A multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes’ poem “Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz” by the Ron McCurdy Quartet on Thurs., Jan. 21, will highlight the University of Washington’s MLK Week, an event series created to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The concert will be held from 8-10 p.m. at the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Theatre, with doors opening at 7 p.m. UW students, faculty, staff and alumni, as well as the general public, are invited to attend this family-friendly event. Admission for UW students is free, however a ticket is required and can be picked up from the Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center. All other tickets ($5) can be purchased online. Patrons are encouraged to arrive early as seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. The evening will also include a performance by students from the UW spoken word ensemble, R.E.T.R.O. Revolutionary Poets.
MLK Week will take place Jan. 15-22 and is produced by the Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center, the Center for Communication, Difference & Equity and the Carlson Leadership & Public Service Center. Inspired by past campus MLK Day celebrations, this event series features multiple opportunities for the UW community to participate in service and activism, including an annual Day of Service, Jan. 18. To learn more, visit www.mlkweek.uw.edu or contact Dr. Marisa Herrera, executive director of community building and inclusion at the Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center (ecc@uw.edu or 206-543-4635).
The Langston Hughes Project performance by the Ron McCurdy Quartet will utilize jazz music, spoken word and videography to link the words and music of Hughes’ 12-part poem which was written as an homage to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s. It is scored with musical cues drawn from blues and Dixieland, gospel songs, boogie woogie, bebop, progressive jazz, Latin “cha cha,” Afro-Cuban mambo music, German lieder, Jewish liturgy, West Indian calypso and African drumming. It was a creative work left unperformed at Hughes’ death in 1967.
Dr. Ronald C. McCurdy is a professor of music in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California (USC) and is past-president of the International Association for Jazz Education. He serves as the director of the National Grammy Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Combo, as well as director of the Walt Disney All-American College Band in Anaheim, Calif. McCurdy has released two CDs and performed with a host of legendary jazz artists including Wynton Marsalis, Joe Williams, Rosemary Clooney, Terence Blanchard, Leslie Uggams, Arturo Sandoval, Diane Schuur, Ramsey Lewis, Mercer Ellington, Dr. Billy Taylor, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton and Dianne Reeves. He can be available for media interviews by contacting ronmccbop@aol.com or 818-429-2494.