New Amsterdam Musical Association

Music put Harlem on the map. Artists such as Sarah Vaughn, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Lena Horne, Larry (Lucky) Luci, Dinah Washington, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake & Louis Armstrong filled the air of Harlem with jazz, ragtime and blues throughout the carefree nights of the 1920's. White patrons - everyone from gangsters to socialites - flocked to Harlem, crowding famous venues like Connie's Inn, The Cotton Club and the block long Savoy Ballroom, along with speakeasies, sporting houses and all manner of after-hours joints.

The New Amsterdam Musical Association was already here, conceived in 1900 as a union for black musicians who were denied admission into the white only local union, the New Amsterdam Musical Association was conceptualized by James Reese Europe in 1904 and has had its share of ups and downs. A dedicated core of Volunteer Members are now working to revitalize NAMA, the first official representative of black musicians in the world, where syncopation fused with ragtime to create swing dance music and set the stage for the music that came to be known as "JAZZ."

Notable NAMA members

• Buster Bailey (clarinetist)
• Eubie Blake (pianist)
• Will Marion Cook (composer-conductor)
• Rafael Escudero (tubist & bassist)
• James Reese Europe (bandleader)
• Craig S. Harris (trombonist)
• John E. Johnson (vocalist, multi-instrumentalist)
• Larry Lucey (guitarist with Duke Ellington's Orchestra)
• Henry Minton (saxophonist, founder of Minton's Playhouse)
• Gladys Seals (saxophonist)
• Zutty Singleton (drummer)
• Fred Staton (saxophonist)
• Willie J. Mack (multi-instrumentalist, Jazz Art specialist)

Hours

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