Detailed Event Description by Location
Programs at EIU	Programs Co-sponsored with Area Libraries
Related Programming - EIU Campus	Related Programming - East Central Illinois

Programs at EIU

Friday, Jan. 11, 2013
4-6 p.m., Doudna Fine Arts Center, Theatre
Opening Celebration

“America’s Music” will begin with an opening concert and reception at 7 p.m. Jan. 11 in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Theatre. The evening will include short clips from the films in the series, as well as performances in the various musical genres. Scheduled to perform are the EIU Jazz Ensemble (jazz), Unity Gospel Choir (gospel), Scott Wattles and the Blue Suede Crew (rock ‘n’ roll), Christine Robertson (Broadway), EIU Percussion Ensemble (Latino), Flat Mountain (bluegrass) and more. Admission is free.

Monday, Jan. 14, 2013
4-6 p.m., Doudna Fine Arts Center, Lecture Hall
American Music History on Film: Documentary with a Beat

Presented by Dr. Robin Murray

The America’s Music program “will highlight popular music from our country in the 20th century through documentaries and scholar-led discussions, focusing on unique American musical genres: blues and gospel, Broadway, jazz, bluegrass and country, rock ‘n’ roll and the Latin rhythms of mambo and hip hop.” This presentation will introduce the documentary traditions drawn on to record this history, emphasizing how these traditions also emerged in response to 20th century American culture.

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013
4-6 p.m., Witters Conference Room 4440, Booth Library
Documenting Intangible Culture: Songcatcher

Presented by Dr. Debra Reid

Music history requires interdisciplinary research that draws on history, anthropology, sociology and musicology. It all comes together during field work. This program will explore the process that ethno-musicologists engaged in during the early 20th century to document folk music. The feature-length film, Songcatcher (2000), dramatizes this process. Dr. Reid’s class, HIS 5350: Twentieth Century U.S. Social & Cultural History, will consider how musicologists established a research agenda and conducted their field work, how technological limitations and innovations affected it, and how insiders compared to outsiders in folk music collecting. Participating students are Molly Brown, Logan Bruce, Felicia Camacho, Danielle DiGiacomo, Joshua Jordan, Daniel Lund, Anna Mullen, Clarissa Thompson, Daniel Tomar, Katherine Unruh and Susan Voskuil.

Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013
7-9 p.m., Doudna Fine Arts Center, Lecture Hall
Film Screening and Discussion:
Broadway: The American Musical, Episode 2, Syncopated City (1919-1933)

Discussion Moderated by Dr. Allen Lanham

Broadway: The American Musical, produced by Michael Cantor, 2004, *N.E.H. sponsored; Emmy, Outstanding Nonfiction Series; Emmy, Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Program; Golden Satellite Award, Best Documentary DVD. Episode Two of this award-winning six-part series on the history of Broadway focuses on the 1920s, Broadway’s most prolific era. Narrated by Julie Andrews, it features on-camera commentary by historians, as well as performers, writers and critics including Stephen Sondheim, Andre de Shields and John Lahr. Broadway during the Jazz Age showcased the sweeping changes transforming American culture: new roles for women; the mixing of social classes in Prohibition-era speakeasies; new creative opportunities for African Americans in jazz clubs and music halls. Many of the new word- and musicsmiths writing for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway’s musical revues were immigrants from Eastern Europe. Their syncopated rhythms borrowed from jazz; their lyrics reflected a vibrant new American argot; their songs became big business. America’s exuberant culture of optimism was reflected in the plucky heroines of Broadway shows, and Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle’s successful all-black revue broke the Broadway color barrier. But the success of the “talkies,” which lured musical talent to Hollywood, and the collapse of Wall Street in 1929 brought Broadway to its knees and the Jazz Age to a crashing halt. It would return to its feet in differing forms every decade or so thereafter.

* This program also will be presented at 7 p.m. Monday, March 18, 2013, at the Shelbyville Public Library.

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013
7-9 p.m., Buzzard Hall Auditorium
Film Screening and Discussion:
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Episode 1, Feel Like Going Home
Say Amen, Somebody

Discussion Moderated by Dr. Michael Loudon

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues, produced and directed by Martin Scorsese, 2004; Grammy Award Winner, Best Historical Album; Emmy Award Nomination Outstanding Non-Fiction Series; Emmy Award Winner Outstanding Cinematography for Non-Fiction Program. Episode 1 of Scorsese’s seven-part series is a lyrical journey into the landscape and origins of the blues. The film explores the birth of the blues out of the hard-time experiences of black farmers and cotton workers in the Mississippi Delta. On-screen subtitles of the bleak lyrics of primitive blues songs attest to the subsistence existence of early blues musicians and demonstrate the blues as “storytelling through music.” Moving between past and present, contemporary blues musician Corey Harris serves as on-camera guide, speaking with artists like Willie King and Sam Carr. The film introduces the great early blues masters Son House, Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker.

