CAS hosts “Blue Abstractions: The Cognitive, Social and Sonic Dissonances of Bud Powell” by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania, on Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 South Gregory, Urbana.
Bud Powell (1924-66) was a legendary jazz pianist who was one of the architects of bebop, a style of modern jazz that emerged in the 1940s. This talk discusses Powell with respect to his experiences in the mental health system, the music industry and idiosyncrasies of his musical rhetoric.
Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. is the author of “Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop” (2003) and the forthcoming “In Walked Bud: Earl ‘Bud’ Powell and the Modern Jazz Challenge.” He received his doctorate in musicology from the University of Michigan and taught at Tufts University before joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1998. He is also an accomplished pianist, composer and arranger, with numerous releases on CD including “The Colored Waiting Room” (2012) with his Philadelphia-based band, Dr. Guy’s MusiQology. Professor Ramsey’s blog, Musiqology.com, is read around the world.
Cosponsored by: Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, Department of African American Studies, Department of History, Division of Musicology.
This talk is part of the CAS Initiative Dissonance: Music and Globalization since Edison's Phonograph which examines how communications and technology have accelerated the pace of encounter and exchange between musical cultures.
Harry Liebersohn (History) and William Kinderman (Musicology) have been appointed CAS Resident Associates for this two-year initiative.
For more information please contact cas.illinois.edu. This event is free and open to the public.
Thanks to the Center for Advanced Study for this information item.
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