A Grand Summer For Swing…

MLWI is excited to celebrate our first collab with The Adam Lee Morgan Jazz Orchestra.  This summer event is a bridge that connects the past with the present and is a Pittsburgh proud collaboration.

The Revitalized Big Band Works of Mary Lou Williams

Schenley Plaza | 4100 Forbes Ave | Pittsburgh

Saturday, July 26th

6:30PM - 9:00PM

Adam Lee-Morgan started down his swing path in the 2nd grade when he started playing clarinet, and his grandmother bought him his very first record, which happened to be a Benny Goodman record. He added on the saxophone two years later and never looked back.

Growing up as a jazz musician, the addition of Lindy Hop to his life was a natural one.  Adam started dancing in 1997 just a few months before the infamous GAP ad and was dancing five nights a week.

In 2001 he moved to Beijing, China where he started the Lindy Hop scene and led a 17-piece big band, the Beijing Big Band. In 2010 he returned to the USA to do a Master’s degree in Music Education at NYU, and a few years later moved back to his home state of California, where he taught high school band and was the bandleader and music director for the LA Swing Barons, focusing on the Kansas City big band style. It is through that work that his love and appreciation for Mary Lou Williams’ composing and arranging began.

He presently is working on his Ph.D. in Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, teaches band at Chatham University and the Afro American Music Institute. 

About Adam

Mary Lou Williams Institute will be present anecdotes from family and friends- more info to come, please stay tuned!