Keeping Harlem's Storied Jazz Past Jamming
By SHERRI DAY

With the big-band era long gone and hip-hop music dominating radio charts and dance clubs, what's an old jazz master to do?

Jam.

On a recent Monday night in Harlem at the New Amsterdam Musical Association, which claims to be the oldest jazz organization for black musicians in the country, a 13-piece band sliced through the silence on a residential block with the sounds of "Satin Doll," "Pennies From Heaven" and "Take the 'A' Train."

William Pyatt, 75, a tenor saxophonist whose cheeks bulged as he leaned into the mike, took frequent solos. Albert Sheldon, 79, tidy in a three-piece suit, closed his eyes and swayed, his shoulders twitching as he extended his red and white accordion. Emmanuel Grier, 63, delighted the crowd with a one-handed solo on the conga drums. And W. Morris Mitchell, 76, who travels from his East New York home on a senior citizens' Access-a-Ride shuttle, kept the melody on the piano.

Most of the musicians at the jam session are longtime members of the music association, a blue-collar bedrock of jazz history in Harlem. Black musicians who were not welcome in the local musicians' union because of their race founded the organization in 1904, jazz historians said. These days, the old-timers - none of whom were alive when the organization began - are trying to rebuild NAMA as it celebrates its 100th anniversary. They also want to inspire new generations to play jazz.

"I like to keep the legend alive," said Fred Staton, an 89-year-old tenor saxophonist who has played with Billy Strayhorn, Art Blakely and Billy Eckstine. "If we don't, no one else will."