SEEING JAZZ . . . And Talking About It

	Blue Light (for Duke Ellington) Douglas Vogel mixed media, 1981-82

a two-part symposium at the New School for Social Research, March 31 of critics and artists discussing an exhibition of photographs, paintings, installations and literary excerpts presented by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, on view at The Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson St., through April 5, 1998

The Jazz Journalists Association, in league with America's Jazz Heritage, A Partnership of the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution and The Jazz Gallery, and the Mannes Jazz and Contemporary Music Program of the New School of Social Research, is pleased to announce the two-part symposium, Seeing Jazz . . . And Talking About It at Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th Street, NYC, on March 31 from 4 to 8:30 p.m. The panel discussions will be presented before an audience; admission fees are $5 for students, seniors and members of the Jazz Journalists Association, $15 for the general public.

Seeing Jazz is an innovative exhibition of photographs, paintings, installations and literary excerpts focusing on the aesthetic of jazz as expressed in myriad artistic forms. On view in abbreviated form (due to space limitations) through April 5, 1998 at The Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson St., Seeing Jazz opened at the International Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1997. Curated by S. Marquette Folley-Cooper, Deborah Macanic and Janis McNeil, and adapted for the Jazz Gallery by Dale Fitzgerald, Seeing Jazz is also documented as a four-color book from Chronicle Books (San Francisco), with foreword by Clark Terry, afterword by Milt Hinton, jazz writings by Toni Morrison, Julio Cortazar, Jack Kerouac, Ralph Ellison and many others, as well as representations of works in visual media by Romare Bearden, Jean-Michel Basquiat, William P. Gottlieb and more.

	Hot Rhythm Archibald F. Motley, Jr. oil on canvas, 1961

To explore and promote this exhibit, the Jazz Journalists Association has convened a panel of jazz-oriented critics including Margo Jefferson (New York Times), Ben Ratliffe (New York Times, Slate), Greg Tate (Village Voice, Vibe) and Dan Morgenstern (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University), who will discuss their personal responses to the works and expand on jazz at it influences or is reflected in their own activities. Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz Journalists Association, will moderate the panel at Tishman Auditorium from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Following a reception, Chris Johnson, Mannes Jazz and Contemporary Music program professor and a specialist in jazz and the culture of the African-American experience, will moderate a second panel drawn from a pool of New York-based musicians, dancers, painters and photographers, including Bob O'Meally (Zora Neal Hurston professor, Columbia University), Reggie Workman (bassist, Mannes/New School) and Douglas Vogel (visual artist). Besides lively discussion among themselves, the panels will entertain questions from their audience members.

A review of the volume Seeing Jazz, and some slides from the exhibition, are posted at the JJA website Jazzhouse.org, and transcriptions of the panel's discussions will also be posted there, as will criticism of the show as it moves on to its other sites over the next 18 months. In addition, The Jazz Gallery hosts three consecutive nights of music while Seeing Jazz is on display, featuring the Roy Hargrove-Larry Willis Duo (3/27), Tom Harrell- Sir Roland Hanna Duo (3/28), and the Randy Weston Trio (3/29). Sets at 8 and 10 p.m., $10 members, $20 non-members. Hear some music - see Seeing Jazz - come to talk about it!

	Basie at the Apollo Wadsworth Farrell acrylic on canvas, 1992

For further information, contact The Jazz Gallery (212-242-1063), the New School (212-229-5667 x 239), SITES (202-357-3168 x141), the JJA (212-533-9495).