Lecture on Jazz Improvisation by Bill Bares – Reverence, Race and Rhetoric

Jazz pianist and Associate Professor of Music Bill Bares will present a lecture, Reverence, Race, and Rhetoric: Brad Mehldau and the Challenge of Thematic Improvisation, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26, in Karpen Hall, Laurel Forum. The talk is free and open to everyone.

Lecture description from Bill Bares:

Is thematic improvisation in jazz a distinctive achievement or does it smuggle in Eurocentrism through the back door? This talk uses two live recordings—both from the legendary Village Vanguard in New York, and spaced some 40 years apart—to discuss the evolution and meaning of “formal unity” in jazz soloing. Comparing Sonny Rollins’s solo on “Sonnymoon for Two” from Live at the Village Vanguard (1957) with Brad Mehldau’s solo on “The Way You Look Tonight” from Live at the Vanguard (1998), I suggest that the vectors of reverence, race and rhetoric best help us decode this widespread, complicated musical practice.

UNC Asheville’s Music Faculty Lecture Series is funded in part by The Dan Lucas Memorial Fund.