WINTER JAZZFEST TALKS
2017 marks the inauguration of Winter Jazzfest Talks, a series of panel discussions and artist interviews exploring the festival’s themes and including its featured artists as well as noted journalists and scholars.
Saturday, Jan 7th 1pm-2:30pm
Social Justice & The Role of Music
(The New School, 5th Floor Theater, 55 West 13th st)
As wide-ranging as music can be in style, format and message, so the manner in which it reflects the politics and social issues is equally varied and diverse. In these polarized, hyper-politicized times, what is the duty of the creative musician? How best to comment or protest through music? What are the historical precedents that had impact and should be followed? These questions and others will be addressed by a panel including veteran drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, composer Samora Pinderhughes, ACLU representative and expert on criminal and racial justice Megan French-Marcelin, and Black Lives Matter activist Nyle Fort. The discussion with be moderated by Siddartha Mitter.
Sunday, Jan 8th 1pm-2:30pm
Metamusician’s Stomp: Andrew Cyrille
(The New School, 5th Floor Theater, 55 west 13th st)
To call Andrew Cyrille - the festival’s resident artist for 2017 - simply a drummer is to miss the point of a career-long approach to creative expression and fiery, in-the-moment invention. He’s played with a veritable "who’s who" of jazz innovators - Cecil Taylor and Coleman Hawkins, to David Murray, Carla Bley, Oliver Lake and Geri Allen - and has been a leader or co-leader of important groups since the 1970s. Cyrille will talk about his music, career, and other topics with one of his former students, the drummer Johnathan Blake.
Sunday, Jan 8th 3pm-4:30pm
Thelonious Monk Makes A Hundred
(The New School, 5th Floor Theater, 55 west 13th st)
It’s a challenge to fully measure the impact of Thelonious Sphere Monk on modern improvised music. John Coltrane called him “a musical architect of the highest order”. His compositions and concept remain refreshingly vibrant and timeless relevant today. No student of modern jazz can bypass the lessons inherent in his use of dissonance, angularity and the blues. A panel of musicians and writers, moderated by music historian Ashley Kahn, including T.S. Monk (drummer and son of Thelonious), Robin D. G. Kelley (noted historian and Monk biographer), David Amram (composer, performer, friend of Monk's), David Virelles (pianist), Larry Blumenfeld (jazz journalist) will convene to discuss and gauge his importance as celebrate the start of his centennial year.
(This panel will also include multimedia materials, including rare home recordings of Monk speaking and playing piano, and a peek at some never released music from the French film Monk recorded music for Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1960))
(panel lineup subject to change)
Tuesday Jan 10th 6:45pm-7:45PM
Music & Environmental Justice
(le poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker St)
Panelists will discuss topics including global climate change and clean energy, generational justice, vulnerable communities, and biodiversity to show how musicians have and can use their art to expose environmental issues to their fans and aid causes important to us all as inhabitants of planet Earth. Speakers will include Franz Matzner (Natural Resources Defense Council, All About Jazz), Ruth Cameron Haden (widow of Charlie Haden & ardent environmentalist), and three musicians dedicated to environmental themes in their work and through various forms of activism: trumpeter, composer and label founder Dave Douglas, composer and pianist Fabian Almazan and violinist/composer Dana Lyn.
Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra feat. pianist Geri Allen directly follows this conversation. Concert starts promptly at 8pm. Tickets and more information available here.
Note: Tickets are required for entry to the panel discussion and permit entry to the concert portion.