The World, as Such, Is Present in Jazz: Some Indications
By Eli Siegel

“Jazz, like the other arts, is both severe and easy. Jelly Roll Morton is in the tradition of accuracy as joy.”

Feeling Bad, Good Will, & the Blues
By Ellen Reiss, poet, critic, Aesthetic Realism Chairman of Education

“The blues, as form and meaning, is evidence for this: if a person were to have good will, even when she was feeling blue, a certain dejection would stop and beauty would begin.”

Roughness & Sweetness in Louis Armstrong’s Rendition of “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love”
By jazz musician Alan Shapiro

On Duke Ellington’s Black & Tan Fantasy
By composer Edward Green, from Dr. Green’s Introduction to The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington

“Through snarling timbres, off-key blue notes, and melodic phrasing and rhythmic patterns that are unpredictable, jazz says NO! to complacency and a phony sense of comfort. Jazz does this in order to say YES! to the self that wants to see the world with justice, largeness, surprise, and accuracy.”

The Orderly Extreme by Eli Siegel
Discussing Shelby Foote’s novella Ride Out, about a jazz musician, Mr. Siegel says:

“This is one of the best things about music I know—also about people….If you can let go and still be orderly, you’re an artist. The motto for jazz is: Professor Tiger.”

A reception with light refreshments will follow.

Contri. $10

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