This presentation will include readings from Ramsey’s new book on Bud Powell followed by a discussion of jazz, afro-modernism and mental health, topics linked to the life and career of Bud Powell.

Guthrie P. Ramsey is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. A widely published writer, he is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (University of California Press). It was named outstanding book of the year by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. He has recently released The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History and the Challenge of Bebop. He is a pianist, composer and arranger for his Philadelphia-based band, Dr. Guy’s MusiQology. In 2007 the group released a CD titled Y the Q? and in 2012 he released The Colored Waiting Room, a recording of original music blending jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, neo-soul, and classical. Among his recent work is “Someone Is Listening,” a commission (written with Barak Obama’s inaugural poet, Dr. Elizabeth Alexander) commemorating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP. Ramsey is the founder and editor of the popular blog, Musiqology.com, which takes on musical issues of the day and was read globally by 85,000 people last year. 

This event is sponsored by:

Department of Music programs in Musicology, Theory, and Ethnomusicology, the Department of Black Studies, and the Center for the Interdisciplinary Studies of Music.