Marc Cary / Marc Cary and Indigenous People's Arkestra
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant Recipient
Recipient Information
Location
Baltimore, Maryland
Year of Award
2021
Grant or Fellowship
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant
Grant Amount
$38,770
About the Project
Cary's Indigenous People's Arkestra will create a live recording and documentary of new work fusing jazz and go go music, featuring local go go pioneers and community leaders. Arts incubator partner, Bloom Bars (DC) will promote open rehearsals, livestreams, and Q&A sessions. A live recording will be released as an album, and a documentary will be made available through YouTube webisodes.
Residency Location
Washington, DC
About the Artist
Marc Cary stands apart by way of pedigree and design as one of New York’s ( now Baltimore based) highly acclaimed jazz pianists. None of his prestigious peer group ever set the groove behind the drums in Washington DC go-go bands nor are any others graduates of both Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln's daunting bandstand academies. He has shared stages and cultivated his craft with Dizzy Gillespie, Arthur Taylor, Carlos Garnett, Jackie McLean, Wynton Marsalis and Carmen McRae. His comfort with women bandleaders also made him a favorite accompanist among other modern singers notably Ndegeocello, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill and Ani Di Franco.
Cary has been Grammy nominated in both Stefon Harris's Blackout Group, and with Abbey Lincoln. He remains one of the progenitors of contemporary jazz, evident in his influence on peers. Live gigs with Stefon Harris and bandmate Casey Benjamin began the genesis of Robert Glasper’s recording Nirvana's ""Smells Like Teen Spirit,"" and Cary's record ""Taiwa"" from Focus in 2006 evolved into ""For You"" on Glasper's Double Booked and Harris' Urbanus. Cary collaborator Roy Hargrove exalted him with ""Caryisms"" on 1992's The Vibe, an album whose title track is one of two Cary originals including ""Running Out of Time""--now part of the lexicon of live repertoire among jazz stalwarts Hargrove, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Igmar Thomas' Revive Big Band. As Nate Chinen observed, “There isn’t much in the modern-jazz-musician tool kit that Marc Cary hasn’t mastered, but he has a particular subspecialty in the area of groove…with a range of rhythmic strategies, from a deep-house pulse to a swinging churn. Mr. Cary richly embodies the spirit of diverse streams that feed into the ample body of what we consider jazz history today. ""
In 2015 Marc Cary created The Harlem Sessions, a performance jam session concept . It has evolved into a thriving community movement of creatives, cultural ambassadors, music and arts lovers and a celebration of great artists, composers and songwriters beyond the standards and American Songbook. Recognized by such media outlets as The New Yorker, this series manifests Marc’s vision to use the bandstand as the ultimate teaching environment, so as to keep the next generation of artists connected to the cultural roots of jazz beyond the standards they are familiar with.
Cary continues to influence future generations as a Jazz faculty member at both The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music.