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 A multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes'
kaleidoscopic Jazz poem suite, "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz" -
Hughes' homage to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at
home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s.
By way of videography, this concert performance links the words and
music of Hughes' poetry to topical images of "Ask Your Mama's"
people, places, and events, and to the works of the visual artists
Langston Hughes admired or collaborated with most closely over the
course of his career. Together the words, sounds and images recreate
a magical moment in our cultural history, which bridges the Harlem
Renaissance, the post-World War II Beat writers' coffeehouse jazz
poetry world, and the looming Black Arts performance explosion of
the 1960s.
A Multimedia Concert Performance of Langston
Hughes’ “Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz” featuring the Ron
McCurdy Quartet
The Langston Hughes Project is a multimedia concert performance of
Langston Hughes' kaleidoscopic jazz poem suite titled, Ask Your
Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz. This is Hughes' homage in verse and
music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and
abroad at the beginning of the 1960s. It is a twelve-part epic poem
which Hughes scored with musical cues drawn from blues and
Dixieland, gospel songs, boogie woogie, bebop, progressive jazz,
Latin “cha cha,” Afro-Cuban mambo music, German lieder, Jewish
liturgy, West Indian calypso, and African drumming – a creative
masterwork left unperformed at his death.
Originally, Hughes created “Ask Your Mama” in the aftermath of his
participation as an official for the five-day Newport Jazz Festival
of July 1960, where he shared the stage with such luminaries as
Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver, Dakota Staton,
Oscar Peterson, Otis Spann, Ray Charles, and Muddy Waters. The
musical scoring was designed to serve not as mere background but to
forge a conversation and a commentary with the music. Though Hughes
originally intended to collaborate with Charles Mingus, and then
Randy Weston, on the performance of this masterwork, it remained
only in the planning stages when Langston Hughes dies in 1967. Its
recovery now in word, music and image provides a galvanizing
experience for audiences everywhere.
Utilizing engaging videography, this concert performance links the
words and music of Hughes’ poetry to topical images of Ask Your
Mama’s people, places, events and to the visual artists Langston
Hughes admired and/or collaborated with most closely over the course
of his career including the African- inspired mural designs and
cubist geometries of Aaron Douglas, the blues and jazz-inspired
collages of Romare Bearden, the macabre grotesques of Meta Warrick
Fuller, the rhythmic sculptural figurines, heads, and bas reliefs of
Richmond Barthe, and the color-blocked cityscapes and black history
series of Palmer Hayden and Jacob Lawrence. Together the words,
sounds and images recreate a magical moment in cultural history,
which bridges the Harlem renaissance, the post World War II beat
writers’ coffeehouse jazz poetry world and the looming Black Arts
performance explosion of the 1960’s.
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The performance is brought to life by the extraordinary talents
of the Ron McCurdy Quartet. Dr. Ronald
C. McCurdy is professor of music in the Thornton School of Music at the
University of Southern California (USC) and is Past-President of the
International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE). Prior to his appointment at
USC he served as Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at USC.
He has released two CDs. The first one titled, “Once Again for the First Time”
on the INNOVA label and the most recent CD titled "April In Paris" with his
vocal funk group, The Ron McCurdy Collective. He is co-author of a vocal jazz
improvisation series titled “Approaching the Standards”, published by Warner
Bros.
Dr. McCurdy is the director of the National Grammy Vocal Jazz Ensemble and
combo, and also serves as Director of the Walt Disney All-American College Band
in Anaheim, CA.
Dr. McCurdy has performed with a host of legendary jazz artists, including
Wynton Marsalis, Joe Williams, Rosemary Clooney, Terence Blanchard, Leslie
Uggams, Arturo Sandoval, Diane Schuur, Ramsey Lewis, Mercer Ellington, Dr. Billy
Taylor, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, and Dianne Reeves. He is a performing
artist for the Yamaha International Corporation.
Other events in observance of Black History Month
Monday, Feb. 4
"Black History before Black Panther & Beyond"
4 – 5 p.m.
Oberhelman Center for Leadership Performance in the University Commons
Monday, Feb. 11
Coffee & Conversation Series: "The African American Studies Minor"
2 – 4 p.m.
Oberhelman Center for Leadership Performance in the University Commons
Wednesday, Feb. 13
Spoken Word/Interdisciplinary Theater Artist Ebony Stewart
8 p.m.
Einstein's Bagels in Shilling Hall
Friday, Feb. 15
"Celebration of African American Art - Paint & Sip"
6:30 – 9 p.m.
Bob and Debi Johnston Banquet Room, 3rd floor of the University Commons
Wednesday, Feb. 20
Soul Food Lunch
Dining Hall in the University Commons
For more information about Millikin University's celebration of Black History
Month, contact Derrick Sosinski, coordinator for Inclusion and Student
Engagement, at dsosinski@millikin.edu.
[Millikin University Media Relations] |
