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Initiatives

Blue Abstractions: The Cognitive, Social and Sonic Dissonances of Bud Powell

Thursday, March 31st, 2016
Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.
4:00 pm

Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum 600 South Gregory Urbana

Event Description

Bud Powell (1924-66) was a legendary jazz pianist who was one of the architects of bebop, a style of modern jazz that emerged in the 1940s. This talk discusses Powell with respect to his experiences in the mental health system, the music industry and idiosyncrasies of his musical rhetoric.
Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (2003) and the forthcoming In Walked Bud: Earl “Bud” Powell and the Modern Jazz Challenge. He received his doctorate in musicology from the University of Michigan and taught at Tufts University before joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1998. He is also an accomplished pianist, composer and arranger, with numerous releases on CD including The Colored Waiting Room (2012) with his Philadelphia-based band, Dr. Guy’s MusiQology.

Professor Ramsey’s blog, Musiqology.com, is read around the world and boasts more than 65,000 views.

Cosponsored by: Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, Department of African American Studies, Department of History, Division of Musicology

Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.

Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania

Ramsey flyer