HARLEM, Manhattan — Nestled in a cozy third-floor apartment at 555 Edgecombe Ave., the air is rich with love and the timeless rhythm of jazz. This is the sanctuary of Harlem’s own Marjorie Elliot.
“When I began this journey, my son Shaunie remarked, ‘Mommy, you’ve created your own little Carnegie Hall, and you’re going to stay here.’ And here I am,” Elliot shared, reflecting on her decades-long tradition.
And taking it in from the sidelines, Rudel Drears, her son, gets ready.”What’s on the set list today?” Eyewitness News entertainment reporter Joelle Garguilo asked.”He has a set list in his head,” Elliot said.For more than three decades, Miss Marjorie has opened her home, hosting jazz concerts for friends, neighbors and strangers.”Sometimes people will come and I’ll say, ‘You’re here for jazz?’ And they’ll go, ‘Yes, I am,’” Drears said. In this apartment, in this parlor, strangers become family and music becomes medicine.”Parlor Entertainment, the Black national anthem.””We always start with the gospel,” Drears said. “The origins of this music, you know… coming out of slavery. The field hollers, the shouts, into ragtime, the blues and jazz. So we honor the ancestors in that way.””No one goes away,” Elliot said. “No. No. We’ve never not connected.”It all started in 1993 when Marjorie’s son Philip passed away on a Sunday.”To celebrate his anniversary, I wanted to do a jazz concert in the park,” she said.Her only way to get through every Sunday after that has been through music.”She had a burst of inspiration to honor him with jazz concerts on Sundays,” Drears said.”I needed to do this,” Elliot said.”There were a couple of people who said, ‘Oh, that’s too much. You should do it once a month.’ She said, ‘No. No. No. I’m going to honor him every Sunday,’” Drears said.She’s now lost four sons, but these sessions haven’t stopped.”When I get real, I go to my great grandmother. She said, ‘You can cry, but if you play and really concentrate on giving it right, the tears will go away,’” Elliot said.So, every Sunday, rain or shine, no exceptions, the music plays.”We wonder sometimes, ‘Well, how did you get here? How did you find out?’ And it’s a lot of word-of-mouth,” Drears said.You can talk about the experience, but you really need to be there.”Beautiful, intimate family affair, because that’s how she treats everyone: as family,” a guest said.”To me, this is like going to church. Sunday church,” another guest said.”It’s a good feeling. After the show, we’ll hear things like, ‘Oh, I really needed that. I really needed to be here today,’” Drears said. “They just become part of the fabric of what we do here, and then they’ll come back.””The people who come here are my family, and we’re in partnership. That’s how I look at it,” Elliot said.
