Ranging Across Time and Scale, V. Shayne Frederick Holds Office Hours at Uncle Bobbie’s
MusiQ Department Artist Vince Anthony Debuts “Hurricane” Music Video
MusiQology Rx Fundraiser for One Art Community Center
Beyoncé’s Homecoming Film Preserves and Reveres Black History
Why Country Music is So Scared of Black People
DaMaris B. Hill’s New Book is a Powerful, Wondrous Thing
(FREE SHOW) Dr. Guy Performs with Ursula Rucker this Thursday, March 14, at World Café
Hide/Melt/Ghost’s Harlem Debut is a Major Moment for Black Music Scholarship & Performance
The Time Stevie Wonder Taught White Surfers how to Dance
Music Lives with MusiQology Events in Virginia and Philadelphia
The 2019 GRAMMYs: Streaks Broken, Questions Unanswered
The 2019 MusiQology GRAMMYs Preview
Ursula Rucker Talks Womanhood and Courage in Art
I Remember Roy: Remembering Roy Hargrove
Save the Date!: Dr. Guy brings Hide/Melt/Ghost to Harlem Stage on March 9!
Happy Holidays from MusiQology!
The Encouraging 2019 GRAMMY Nominations are Just One Step in a Long Process
Ring Shout “Yes. It will be jazz all over again,” I entertained myself with the thought that I will be formally learning about jazz after signing up for the class. I played saxophone in high school and was naturally exposed to jazz, thanks to my saxophone tutor....
On the evening of Friday, 24th September the students of Professor Ramsey’s Jazz class attended A Philadelphia Tribute to John Coltrane at the Ethical Society in Center City, Philadelphia. We filtered into the building with other jazz enthusiasts of the public. We checked in and bought our tickets...
If the tingly chill of this week’s weather is anything to go by, the wake-up call for the cold season has been issued. This year, its sound is that of the jazz trumpet. Or two jazz trumpets, even. Calling to each other across the time-span of this past week were the performances of Terence Blanchard...
Jason Moran and the Bandwagon, Village Vanguard, New York, October 5, 2010 The first set of Jason Moran’s trio weeklong engagement was packed and buzzed with anticipation. The legendary Village Vanguard, one of the great places to hear powerful jazz in an acoustically compressed environment, was an ideal...
Cranking, popping, leaning, rocking, and snapping; these terms, which aren’t traditionally musical, evoke potent cultural memories in a specific time period of my adolescent youth. They were the key terms to a mass-marketed but distinctly folk-based music with its origins in the southern region of America....
Having been a student in Prof. Ramsey’s History of Jazz and American Music courses, I wanted to share my reflections on working for an independent record label over this past summer. While we often focus on the aural qualities or the cultural legacies of certain music, my internship experience opened...
Summer is waning, classes are back in session, and it’s time, once again for another exciting season of MusiQology. In addition to my own writing, this year the blog will continue to feature some of the best writing on musical topics (and more) from my students in the History of Jazz and American...
Editor’s Note: According to a recently produced “diversity timeline,” the Du Bois College House, a residence hall on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, began “as an experimental living-learning program for African-American students” in 1972. The house was named for William Edward...
I can’t fully explain the power of Chuck D’s words from more than twenty years ago, that “Rap music is CNN for black America,” exerted on me. I became aware of them long after the moment in which they were initially uttered, and they have now resurfaced in my mind long after I first read […]
This semester I taught Spike Lee’s 1986 breakout film She’s Gotta Have It as an example of work that was produced during the age of “The New Black Aesthetic,” a term coined by writer Trey Ellis in 1989. In its moment, the film was critically acclaimed: it was a favorite at Cannes...
