Looking At: Jazz - New Orleans: The Birthplace of Jazz October 10, 2006

Williamsburg Regional Library will host a free six-part film viewing, reading and discussion series called Looking At: Jazz, Americas Art Form. The series includes viewing of specially curated films on the history and styles of jazz in America.

Tonight's program features:
Film portions of Ken Burns "Jazz, Episode 1: Gumbo, Beginnings to 1917" The first episode in Ken Burns Jazz begins in New Orleans. Gumbo tells the story of how African American musicians in the 1890s combined Caribbean rhythms, opera, minstrel shows, and the sounds of marching bands with ragtime and the blues to produce a music that would be called jass, and later jazz. The viewer is introduced to such legendary innovators of the music such as cornetist Buddy Bolden, pianist Jelly Roll Morton, clarinet prodigy Sidney Bechet and trumpet virtuoso Freddie Keppard. Discussion to follow will be led by Harris Simon, instructor of music at the College of William and Mary and a noted local pianist and harmonica player.

Event submitted by Eventful.com on behalf of programs.