Events Calendar

The Lincoln/Armstrong Connection - From Gettysburg to New Orleans

Friday, 01 March, 2024

Gary Wills, in his masterful Lincoln at Gettysburg, makes the case that Lincoln redefined our system of government with that one short speech. This story finds an instructive parallel in Louis Armstrong's streamlining of New Orleans polyphony, melodic paraphrase, the grand gesture of opera, and the blues, into a musical discipline that merged improvisation and composition. Both Lincoln and Armstrong made profound statements while at the same time subtly redefining the basic principles of their mediums. Like those who considered Lincoln a country boy ill-equipped for the presidency, there are those who still define Armstrong as nothing more than a noble savage. Jazz music, in all of its current glory, is the most eloquent refutation of that solecism.

Loren Schoenberg, senior scholar of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, faculty at Juilliard and has also taught at the Manhattan School of Music and the New School.

Brennan Hall, Rose Room, 509 • ll:30 a.m. to l p.m.

Please visit Performance Music's website at Scranton.edu/music for details on a complimentary performance with Loren and The University of Scranton Jazz Ensemble.

Seminar Fees: Free to University of Scranton Staff, Students, Faculty and Schemel Forum Members

$30 per luncheon per person• $10 remote only

Contact:

Rose Merritt

Phone: 570.941.4740
Website: Click to Visit

Categories:

Brennan Hall, Rose Room (509)

320 Madison Avenue
 Scranton, PA 18510