Somniac Gallery will morph on specific dates to host small performances, incidental music, readings and other events.

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FREE JAZZ CONCERTS AT SOMNIAC GALLERY

On Thursday Nov. 1rst 2007 we had the pleasure of having some great talent performing at Somniac Gallery. Marjorie Eliot (piano) and friends played with Lew Soloff, (trumpet), Stafford Hunter (trombone) and Jill Melanie Wirth (vocals). This was the first of a series of FREE jazz concerts that Somniac and Parlor Entertainment will be presenting at the gallery every other Saturday afternoon starting January 26th 2008.
For more than fifteen years, Marjorie Eliot has hosted Sunday afternoon jazz concerts in her Manhattan apartment. The free events draw some of the top talent in New York City. To hear NPR news story by George Bodarky on Marjorie's concerts go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5344862
and click "Listen Now (3 min 59 sec)".

Who performed at our first concert:

MARJORIE ELIOT was honored in November 2004 by the Jazz Museum of Harlem.
"For hosting Sunday concerts in her parlor to preserve the heritage of Harlem Jazz," Marjorie Eliot was a Year 2000 Honoree of City Lore's People's Hall of Fame, an annual awards celebration and party established in 1993 that honors grassroots contributions to New York's cultural life.
A graduate of Talladega College, Ms. Eliot was for many years Writer-in-Residence at the Hudson Valley Freedom Theatre, creating its theatre programs for children and adults. Hudson Valley's Artistic Director, Curt Stewart, produced 20 of her plays during her tenure. Her acting credits include the original New York and original tour productions of Charles Gordone's Pulitzer Prize wining No Place To Be Somebody. She appeared in Phillip Hayes Dean's The Owl Killer, Every Night When the Sun Goes Down, Sty of the Blind Pig, and Black Noel. She was in the Phoenix Theatre's Broadway production of The Member of the Wedding. She appeared in the film Serpico and on television was in J.E. Franklin's Black Girl, Nightside with John Cassavetes, and Blue Monday.

LEW SOLOFF (born February 20, 1944 in New York City) is a jazz trumpeter. He studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. He is likely best known for his work with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1968 to 1973. Prior to this, he worked with Machito, Gil Evans, Tony Scott, and Tito Puente. Since his stint with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he has worked with Clark Terry, Mongo Santamaria, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, the Gil Evans big band, Stanley Clarke, Jon Faddis, Sonny Stitt, Spyro Gyra, George Russell, Stanley Turrentine, Bill Evans, Carla Bley, Ray Anderson, Franco Ambrosetti, Ornette Coleman, Tony Bennett, Louie Bellson, Hiram Bullock, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Magic City Jazz Orchestra and the Bohuslän Big Band. He has also been a longtime member of the Manhattan Jazz Quintet.

STAFFORD HUNTER was born in 1969 in Atlantic City, NJ. Later, moved to Philadelphia and became a professional musician by the age of 16. He attended Penn State University for 2 years before moving to New York and graduating from the New School Jazz & Contemporary Music Program in 1994. Of which, he was the first trombonist actually to graduate from the New School.

In 1992, Stafford appeared as a model in the December issue of L'Uomo Vogue (the Italian Vogue magazine for men). This issue also featured jazz greats like Milt Hinton, Clark Terry, Louie Bellson, etc... Also, he appeared in a documentary film on the late-great pianist; Dorothy Donegan.

In 1993, he performed at former-US President Bill Clinton's inaugural. Since then, the trombonist has performed, recorded and toured all over the world with the likes of Illinois Jacquet, McCoy Tyner, Lester Bowie & Brass Fantasy, Abdullah Ibrahim, Charli Persip, Charles Tolliver, Tony Bennett, Roy Hargrove, Cab Calloway Orch., the Mingus Big Band, Lauryn Hill, Frank Foster, Clark Terry, Reggie Workman, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Lionel Hampton Orch., Dionne Warwick, Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Turre & Sanctified Shells, and is a present member of the Lionel Hampton Orch, and the Duke Ellington Orch. under the direction of Paul Mercer Ellington among other groups. Also of note, Stafford appeared in a movie entitled "the Day the Ponies Come Back" which was released March of 2001 in France.

JILL MELANIE WIRTH is an actress, singer, and writer of one-person-one-act "Dramedies."
She is originally from Chicago where she studied with Dr. Bella Itkin at The Goodman School of Drama, Bud Beyer of Northwestern University, and John Malkovich at Steppenwolf Theatre. She began her career in Chicago Theatre in productions at Hull House, The Body Politic, with The Chicago Stategy Theatre Company and with The Halcyon Commedia Dell Arte Repertory Company.

Jill has performed in theatre, film, television, concerts, commercials, and voice-overs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and London. Jill has appeared in theatre and music productions at such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Carnegie Hall, BAM Next Wave Festival, Vineyard Theatre, La Mama E.T.C., AMAS, The York Theatre, and Westport Country Playhouse. She has also appeared at the 92nd Street Y as a solosit in the Meet the Virtuoso series. On the London stage Jill Melanie Wirth appeared in Andrew Vachss' BORN BAD, for which she received critical acclaim. Jill Melanie Wirth (as Jill Kotler) can be heard doing an audio version of Andrew Vachss' REPLAY. (www.vachss.com/replay)
On TV Jill Melanie Wirth starred opposite Mandy Patinkin in NBC's television special "Sureness of the Morning" as well as in countless commercials and voice-overs (commercial CD available upon request). Other television work includes Law & Order, One Life to Live, and Guiding Light. Jill Melanie Wirth appears regularly as a jazz vocalist at Marjorie Eliot's Parlor Entertainment http://www.parlorentertainment.com/
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