A Journey Through America with Jazz

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…