Say Amen, Somebody, produced and directed by George T. Nieremberg, 1983; *N.E.H. sponsored; Telluride, New York, Toronto, London, Cannes Film Festivals; Boston Society of Film Critics Best Documentary of the Year; One of 10 Best Films of the Year: People Magazine, Rolling Stone, Miami-Herald, At the Movies, Chicago Sun Times. This film features three figures who pioneered the golden age of gospel music: Willie Mae Ford Smith, Thomas A. Dorsey and Sallie Martin. Each played influential roles in creating gospel music as we know it today: Dorsey’s songs are credited with marrying blues music and rhythms with religious and inspirational lyrics; Martin helped him create a national training ground and market for gospel singing; and “Mother” Smith became one of its first and most proficient soloists.
* This program also will be presented at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, at the Danville Public Library.

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013
7-9 p.m., Buzzard Hall Auditorium
Film Screening and Discussion:
Ken Burns’ Jazz: Episode 6, Swing, the Velocity of Celebration
International Sweethearts of Rhythm

Discussion Moderated by Dr. Newton Key

Ken Burns’ Jazz, Ken Burns, 2001; *N.E.H. sponsored; five Emmy nominations; Television Critics Association Award, Outstanding Achievement; Writers’ Guild of American Award, Best Documentary. Episode 6 picks up swing jazz in the late 1930s. As the Depression deepens, swing thrives, becoming popular across all social classes. While some think the music is becoming too commercialized, in Kansas City a new sound is emerging that will redefine swing. This segment of the 90-minute episode begins in 1936. Count Basie arrives in New York City, bringing the signature up-tempo blues-influenced sound and unique syncopation he developed playing clubs in Kansas City. Jazz history is made when Benny Goodman brings his swing band to Carnegie Hall. By the end of the summer 1938, Basie was considered America’s premiere swing band. Records, radio shows and film performances brought his joyous alternative to commercial swing to the world.

International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss, 1986; Oberhausen, Leipzig, New York Film Festivals; Silver Award, Philadelphia Film Festival; Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival. This documentary tells the little-known story of a multi-racial all-women swing band that became a sensation in the 1940s. A band that performed throughout the South to raise money for its school in Piney Woods, Miss., evolved into the Sweethearts of Rhythm after the Depression. When the outbreak of World War II removed male musicians from the scene, the group expanded, riding the swing craze to national success in sold-out performances in theaters across the country. The 16-member band of 14- to 19-year-olds embraced members from different races and many of the best female musicians of its day. The film records the often wry and humorous recollections of band members as they reflect on their experiences in the music world.

* This program also will be presented at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 21, 2013, at the Robinson Public Library.

Monday, Feb. 11, 2013
4-5 p.m., Witters Conference Room 4440, Booth Library
The Enduring Legacy of the Work Song in the Blues

Presented by Dr. Michael Loudon

The work song is one of the founding roots of the blues. It served as a functional means to keep people in time so that the tension of plantation work during enslavement would not lead to people hurting each other with an axe while cutting down trees, or to an exaggerated pace of work while moving across a field weeding it with hoes. With the end of slavery, the practices continued in the sharecropping of Reconstruction and in the southern agricultural prison farms well into the 1930s. The functions were similar for prison labor, though the songs were adapted to fit changing conditions and new characters, especially as a means of keeping people — prisoners — in time so that they would not be singled out for punishment because they worked too slowly. As changing prison conditions evolved with new technology — tractors rather than men, with a rise of individualism, with increasing professionalism of better educated prison guards and wardens, and with a disruption of generational continuity within prison populations, especially with the end of segregation in southern prisons, the prison work songs became a matter of memory, recordings and books. Yet, this presentation seeks to argue that latter-day bluesmen, in tribute and in innovation, continue to keep the legacy, if not the function, of the work song alive as an essential root of the blues.

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013
7-9 p.m., Doudna Fine Arts Center, Lecture Hall
Film Screening and Discussion:
High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music

Discussion Moderated by Dr. Patricia Poulter

High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music, Rachel Liebling, 1994; Chicago International Film Festival Gold Plaque; Atlanta Film Festival, Best Feature Documentary; Houston International Film Festival, Silver Award; American Film Festival Red Ribbon. This documentary presents the history of this subgenre of country music through the story of Bill Monroe, considered the father of bluegrass. Weaving archival footage and photographs from the 1930s and ‘40s with toe-tapping live performances, the film traces the origins of bluegrass music from the Kentucky hills of Appalachia through the innovations that shaped its current form. The film provides on-camera commentary by bluegrass greats including Mac Wiseman and Jimmy Martin, as well as rarely seen tapes of Flatt and Scruggs. The history of bluegrass is inseparable from the history of Appalachia and the agricultural south in the 20th century. The film recounts the social changes that shaped their music in modern times: the coming of the railroads; the growth of mass market catalogs selling exotic instruments like the mandolin and Hawaiian steel guitar; traveling shows that introduced Tin Pan Alley songs and ragtime and early jazz from the cities; the new media of radio and phonographs; and the Depression, which forced young men from farms to seek work in cities. Monroe’s music melded the Scots-Irish traditional melodies he heard as a child with new instrumentation, driving contemporary rhythms and a unique high-pitched vocal style that became known as the “high lonesome” sound.

