Eminent music critic Larry Blumenfeld is the Watson professor in the Humanities. He has an exciting line-up of events starting next Monday onwards. The Department of Art and Music Histories is co-sponsoring.
Jazz in Troubled Times: The Relevance and Resonance of a Culture
Through a two-week residency at Syracuse University as Watson Visiting Professor for 2019, cultural journalist and music critic Larry Blumenfeld examines jazz as an aesthetic construct, a living culture, a language of many dialects, a personalized science and a framework for thought and action as related to social justice. Through lectures, presentations, workshops and public discussions, he looks beyond conventional histories and limitations of genre and style to tell stories of empowering legacies, ongoing struggles and essential cross-cultural connections. He proposes jazz as a resonant form and relevant framework for understanding personal and communal identities in turbulent times. He also investigates timeless traditions of improvisation, and the current relationship between arts and activism. In doing so, Blumenfeld draws on his 30 years of journalism and criticism; his immersion in the jazz cultures of New York, New Orleans and Havana; and his ongoing dialogues with celebrated musicians.