He confirmed that the Bistro is trying to move toward becoming a year-round operation, starting earlier in the fall, ending later in the spring, and filling weeks between touring acts with local talent. Another potentially important part of the move toward twelve months of programming is JATB's first "Summer Jazz Spectacular," comprised of three weekends of live jazz coming up in July. The series begins with Bucky Pizzarelli on July 8 and 9, followed by Pat Martino on July 15 and 16, and wraps up July 22 and 23 with a Tribute to Jimmy Smith, featuring Willie Akins and Reggie Thomas.
The "Spectacular" is, in part, a test to see if a large enough audience will turn out for jazz performances at a time of year when the Bistro has not been active before. But it's more than that, because with what strikes me as some smart thinking, the Bistro has been able to cushion itself somewhat against a financial downside on these dates by collaborating with Washington University's Center for the Humanities.
The CEH, headed by noted author, scholar and jazz fan Gerald Early, is conducting a summer institute for high school teachers this July called "Teaching Jazz as American Culture." From the institute's Web site:
"It will offer participants an exciting opportunity to learn about one of the most extraordinary art forms the United States has ever produced and how this art form, at the height of its popularity and power, deeply impacted many aspects of American artistic and cultural life—vernacular speech, film, fine art, literature, and fashion—and American social and commercial life—race relations, sex relations, and the dissemination of art to the masses. The primary goal of the institute is to work with teachers to show how, through the study of the social, cultural, technical, and aesthetic history of a major American musical genre, jazz, they can reconfigure aspects of teaching history, literature, music, art and film while broadening students’ understanding of the political, social, and commercial impact that an artistic movement can have."
Although enrollment in the course closed long ago (and was only open to high school teachers, anyway), the Web site is still an interesting read for the ideas and questions it raises about the role of jazz in American culture, and, more generally, the idea of using a specific art form such as jazz as a lens through which to view society.
And if you work your way down to the list of the various components of the institute, you'll see one devoted to live performance. That's where the Bistro comes in, for the "Summer Jazz Spectacular" is also the performance component of the Institute, and Bradford a guest lecturer. By collaborating with Washington University, an institution known to be quite well-endowed, JATB is able to stretch their budget, try something new, and minimize the downside risk, and both the Institute's students and the general public get to hear some good music. Sounds like a win-win scenario to me.
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