Consuela Lee Moorehead
{{Short description|American jazz pianist, composer, and professor}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Consuela Lee Moorehead
| image = Photo of Consuela Lee Moorehead.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_name = Consuela Lee
| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|11|1|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Tallahassee, Florida
| death_date = {{death date and age|2009|12|26|1926|11|1|mf=y}}
| death_place = Atlanta, Georgia
| nationality = American
| education = Fisk University, Northwestern University
| field = Jazz musician
| training =
| movement =
| works =
| patrons =
| awards =
| spouse = Isaac Thomas Moorehead, ending in divorce
| partner =
}}
Consuela Lee Moorehead (November 1, 1926 – December 26, 2009) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, music theory professor, and the founder of the Springtree/Snow Hill Institute for the Performing Arts. She fought to establish an arts school in rural Alabama,{{Cite news|title=Consuela Lee, 83, Pianist and Educator|last=Weber|first=Bruce|date=4 Dec 2003|work=The New York Times|id = {{ProQuest|1458351278}}}} Moribund Academy. She is sometimes known as Consuela Lee or Consuela Lee Morehead.
Early life
Moorehead was born in Tallahassee, Florida and was the granddaughter of the Snow Hill Normal and Industrial Institute founder, William James Edwards. Both her parents were musicians - her father was a cornet player and band director at Florida A&M while her mother was a classical pianist and teacher.{{Cite web|url=https://www.workers.org/2010/us/consuela_lee_0114/|title=Consuela Lee was a Liberator Through Education|last=Moorehead|first=Monica|date=2010-01-08|website=Workers World|access-date=2018-04-03}} She moved from Florida to Snowhill, Alabama at age 3 and started playing piano shortly after. She graduated from the Snow Hill Institute in 1944 and attended Fisk University for her undergraduate degree and Northwestern University for her master's degree in music theory and composition.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/arts/music/12lee.html|title=Consuela Lee, Jazz Pianist and Educator, Dies at 83|last=Weber|first=Bruce|date=2010-01-12|website=The New York Times|access-date=2018-04-03}}
Career
Moorehead was a pianist with the New York Bass Violin Choir, The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe (a group she formed with sister A. Grace Lee and brothers Bill and Clifton),{{cite web |last1=Grevatt |first1=Martha |title=Obituary: A. Grace Lee Mims: a cultural treasure |url=https://www.workers.org/2019/10/44014/ |website=Workers World |date=14 October 2019 |accessdate=28 July 2020}} and The Richard Davis Trio. She performed across the country at concert halls, jazz festivals, and college campuses.{{Cite book|title=Jazz Women at the Keyboard|last=Unterbrink|first=Mary|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=1983|isbn=0-89950-074-9|location=Jefferson, NC|pages=[https://archive.org/details/jazzwomenatkeybo00unte/page/n135 126]–128|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/jazzwomenatkeybo00unte}} She also taught music theory and composition at historically black colleges and universities including Alabama State University, Hampton University, Talladega College, Huntingdon College, and Norfolk State University. In 1979, she returned to Snow Hill Alabama to reopen her grandfather's school as a performing arts center with after-school and summer programs for students, which ran until 2003. She was the assistant music supervisor and wrote a song for the 1988 movie School Daze (directed and written by her nephew, Spike Lee) and contributed music to the 1999 movie The Best Man (directed and written by her nephew, Malcolm D. Lee).{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0603468/|title=Consuela Lee Morehead|website=IMDB|access-date=2018-04-03}} In 1992, she was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jazzhall.com/inductees/index.htm|title=Inductees|website=Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130403082241/http://www.jazzhall.com/inductees/index.htm|archive-date=2013-04-03|url-status=dead|access-date=2018-04-03}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{official|http://www.consuelalee.com/}}
- [http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/cds/08332.php Consuela Lee - Piano Voices]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moorehead, Consuela Lee}}
Category:American women jazz pianists
Category:American jazz pianists
Category:American music educators
Category:20th-century American pianists