush in 2005, and was named one of the 2005 NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) Jazz Masters.

While Paquito D'Rivera's discography includes over 30 solo albums in Jazz, Bebop and Latin music, his contributions to classical music are impressive. They include solo performances with the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has also performed with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the Costa Rica National Symphony, the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, and the St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra, among others.

In addition to his extraordinary performing career as an instrumentalist, Paquito D'Rivera has rapidly gained a reputation as a dynamic composer. The prestigious music house, Boosey and Hawkes, is the exclusive publisher of Mr. D'Rivera's compositions. Recognition of his significant compositional skills came in 2007 with the award of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, and the 2007-2008 appointment as Composer-In-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. His works often reveal his widespread and eclectic musical interests, ranging from Afro-Cuban rhythms and melodies, including influences encountered in his many travels, and back to his classical origins.

Also a gifted author, Mr. D'Rivera's book, My Sax Life, was published in Spain by the prestigious literary house, Seix Barral, and contains a prologue by Guillermo Cabrera Infante. Acclaimed by the public and critics alike, the English edition was released by Northwestern University Press in November 2005.

Friday, June 18, 2010
Harlem in the Himalayas Loren Stillman/Russ Lossing Duo
7:00pm
Location: Rubin Museum of Art
(150 West 17th Street)
$18 in advance | $20 at door |
For tickets: RMA Box Office or call 212-620-5000 ext. 344

A saxophonist and composer from Brooklyn, Loren Stillman is hailed as a writer and a stylist that has found a previously unoccupied slot in the jazz spectrum. He's been recognized as one of today's truly original creative voices by publications such as The New York Times, Downbeat Magazine, Jazziz and Jazz Times as well as by National Public Radio. A former student of Lee Konitz and David Liebman, Stillman has performed and recorded throughout the United States and Europe and Japan with his own ensembles, and with those led by Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Paul Motian, John Abercrombie, Andy Milnes DAPP Theory, Eivind Opsviks Overseas, Tyshawn Soreys Obliquity, Vic Juris Quartet and The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

Russ Lossing is a provocative, fresh leader in creating alternatives to long held conceptions in music. His individual voice, as a pianist, teacher and composer, is sought out as an authority in the jazz and avant-garde fields emerging in music today. He's has composed over 300 works and is in special demand as a world class jazz pianist and improviser. Lossing has seven CDs as leader and is featured on over 30 other CDs as sideman and collaborator with world acclaimed musicians such as Paul Motian, Dave Liebman, John Abercrombie, Mat Maneri and Mark Dresser. He has composed 21 film scores from avant-garde shorts to full length documentaries for PBS, BBC and world broadcast performances, as well as dramatic features both foreign and domestic. He has numerous television and live radio performances and interviews in the U.S.A. and Europe relative to his distinction as a performer and composer.

Friday, June 18, 2010
Jazz at the Dwyer
Afro-Cuban Jazz Dance Night: David Oquendo and Havana 3
7:00 - 11:00pm
Location: The Dwyer Cultural Center
(258 St. Nicholas Avenue at W. 123rd Street)
$15 | More information: info@DwyerCC.org

Dance was formerly a mainstay of the public ritual of jazz performance, and remains an essential part of the variety of Latin American music. The Afro-Cuban legacy in jazz brings dance to the forefront, as declarative horns and clave-based rhythms kiss the American impulse to swing.

David Oquendo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1958. Self taught, Oquendo absorbed the essence of the Afro Cuban rhythmical vernacular in the poorest neighborhoods of his native city. At 12 years of age, David started playing guitar and singing in several "Rock" bands around Cuba. Even though he was not conservatory trained, his passion for music, his discipline and self-criticism, took him to the point where eventually he was considered one of the best guitar accompanist in Cuba. This was evident in his appearances at "El Rincon del Feeling", "Cabaret Tropicana", "Cabaret Internacional de Varadero", " Salon Rojo" at the Hotel Capri and many more venues.

As accompanist, David has worked with artist of the caliber of: Moraima Secada, Elena Burke, Lucho Gatica, Meme Solis, Maggie Carles, Lenny Andrade, and many others. As guitarist, singer, composer, arranger and bassist, David has performed in concerts and recordings in Cuba, Panama, Dominican Republic, Austria, Canada, Greece, Spain, Brasil, Bermuda and the US with names such: Paquito D'Rivera, Compay Segundo, Marc Anthony, Johnny Ventura, Ray Barreto, Arturo Sandoval, Giovanni Hidalgo "Manenguito", Mauricio Smith, Andy Gonzalez, Manny Oquendo, Johnny Pacheco, Gilberto Santarrosa, El Gran Combo, Jose Luis Quintana "Changuito", Willie Chirino, Regina Carter, Candido Camero, Patato Valdez, Gato Barbieri, Carlos Ponce, Sergio Vargas, Rudy Calzado, Basilio, Yomo Toro, Anthony Rios, Jose Fajardo, Israel Lopez "Cachao", Graciela and Chico O'Farril to mention a few.

David has a Grammy Award for the album "Tropicana's Nights" with Paquito D'Rivera, a Grammy Nomination for "Bebop Timba" with Raphael Cruz and three Latin Grammy Nominations for "Raices Habaneras", "50 Years of Mambo" and "Paquito D'Rivera Presenta Las Hermanas Marquez".

