Mark Morganelli began presenting concerts in his first Jazz Forum loft at 50 Cooper Square in June 1979. By the time the second Jazz Forum loft closed its doors in April 1983, recordings, videos, films and radio broadcasts had documented performances by Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Woody Shaw, Red Rodney, Carmen McRae, Barry Harris, Philly Joe Jones and Max Roach.
After brief residencies at the Village Gate and the Entermedia Theater, Morganelli established Jazz Forum Arts, a not-for-profit arts presenting organization, and in 1985 started the Riverside Park Arts Festival, which concluded on its 13th anniversary in August 1997. Morganelli has produced over fifty compact discs, most for Candid Records, twenty of which were recorded "live" at NYC's Birdland club, where he was the music coordinator for five years.
Seventeen years ago, Morganelli and his family moved to Westchester, and shortly thereafter, he inaugurated the Jazz at the Music Hall series in Tarrytown. Performers have included Ahmad Jamal, Billy Taylor, Harry "Sweets" Edison, James Moody, Lionel Hampton, Betty Carter, Gerry Mulligan, Herbie Mann, Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, Dave Brubeck, Chuck Mangione, and the Count Basie and Duke Ellington Orchestras. Morganelli produced the Sunnyside and Berkshire Jazz Festivals and was executive producer of "Reckson Jazz at Tilles", at C.W.Post College in Greenvale, Long Island for nine years.
