Brent Edwards on Bricktop in Paris
Ada Smith was a singer who started a famous nightclub in Paris in the 1920s.This talk recounts the enormous cultural influence she wielded and restores the history of US expatriates who frequented herthe salon.
1930 and 1940s
A Musical Education: Lee Morgan and the Philadelphia Jazz Scene of the 1950s
McMillan places Lee Morgan's early development and tastes within the context of the jazz scene in Philadelphia. Rather than viewing Morgan as an isolated hero or astounding prodigy, McMillan portrays his talent as a product of the flourishing jazz community that surrounded him.
McMillan is the author of a new book on Morgan, Delightfulee: the Life and Music of Lee Morgan (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008). Material from the article posted here appears in this new volume. Purchasing information is available on the University of Michigan Press website.
Master in the Making (Lennie Tristano)
Ulanov explores the early career of the pianist/composer in order to ask what the roots of his prodigious talent may be.
Ellington Writes Of Race Problem in Vivid Music
This review of Barry Ulanov's biography of Duke Ellington appeared in Ebony Magazine in January 1946. It summarizes Ulanov's account of the racial obstacles Ellington and his musicians faced and their various strategies for transcending them. "It is an American band," Ellington says of his orchestra, "because it is democratic."
Barry Ulanov on "Jump for Joy" and "Black, Brown and Beige"
This resource presents two chapters from Barry Ulanov's Duke Ellington, the first full biography of the great composer and orchestra leader. They deal with two of the composer's most important extended works: the musical "Jump for Joy" and the concert suite "Black, Brown, and Beige."
The Other’s Language: Jacques Derrida Interviews Ornette Coleman
Two highly original thinkers share their views on improvisation. Both experienced discrimination: one as an Algerian Jew in colonial France, the other as an African-America in depression-era Texas. Both believe it put them at a distance from their own "languages of origin" yet spurred them to creative acts.
Jacques Derrida on improvisation:
"The very concept of improvisation verges upon reading, since what we often understand by improvisation is the creation of something new, yet something which doesn't exclude the pre-written framework that makes it possible."
Barry Ulanov on "Jump for Joy" and "Black, Brown and Beige"
This resource presents two chapters from Barry Ulanov's Duke Ellington, the first full biography of the great composer and orchestra leader. They deal with two of the composer's most important extended works: the musical "Jump for Joy" and the concert suite "Black, Brown, and Beige."
Constructing the Jazz Tradition
This artful survey of interpretations of jazz history is also a challenge to the notion that there can or should be any single one. DeVeaux shows that common claims as to what jazz is about-a form of resistance, a folk art, an autonomous high art-coexist uneasily, and that each has been used to support otherwise antagonistic stylistic agendas. He calls for closer inquiry into the nuanced history of each period and rejects dogmatic assertions of jazz' "essence."
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