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Monday, May 21: Guest Lecture: Dr. Rashida Braggs - “Paris Blues: Ellington, Armstrong, and Saying It With Music, Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies”
I’ve never really payed much attention to Jazz before and the only times I’ve ever heard it was when riding around in the back seat of my dad’s car when I was younger. Monday’s Lecture talked about the Era of Jazz post-WWI and post-WWII and the Various men and women musicians that came through Paris to perform and even live. Most of the time, people focus on the African American writers that migrated to Paris but not so much the Jazz/Blues players that influences a lot in Paris as well. After the lecture we also watched a very old movie (a least to me) called “Paris Blues”. Pretty good movie to me that had a very generic love story in it but also portrayed the 1965 time period with the old traditions and they way people dressed and references to events during that time period. All of m it makes me think about how my dad was really into learning French and loved Jazz music.
Tuesday, May 22: Jazz workshop at the Duc des Lombards
Tuesday’s class was a continuation of our Jazz topic but at a really nice Jazz Club in the Chatelet area. We had a professional skat singer, blues singer, and jazz tap dancer perform for us. Was a really cool atmosphere to be in that i never thought to do engage in before. The music had a lot of feeling in it and lots of improvising that set it apart from other music forms. We also had the chance to try out some improvised skatting on the mic (of course I was awful. cant sing to save my life) and some class mates preformed some songs after some talking-in-to. Also, was a good time after hearing drinks were free (hehehe). Today was definitely right up there for one of the best her in Paris.
