22 oct 2013 - conférence université de Nantes

Douglas R. Ewart & Michael Zerang participated in a conference titled “Chicago, musicale par excellence“, part of the cycle À la découverte du jazz. This cycle of conference, jointly organized by local venue Pannonica and the Student Bureau of the Université de Nantes, brings together artists with writer and anthropologist Alexandre Pierrepont. These conferences are punctuated by mini-performances by the guest musicians, who are also invited to bring their voice to the debate and exchange with the audience.

Ernest Khabeer Dawkins asserts that « History is natively present in the music, in the essence of sound, even in its matter. The cries, the complaints, the work songs, the hymns… all elements in a virtually infinite number, that cannot be dissociated. Music traces the line to history, to the present time – and to the days to come. » This conference intends to tell this story – through music – from the first improvisers settling in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century to their present influence in the city and beyond, from boogie-woogie and blues to post-rock and the afro-futurist aesthetic of rap and funk, and show how, in all eras, in 2013 still, the creative musicians of the Midwest have favored a collective (cooperative, united) intelligence of the music and of the world.