This lecture recital will use jazz, or Black American Music, as a vehicle to travel the United States moving through generations of cultural influence and social development. Since its beginning, jazz has been a tool to express the inner thoughts and feelings of its custodians. Accordingly, the greater part of our journey will illuminate the stories of Black musicians in the American South, particularly Texas and Louisiana. Following the routes of millions of Black folks during the Great Migration, we travel North by way of the Mississippi River through Kansas City and Chicago. We’ll then go east toward Philadelphia and New York City end our journey in Harlem. To accompany the lecture material, live musicians will perform songs along a timeline that itself evolves as presentation connects the lineage of jazz masters; essentially giving the listener a retaliative timeline of musical advancements. By centering jazz and its powerful influence on culture, this presentation will shed light on the history and contributions of Black Americans and the musical traditions still alive today.

In Partnership Special thank you to the Fleet Library at RISD and the Society for American Music (Sounding the Nation at 250) for generous support. PVD World Music is supported in part by Rhode Island Council for the Arts, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, New England Foundation for the Arts and many individual donors who support us each year.