Presented by The National Arts Journalism
Program,
in association with the Research Center for Arts and Culture
The Village
Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave South
Between 11th St and Waverly Pl
2–6:30 PM, Friday, April 26th
AFTER A
CENTURY OF DEVELOPMENT AND MUTATION, jazz--alternately described
as "America's classical music" and "America's indigenous
music"--has remained one of New York's signature cultural offerings.
Yet for all the sold-out engagements, boxed sets and commentary
the art form has provoked, much about the working conditions and
actual lives of jazz musicians has gone unexplored. As jazz has
captured the attention of a wide range of writers and thinkers,
it has come to suggest an aesthetic that extends beyond the music
itself.
TALKING
JAZZ: LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD, a series of
three afternoon panels Friday, April 26, certainly won't be the
first time intelligent, informed folks have discussed the music
and its context at this venerable West Village club. Since 1935,
jazz has been debated at the Vanguard on a nightly basis, either
at the bar or in the famed kitchen that now serves as a dressing
room. But "Talking Jazz" will be the club's first formal
critical conference, and is certain to prompt a chorus of interested
debate on issues that surround the community and the aesthetics
of jazz.
The April 26 event, which is free and open to the public, will begin
at 2 p.m. at the Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue So., between
11th Street and Waverly Place. Reservations are recommended. To
reserve your seat, please call 212.854.6842 or email rm276@columbia.edu.
The panels are:
Destination Out (2-3:15 p.m.):
Although ahead of the crowd on most social issues, the jazz subculture--a
stronghold of machismo--has been slow to acknowledge the presence
of gay musicians. Does being gay make a difference in the jazz world?
A panel of musicians who are gay and "out," including
Gary Burton, Andy Bey, Fred Hersch and Charlie Kohlhase, discuss
their experiences. Moderated by Francis Davis, NAJP senior fellow
and contributing editor for Atlantic Monthly.
View transcript
Work Song
(3:30-4:45 p.m.):
How do jazz communities actually operate? What, if any, resources
and support can the jazzman or woman rely on? Scant research exists
to help us answer these questions, but a new study by the Research
Center for Arts and Culture, commissioned by the National Endowment
for the Arts, aims to change that. This extensive survey of musicians
in four U.S. cities--New York, New Orleans, San Francisco and Detroit--illuminates
the lives, hopes and struggles of jazz artists, deepening our awareness
of the jazz life. This panel announces the preliminary findings
of America's first in-depth survey of jazz artists. Co-moderated
by Joan Jeffri, director of the Research Center for Arts and Culture
at Teachers College, Columbia University; and Martin W. Mueller,
executive director of the jazz and contemporary music program at
New School University. Panelists include Carliner Ray and Vijay
Iyer.
View transcript
In All Languages
(5 p.m.-6:15 p.m.): Critics for newspapers, magazines and other
print-media forms have written mountains about jazz. Discussions
of jazz occur more and more within the academy, specifically within
the study of the humanities. Yet working critics and teaching scholars
don't always speak of jazz in the same language. In this discussion,
leading jazz critics and scholars, including Gary Giddins (Village
Voice), Ben Ratliff (New York Times), Robin D.G. Kelley (Columbia
University) and Krin Gabbard (SUNY/Stony Brook), explore jazz's
aesthetic, in search of a common discourse. Moderated by Larry Blumenfeld,
NAJP mid-career fellow and editor-at-large for Jazziz.
View transcript
A 6:30 p.m. reception will follow the
panel discussions.
The event is co-presented by the National Arts Journalism Program
and the Research Center for Arts and Culture. Based at the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism, the National Arts Journalism
Program administers fellowships for journalists in the fields of
arts and culture, and serves as a forum for discussion of challenging
and timely issues at the crossroads of arts and culture, journalism
and public policy. The Research Center for Arts and Culture, at
Columbia University's Teachers College, provides data and ideas
for applied research, education, advocacy, policy making, and action.
Founded by Max Gordon in 1935, the Village
Vanguard became a home for poets and writers, then folk singers,
comics and, finally, jazz artists, who earned it the stamp and prestige
of the world's most renowned jazz club. Artists as diverse as John
Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Eartha Kitt, Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte
and Woody Allen have graced the stage of the Vanguard. |