After surveying sporting houses of Storyville and the speakeasies of South Side Chicago, KSDS’s Jazz University returns with its most ambitious semester yet. Like Porgy, Bess, Sportin' Life, and George Gershwin before us, we’ve got our sights set on New York City, and KSDS GM and resident jazz historian Ken Poston is just the man to shepherd us all the way uptown without having to bear the expense of a monthly Metrocard.
The A Train might still be the quickest way to Sugar Hill, but these courses will take you, via rare archival audio and film, into the heart of the intellectual and artistic belle epoque that was the Harlem Renaissance in a way that the New York City Subway, marvel that it is, cannot.
From the brownstones and the ballrooms to the Cotton Club’s bandleaders and dance brigades, the course will take a holistic look at the interdisciplinary nature of this hugely influential period, via its music, art, literature, poetry, commentary, and larger-than-life personalities. We’ll examine it all, while considering the profound role this hyper-distilled creative brilliance had in shaping both jazz and the musicians who wrote and played it in New York City, from the end of World War I through the Great Depression to the dawn of the Swing Era.
The course will consist of four (4) weekly multimedia lecture sessions, the last of which will culminate with a Harlem Renaissance-themed dinner and an historically faithful live concert presentation. All this for just $88.30 per person (astoundingly, about $50 less than a monthly NYC subway pass). That’s uptown savior faire without uptown prices!
Resvervations for the entire package (classes, dinner, and concert) can be made by calling 619-388-3000 or by emailing Chuck@jazz88.org.
If you'd like to attend JUST the concert OR just the concert AND the dinner, a la carte tickets for those events can be purchased at jazz88.org/tickets.
Parking passes, City College campus maps, and more logistical mumbo jumbo to be found here.
Classes to be held on July 10, 17, 24, and 31 on the San Diego City College campus, in room AH 306.
