Women In Jazz: A Sampling from The First Hundred Years

As part of our Community Voices series, we present a free presentation by Robert Silver on “Women in Jazz: A Sampling From the First Hundred Years” on Friday, July 10 at 5 p.m. Free and open to all.

Jazz is quintessential American music recognized and enjoyed around the world. Tracing its origins to the “Talking Drums” of Western Africa to the complexities of numerous composers and performers – women and men, jazz has birthed a wide array of familiar formats including Bebop, Blues, Broadway Musicals, Calypso, Contemporary Symphonic and Opera, Gospel, Rhythm and Blues, Rock & Roll, Scat and Soul.

In this presentation, we will sample contributions of women and men in jazz during the past hundred years; relying upon luminaries including Dorothy Donegan, Ella Fitzgerald, Natalie Cole, Eva Cassidy, Diana Krall, Yoko Miwa, Samara Joy, Christine Fawson, Judy Carmichael, and others (many whose music we have enjoyed in the Falmouth Jazz Festival). In each case, we will explore aspects of the musical and personal lives of these performers and enjoy samplings of their recorded performances.

Our presenter and neighbor, Robert Silver, is a recently retired scientist and professor with more than a half-century in research and teaching, and even longer as a fan of classical, jazz and blues music.