It Was A Grand Summer for Swing
Our first music collaboration was a special one with scholar Adam Lee-Morgan, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and AAM! The event happened at Schenley Plaza and there was rain and shine - it was such a great experience! We look forward to more collabs with Adam because his Mary Lou Mission is to translate Aunt Mary’s hand written notes which will bring undiscovered music into the 21st century.
Adam Lee-Morgan started down his swing path in the 2nd grade when he started playing clarinet, and his grandmother bought him his very first record, which happened to be a Benny Goodman record. He added on the saxophone two years later and never looked back. Growing up as a jazz musician, the addition of Lindy Hop to his life was a natural one. Adam started dancing in 1997 just a few months before the infamous GAP ad and was dancing five nights a week. In 2001 he moved to Beijing, China where he started the Lindy Hop scene and led a 17-piece big band, the Beijing Big Band. In 2010 he returned to the USA to do a Master’s degree in Music Education at NYU, and a few years later moved back to his home state of California, where he taught high school band and was the bandleader and music director for the LA Swing Barons, focusing on the Kansas City big band style. It is through that work that his love and appreciation for Mary Lou Williams’ composing and arranging began.
He presently is working on his Ph.D. in Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, teaches band at Chatham University and the Afro American Music Institute.
Summer Swing Memories
On behalf of the MLWI Team we send Adam Lee-Morgan a special thank you for your vision and commitment to bringing Aunt Mary’s works into the 21st century. And we send a BIG BAND THANK YOU to the band - you all were absolutely amazing.
Photo Credits: Angie Brown -Parker + Bennett Goldstein + Ferguson Entertainment