Explore how and why jazz music found its way to the heart of Alpine Europe as we celebrate the work of two of Switzerland’s most accomplished improvisers. African American in its origins and embraced by the world, Jazz has been influenced by many international cultures.
Dr. Jürgen E. Grandt introduces you to the music of Swiss musicians, Schweizer and Wickihalder, and explains how it deepens our understanding of place, race, time, and tune. The improvisations of these two artists celebrate the origins of jazz and what it means to be a citizen of the world.
This program is part of a series on African American history for adults sponsored by the FCPL Friends & Advocates.
About Dr. Jürgen E. Grandt
Dr. Jürgen E. Grandt is an associate professor of English at the University of North Georgia. A native of Switzerland, he studied at the University of Zürich and the University of Georgia. Prior to his current position, he taught as a visiting professor of American Studies at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, as a visiting professor of English at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and has guest-lectured extensively in Ireland, Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the United States.
He has published numerous articles in African American and American Studies and is also the author of Kinds of Blue: The Jazz Aesthetic in African American Narrative (The Ohio State University Press, 2004) and Shaping Words to Fit the Soul: The Southern Ritual Grounds of Afro-Modernism (The Ohio State University Press, 2009), both nominees for the CLA Book Award. His most recent book is Gettin’ Around: Jazz, Script, Transnationalism (University of Georgia Press, 2018).
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