"Jazz and America: The Complicated Story Behind the Funky Music"
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Venue: SUNY Korea Academic Building C103
Speaker: Professor Donald Bellomy
Abstract:
A century ago, Americans were experiencing what they called the Jazz Age. From the 1920s to the 2020s, they – and the rest of us – have continued to live in America’s jazz age. This is partly because jazz has shapeshifted into many of the musical styles popular today, but, even more significantly, because jazz has symbolized and helped shape and define the enduring tensions within American culture – Black and white; group and individual; high culture and low; national exceptionalism and global cosmopolitanism; music we listen to, and music we dance to.