The Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta’s West End continues to offer rich content through its virtual programming. The latest addition to the museum’s arts and culture programming is “Conversations about Jazz and Other Distractions” with former jazz radio host and founder of Notorious Jazz, Carl Anthony.
This virtual, bi-monthly series is free and open to the public every other Thursday evening through December. Anthony will discuss the history of jazz, its involvement with protesting and racial justice, among other topics. He will also offer artist talks, workshops, and listening sessions. “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes spoke via Zoom with Hammonds House director Leatrice Ellzy and with Anthony about the upcoming conversations.
Anthony’s July 9 show looked at the tradition of protest in jazz and how contemporary jazz continues this practice.
When asked what Anthony believed was the future of jazz, he said, “The future is actually now. The streets have always been important to the sound of jazz. I think what is going on right now is going to be a platform for what’s to come. There’s a social consciousness right now that a lot of the musicians are taking into account as they perform because of what’s going on in regards to police violence, and Black Lives Matter, and the protester movements. A lot of the music that’s going to be created is going to have some element of social consciousness to it.”
Ellzy continued, “Jazz has always been a unifier. It provides us with a space that we can all come in and speak a common language and then from that space of commonality we’re able to branch off into our issues and talk about our issues and deal with our issues in a different kind of way.”
