Harlem Jazz Series - Gene Pristker
Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church2 West 122nd Street, New York 10027
Gene Pritsker brings his ensemble Sound Liberation to the Harlem Jazz Series for an Ella Fitzgerald-inspired program. The group works across hip hop, chamber music, jazz and rock, with Pritsker’s compositions designed to move freely among those forms.
Russian-born and New York-based, Pritsker is a composer, guitarist, rapper, DJ and producer raised in Brooklyn. He has worked with Joe Zawinul and orchestrated music for Cloud Atlas and The Matrix Resurrections. The New York Times called him “audacious…multitalented.”
Built in 1906 with Roman brick and a copper dome, the sanctuary trades club atmosphere for the clear, resonant acoustics of a historic Harlem house of worship. Curated by trombonist Craig Harris, the long-running Harlem Jazz Series regularly fills the sanctuary with daytime and evening performances from veteran instrumentalists. Audiences sit in church pews for focused, seventy-five-minute listening sets without the noise of bar service or dinner orders. Seating accommodates up to 250 guests, with $30 general admission tickets easily purchased online or at the entrance ahead of start times. The quiet brownstone blocks directly bordering Marcus Garvey Park provide an easy walk to neighborhood dining along Lenox Avenue after the music finishes.