Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement: A University on Wheels Program with A Brandeis Professor
How did such well-known jazz musicians as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Charles Wingus, Dave Brubeck and others engage in the Civil Rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s?
As Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaches, Brandeis University musicologist Dr. Michael Heller will examine jazz musicians' engagement with the Civil Rights Movement along with musical examples at the Brandeis National Committee (BNC) Phoenix Chapter’s annual University on Wheels breakfast, held on Friday, January 9 at 9 a.m. at the Orange Tree Golf Club in Scottsdale. This is part of an annual program to bring Brandeis professors to local cities with BNC chapters.
Hear a great speaker. Enjoy a delicious breakfast buffet. Meet and socialize with other Brandeis members. Bring a friend. Musical examples will include Louis Armstrong, Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, and others.
To attend, go to the Brandeis Phoenix website at www.brandeisphoenix.org for more details and to purchase a ticket. Registration deadline is January 2
For more information, contact Sue Karp at [email protected] or 480-225-7250.
Dr. Heller is a musicologist, ethnomusicologist, and a jazz scholar. He serves as associate professor and chair of the Brandeis University Department of Music. Prior to that, he spent ten years at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his PhD from Harvard University. His love for music began with playing the saxophone in his youth. During college at Columbia University, his interests turned to jazz history while working at WKCR radio.
Michael’s scholarly pursuits continued with his work with the Vision Festival, an avant-garde jazz festival in New York. Inspired by the experimental musicians he met there, he wrote his first book, Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s (2017, UC Press), documenting the 1970s scene where adventurous artists staged performances in old factory spaces. The book was named one of the five best jazz books of 2017 by the New York City Jazz Record. His next book Just Beyond Listening: Essays of Sonic Encounter, was published in 2023, exploring the borderlands between music and sound.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3398889-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3398889-2
