EVENTS: new york city—february programs - center for jazz studies

 

Presents

 

 

A discussion and reading by author Karen Chilton

of her latest book

 

Hazel Scott

The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist, from Cafe Society to Hollywood to HUAC

A piano prodigy from an early age, Hazel Scott (1920-81) developed a distinct piano style that combined jazz and classical.

In her acclaimed biography, Karen Chilton explores the fascinating life of a pioneering artist who appeared in a number of Hollywood films,

ran afoul of HUAC, married and divorced Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and became a legendary expat living in Paris in the 60s.

 

 

Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 7:30 pm

301 Philosophy Hall

Amsterdam Avenue & 116th Street

Free & open to the public

Copies of Ms. Chilton's book will be available for purchase

 

 

 

Please join us as well for these upcoming Center for Jazz Studies events

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HOLDING IT DOWN

Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd with Maurice Decaul

Acclaimed pianist/composer Vijay Iyer and celebrated poet/performer Mike Ladd (in collaboration with Iraq veteran Maurice Decaul) launch a new work of music and poetry commissioned by Harlem Stage's WaterWorks program.  Building on their groundbreaking collaborations In What Language? (2003) and Still Life with Commentator (2006), Iyer and Ladd collaborate with young American war veterans of color from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to create a new work (working title Holding it Down).  Based on interviews with veterans of color about their dreams – harrowing, mundane or surreal – Iyer and Ladd build an evening of music, poetry, and song.

This project considers what it means for soldiers of color to move from a complex American landscape into the international context of war and imperialism, and then return home.  How is this new generation of veterans suffering and surviving, and what are they able to dream about? How do they go about their irreversibly transformed lives, moving from the unspeakable back to the speakable?  And a still newer question: What is the relationship between soldiers of color and our first African American president?  How do they fit into a newly transformed American race dynamic?  Using the condensed, universal logic of dreams to express and affirm their essential humanity, Holding it Down pays tribute to young men and women returning home.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010          

Performance: 7:30 pm

Harlem Stage Gatehouse

150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street,  New York City

Tickets:  $15

For tickets, visit www.harlemstage.org or call the Harlem Stage box office at 212-281-9240, ext. 19 or 20

 

Co-Presented by the Harlem Stage WaterWorks program and the Columbia/Harlem Jazz Project,

with support from the Office of the President, Columbia University

 

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Count Basie: Then as Now, Count's the King

A film by Gary Keys

Introduced by Professor Jamal Joseph, School of the Arts, Columbia University

 

Jazz great William "Count" Basie comes back to life in this rich documentary, which traces

the history of the pianist, composer, and bandleader over several decades. Filmmaker

Gary Keys juxtaposes a roundtable discussion among old cats from the Count Basie Orchestra

with recorded performances, including a cameo appearance in Blazing Saddles.

Archival clips and a gallery of portraits and snapshots shows the ever-smiling face of a man as

vivacious as the grooves he delivers—his good humor suffusing the music and the players

going at it all around him, from Lester Young to Ella Fitzgerald.

 

Thursday, February 18, 2010, 7:30pm

Lifetime Screening Room, 513 Dodge Hall

Columbia University Morningside Campus

Campus Map: http://www.columbia.edu/about_columbia/map/dodge.html

Free and Open to the public

Reception to follow

 

Co-presented with the Graduate Film Program, School of the Arts, Columbia University

 

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How Does Music Free Us? Afro-Asian Revolutionary Concepts in New Music

A discussion and reading by author Fred Ho

 

Chinese-American composer, baritone saxophonist, scholar/writer, producer, matriarchal revolutionary socialist

and aspiring Luddite Fred Ho explores the role of music in imagining a new society and foreshadowing a

transformed humanity.

 

Thursday, March 4, 20107:30pm

301 Philosophy Hall, 116th Street and Amsterdam Ave

Columbia University Morningside Campus

Campus Map: http://www.columbia.edu/about_columbia/map/philosophy.html

Free and Open to the public

 

Copies of Mr. Ho's newest book WICKED THEORY, NAKED PRACTICE: A FRED HO READER will be available to purchase

 

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Jazz Studies Beyond the Commercial Album

A panel discussion with Jason Moran, Ben Young, Larry Applebaum and Prof. John Szwed

Moderated by Prof. Brent Hayes Edwards

 

Jazz scholarship has focused on commercial recordings – as Max Roach was fond of saying, "Records are our textbooks"

– yet there is a shadow world beyond these official audio texts – a world of alternate takes, acetates and cassettes of

live recordings, radio broadcasts, and club appearances.  Fascinating and revealing as these documents are, they are

seldom used as the basis for published materials.  But with the creation of new and inexpensive technology, mass

downloading, the virtual collapse of the recording business, and the flood of unlicensed music on the Web, this alternate

universe of music is overwhelming scholars and the public alike.  This panel is the first public discussion of this phenomenon

and its implications for the future of jazz scholarship and the music itself.

 

Tuesday, March 9, 20107:30pm

301 Philosophy Hall, 116th Street and Amsterdam Ave

Columbia University Morningside Campus

Campus Map: http://www.columbia.edu/about_columbia/map/philosophy.html

Free and Open to the public

 

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For more information about the Center for Jazz Studies activities, please visitwww.jazz.columbia.edu or call 212-851-1633

 

 

 

Yulanda C. Denoon

Program Coordinator

Center for Jazz Studies

Columbia University

(212) 851-1633 - office

(212) 851-1634 - fax

www.jazz.columbia.edu