Zoom master classes during the fall semester 2020 – Dana Hall

During these sessions Dana talked about for example these very important topics:

“Jazz” music is being taught in schools all over the world. How much of this education is at all informed by the foundations of this music and what knowledge and skills are elemental to our work as a 21st century artist?

Black music – the idea of black music and social justice are always intertwined, particularly in the ways black artists have created a continuum. You don’t have to be black to play this music. BAM is protest music, it’s political music, it speaks about injustice. Jazz may or may not do that

How black people are portrayed – dichotomy between being recognized as a revolutionary artist, but still having such a stain in their society. Duke Ellington can be a headlining artist at Newport Jazz Festival but he can’t buy a sandwich. This is very significant for our study of this music!

When we learn a song maybe instead of just looking at a lead sheet we should learn where the song is coming from?To understand the foundation of this music, you want to understand what the songs are about.

Artists like Louis Armstrong, Ambrose Akinmusire, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday and Robert Glasper and the way of speaking out about social injustices trough their music.