Wednesday
12
February 2025
4:00 - 5:30 PM IST
Location
Room 314, Patrick French Black Box
School of Arts and Sciences
Central Campus
Share
The Origins of Jazz
Performing and Visual Arts Divisional Seminar Series
John Gunther
Professor
Director, Jazz Studies
University of Colorado
Speaker
The story of jazz is the story of America. The roots of the music extend to the very origins of the country with the arrival of enslaved Africans, French, English, German, and other European settlers. These diverse cultures, with their distinct musical traditions, converged in the melting pot of the United States, particularly in New Orleans, where African rhythms, European harmonies, ragtime, minstrelsy, brass bands, and the blues all blended to create a new, dynamic sound. Jazz evolved through the early 20th century, becoming a powerful expression of identity, resistance, and innovation. This lecture will explore the historical, cultural, and social influences that gave rise to jazz, tracing its development from its beginnings to its emergence as a defining American art form.
Speaker
John Gunther
Dr Gunther is a Professor and the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Colorado. As a jazz saxophonist and composer his expertise lies in mastering and communicating the range of jazz styles that have developed over the last century. As the art of improvisation is central to the study of jazz, he is interested in developing the pedagogy of improvisation through a deeper understanding of the creative process and expanding that study to other styles of music and disciplines beyond music. Additionally, his research explores the integration of technology and multi-media with li performance allowing for collaboration between a wide array of disciplines. This research includes the formation of the Boulder Laptop Orchestra in 2007.
