Jazz40 NYC: Jazz at Lincoln Center

At New England Conservatory, jazz runs hot in young musicians' veins. It means the blaze of improvisation and individual creativity, the warmth of interaction in small ensembles. Experimentation is encouraged. And that's cool!

This tradition goes back 40 years, when NEC launched the first fully accredited jazz studies program at a music conservatory. In celebrating the 40th anniversary of this creative first, NEC dips into the past, present, and future, with a week of club dates in New York. A similar series of club appearances set Boston's jazz clubs ablaze back in October.

Living Time:
George Russell's Musical Life and Legacy

We take a break from performances to strut NEC's academic credentials with a two-part colloquium held at Jazz at Lincoln Center. This will be a four-hour, in-depth examination of the late George Russell's pivotal position and important contributions to African American improvisational art music. While Russell's music and ideas have been celebrated around the world, and he influenced many of today's jazz musicians through his work as a teacher at NEC for almost 40 years, his work remains somewhat "below the radar," particularly in the United States. This event will be a major critical appraisal of Russell's multifaceted career.

With an introduction by Jerome Harris '77, panelists include David Baker, chair of the jazz studies department at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music; performer and educator Cameron Brown, Stanton Davis '72, one of the first graduates of the NEC jazz program; Ingrid Monson '82, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music at Harvard University; Ken Schaphorst, current chair of the NEC jazz department; Gunther Schuller, who launched NEC's jazz program in 1969 and hired George Russell for his first and only long-term university teaching position; and Ben Schwendener, who as Russell's assistant is an expert in Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is located at West 60th Street and Broadway, Columbus Circle. This panel is held in the Education, Rehearsal & Recording Studio (ERRS) in the Irene Diamond Education Center at JALC. Please enter on the ground floor of the Shops at Columbus Circle, located in the Time Warner Center, and use the JAZZ elevators located across from Hugo Boss. This is a free event, no reservation required.