Founder and director of the Afro Cuban folklore group "Raices Habaneras", which has been performing, without interruption, every Sunday since 1996 what has become known as "Domingos de la Rumba" (Rumba Sundays), David's mission is to expose the public to a genuine representation of the "Rumba" genre. David, was musical director and producer for "The Cuban Rumba All Stars", a first time, historical collaboration by members of Cuba's Rumba groups: Los Munequitos de Matanzas, Yoruba Andabo, Clave y Guaguanco, Obba ILU, Coro Folklorico Cubano, Raices Profundas y Grupo Tata Guines.

As a member of Faculty of Harbor Conservatory for The Performing Arts, since 2002, he is teaching guitar, Cuban tres, bass, voice and the Afro-Cuban folklore workshop, the Latin Band workshop, the Guitar ensemble and the Vocal training Group Class.

David has appeared in: "El Show de Cristina" in Univision, the series "OZ" in HBO, "Harmony in the Kitchen" in the Food Network, "State of the Arts" and "The Cuban Americans" in PBS, The Ivan Acosta's films "How to Create a Rumba" and " Candido Hands of Fire", The Heddy Honigmann's film "Dame la Mano", "Al Rojo Vivo" in Telemundo and "Orgullo Hispano" in Channel 47 Telemundo NYC, "Sabado al Mediodia" and "Al Despertar" in Channel 41 Univision NYC. As well as WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM, WBAI 99.5 FM and WADO 12.80 AM radio in NYC. He has also performed in prestigious stages such as: Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Town Hall, Beacon Theatre, NJPAC Newark, Symphony Space, Cami Hall, Seattle International Children Festival, Jackie Gleason Theater, Olympia Theater at Gusman Center and Tropigala at The Fontainebleu in Miami Beach as a part of The 4th Annual Latin Grammy's performance, The WOMAD Festival in Spain, Tenerife's Carnival, Sao Pablo and Rio de Janeiro Jazz Festival in Brasil, The JVC Jazz Festival, Ravinia Jazz Festival, San Francisco Jazz Festival and The Montreal Jazz Festival.

Saturday, June 19, 2010
Saturday Panels A Piano Extravaganza
12:00 - 4:00pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

Special guest: Ethan Iverson and others

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem presents four hours of live piano jazz as they welcome the Steinway piano of the late Dick Katz, and kick off their Memorial Concert Series in his honor.

Renowned as a repository of the variety of jazz piano styles from the earliest years of the idiom to the modern styles of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, Katz was last at the museum during our Saturday panel on Papa Jo Jones in 2009. His body was weak, and his gait slow that day, but his eyes gleamed with delight as he discussEd Jones's life and career, and the generation of musicians that were central to his own development as a jazz artist.


Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Jazz for Curious Listeners
Hear Me Talkin' To You: Orrin Evans
7:00 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

Born in Trenton, NJ but raised in Philadelphia, acoustic pianist Orrin Evans was among the "Young Lions" of straight-ahead jazz who emerged in the 1990s, as was the previous Jazz for Curious Listeners guest host, Nicholas Payton. Evans' main focus is hard bop, although he has occasionally ventured into soul-jazz and R&B when backing such vocalists as Denice Kinghttp://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,525768,00.html and his wife, Dawn Warrenhttp://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,679983,00.html.

Expect a far-reaching discussion with jazz at the starting gate, and audience participation and feedback determining the finish line.

Sunday, June 27, 2010
Special Event
Evening of Brazilian music and jazz: Vanderlei Pereira 5
2:00 - 4:30pm
Location: Riverside Theatre (at the Riverside Church)
91 Claremont Avenue, betw. 120th and 122nd
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

Music by drummer, percussionist, composer and educator Vanderlei Pereira and friends.
Drummer Vanderlei Pereira is one of the most sought-after musicians on the contemporary Brazilian jazz scene. Combining a prodigious knowledge of Brazilian rhythms with dazzling technique and a distinctive touch, Vanderlei has captivated audiences with his unique and electrifying performances.

Yet Vanderlei Pereira's proficiency on the drum set extends beyond his mastery of Brazilian rhythms. He received a Diploma in Jazz Studies from the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where he studied with the renowned jazz drummers John Riley and Vernel Fournier. In addition, Vanderlei has studied with the Latin jazz drum and percussion masters Ignacio Berroa, Bobby Sanabria and Johnny Almendra. He has incorporated these diverse influences into his playing and, as a result, has earned the respect of both straight-ahead and Latin jazz musicians on the demanding New York scene, where he is widely admired and respected for his musical versatility.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Jazz for Curious Listeners
Hear Me Talkin' To You: Orrin Evans
7:00 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

Influenced by McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk, among others, our guest host Orrin Evans graduated from high school in the early 1990s and studied at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ before going on to private study with Kenny Barron, and work as a sideman with Ralph Peterson, Duane Eubanks, singer Lenora Zenzalai-Helm and Bobby Watson. In fact, Watson's effect on Evans has been so affecting that Evans's latest CD, Faith in Action (on Posi-Tone Records), is a tribute to the silvery alto saxophonist.

Evans recorded his first CD as a leader, The Orrin Evans Trio, for his own Black Entertainment label in 1994. After that, he signed with Criss Cross and recorded numerous CDs. Most recently, he's released a DVD titled, "Live All Over the Place."

broadwayworld.com   via  jornal.us