Melba Joyce

Harlem Meer Social Hour: Melba Joyce: A Woman in Jazz

Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008
6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Manhattan 

Join the Central Park Conservancy for a fresh alternative to the tired old happy hour scene at this exciting monthly series for young professionals held at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center!

Celebrate Women’s History Month in Central Park with singer and Jazz stylist Melba Joyce.  As a popular performer and entertainer of audiences for over 30 years, Melba’s early influences include her father, Melvin Moore, a prominent vocalist with the jazz and swing bands of his era, and Dizzy Gillespie, with whom Melba’s father toured.  Towards the beginning of her career, Melba shared billing with top artists Miles Davis, Freddy Hubbard, and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.  Since then, she has performed in just about every major (and some minor) city in the world, from Vietnam to Nigeria to Amsterdam to Little Rock, Arkansas.  These travels confirmed for her the international love and influence of Jazz, and inspired her to found Women in Jazz for World Peace, to produce the first Women in Jazz Festival at Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Black Culture, and to play a leading role in the Day of the Child series for UNICEF.  Melba has said, “jazz is an instrument of peace, bringing us all together.”  In 2005, Melba joined the Count Basie Orchestra as a featured vocalist.  About this pairing between singer and band, Ira Gitler of Jazz Improv Magazine said, “I was pleasantly surprised … when I rediscovered Melba Joyce singing with the Count Basie Orchestra [at the Pescara Jazz Festival in Italy]. … If you're tired of all the little girl wanna' be jazz singers, check out [her Live in London] disc.”  Ms. Joyce is sure to delight audience members who come to ‘check her out’ in Central Park as well.

As part of this same program, Nigerian novelist Kunle Abodunde will read a story from his writings centered on a 1990's performance by Melba Joyce in Lagos, Nigeria.

Refreshments are provided and time for mingling is built in to each program.  For more information, please call (212) 860-1370.

Location: Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, Central Park (located inside the Park at 110th Street between Fifth and Lenox avenues).

More Information: 
Phone number: (212) 860-1370