Consuela Lee

Consuela Edmonia Lee Moorehead (born November 1, 1926 in Tallahassee , Florida , † December 26, 2009 in Atlanta , Georgia ) was an American jazz pianist , composer , arranger and music teacher.

Live and act

Lee grew up in Snow Hill in Wilcox County , Alabama and had a classical piano training. She studied music at Fisk University in Nashville and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois . She then taught music theory and composition at African American colleges such as Alabama State University , the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University ), Talladega College, and Norfolk State University . The music of Mary Lou Williams , Art Tatum , Fats Waller and the early Nat King Cole had an early influence on her jazz piano playing .

With the school she founded, she followed the educational work of her grandfather William James Edwards, who was a student of Booker T. Washington and in isolated rural African American communities in the period after the abolition of slavery in the United States first schools for black children had created. In 1979, Lee decided to leave university and revive her grandfather's historic school in Snow Hill. Finally, in the summer of 1980, the Snow Hill Institute for the Performing Arts was founded , where music, theater and dance were taught. Her students include jazz drummer Sangoma Everett .

Her school, with daily afternoon and summer programs, had existed for a quarter of a century until health problems forced her to quit in 2003. Previously, artists such as Max Roach , Milt Jackson , Delroy Lindo , Odetta and her nephew Spike Lee had supported the project. A jazz xylophone choir called Bright Glory toured Alabama. In 1993 she was honored for her work with the induction into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame .

With her siblings Bill Lee , Cliff and Grace Lee as well as Sonny Brown and Billy Higgins , she recorded the album A Spirit Speaks in 1974 under the band name The Descendents of Mike and Phoebe , on which two of her compositions ( Well Done, Weldon and Don ' t Be a Stranger ). Larry Willis produced her duo album Piano Voices (2001, with Sangoma Everett), recorded for Mapleshade Records . She also appeared on the soundtrack of Spike Lee's 1988 film School Daze ; Her music was also used in her nephew Malcolm D. Lee's film The Best Man Holiday . Her composition Prelude was recorded by Max Roach .

Web links

• The Consuela Lee Foundation for Music Education
• Obituary in The New York Times
• Consuela Lee at Discogs (English)
• Consuela Lee in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ NYC Tribute to Jazz Artist, Consuela Lee, Oct. 29 at IA-Center
2. ↑ Portrait at Mapleshade Records
3. ↑ Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame Inductees ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Ebony October 1974
5. ↑ Consuela Lee at Allmusic (English)