* This program also will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, at the Marshall Public Library.

Monday, Feb. 18, 2013
7-9 p.m., Doudna Fine Arts Center, Lecture Hall
Film Screening and Discussion:
Latin Music USA: Episode One, Bridges
From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale

Discussion Moderated by Mr. Jamie V. Ryan

Latin Music USA, Pamela A. Aguilar and Daniel McCabe, 2009; IDA Documentary Award, Limited Series (premiered on PBS). This series, narrated by Jimmy Smits, traces the vibrant history of Latin music’s expression and influence in America. Episode One presents the story of Afro-Cuban jazz and mambo as they developed in the dance halls and nightclubs of New York City. This film excerpt explores mambo, the Cuban hybrid of traditional danson fused with syncopated Afro-Caribbean rhythms that migrated to New York City from Havana in the 1940s. Further innovated by the great barrio-born Latin band leaders of the time, mambo became a music and dance craze that swept the country. The film explores how mambo loosened the stiff social and musical rules of the “country club culture” of the time. Mambo’s popularity across classes and ethnic groups integrated the dance floor and helped prepare the way for a more open and less restrictive social interaction between the sexes.

From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale, Henry Chalfant, Elena Martinez and Steve Zeitlin, 2006; ALMA Award, Best Television Documentary. The documentary celebrates the cultural life of one of America’s worst urban slums in the 1970s, New York’s South Bronx, where hip hop originated. Hip hop was created and performed first by Jamaican and African-American youth, and then Latinos, in abandoned parks, razed neighborhoods and burned-out buildings as an alternative to gang violence. Break dance competitions and battles of songs and words redirected gang fighting into creative expression. Through candid and often humorous interviews with hip hop’s founding artists and performers, the film demonstrates how hip hop, like mambo before it, both reflected and defied the ghetto status and economic deprivation of its creators.

* This program also will be presented at 6 p.m. Monday, March 4, 2013, at the Decatur Public Library.

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013
7-9 p.m., Doudna Fine Arts Center, Lecture Hall
Film Screening and Discussion:
The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll: Episode 4, Plugging In

Discussion Moderated by Mr. Mark Rubel
A musical performance is planned

The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Susan Steinberg, 1995; Emmy nomination; C.I.N.E. Golden Eagle Award winner. This episode from the comprehensive 10-part series centers on the reinvention of rock in the 1960s. As the ‘60s began, rock ‘n’ roll was generally considered mindless teenage music. This documentary explores the seismic shifts in rock music that changed American culture in that decade. The film combines electrifying performance footage with commentary from critics and musicians including Arlo Guthrie, Judi Collins, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Townsend. The film opens in Greenwich Village, where a burgeoning folk scene birthed the career of singer songwriter Bob Dylan. A poet who cited Dylan Thomas as well as Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie as influences, Dylan rose to fame with lyrics that took aim at America’s social ills. A fateful meeting between Dylan and the Beatles in London moved the Beatles toward greater experimentation with lyrics and led Dylan to expand musically. His decision to “go electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival shocked and dismayed many, but marked a turning point in rock history and revolutionized the power of rock music to communicate ideas. The film goes on to chronicle the emergence of ‘60s California groups. The Beach Boys’ musically intricate Pet Sounds proved pop music could be as sophisticated as classical. As albums became artworks and the rise of FM radio showcased album cuts rather than hit singles, rock moved further toward the level of art. The rise of guitarist Jimi Hendrix, called “the first proper electronic rock composer,” continued to push rock’s boundaries. The Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 heralded the emergence of the rock concert as an art form.

* This program also will be presented at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, at the Paris Public Library.

Monday, March 25, 2013
7-9 p.m., Buzzard Hall Auditorium
Film Screening:
Walls of Sound: A Look Inside the House of Records

Discussion Moderated by Dr. David Gracon

This documentary video explores the House of Records, a brick-and-mortar independent record store based in Eugene, Ore. The store has been in operation since 1972, and it currently struggles to exist in the midst of digital downloading (both legal and illegal) and the practices of corporate retailers (in terms of corporate big-box and online stores and their selling practices). It also struggles against forces of nature (the roof being impaled by a giant tree, fire and flooding, etc.) and thieves. The video is an ethnographic study that combines interviews with the owner and employees and various customers of the store.  Their stories and observations are often imbued with a quirky sense of humor, biting intelligence and a deep admiration for the store and its culture.  The video addresses the cultural significance and various folkloric narratives of the store on a number of levels. It explores how the store provides cultural diversity and alternative media as they cater to the musical fringes and a broad range of musical styles not widely available at other retail outlets. The video also addresses the importance of the vernacular (or handmade) design of the physical space (the store is situated in an old house) and tangible musical artifacts, especially the “resurgence” of vinyl records. Lastly, it addresses the importance of face-to-face interaction as the store acts as a community gathering space between the store workers, customers and local music scenes — one that is ostensibly anti-corporate, fiercely local and subcultural in scope.

* This program also will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, at the Danville Public Library.

Thursday, March 28, 2013
4-5:30 p.m., Witters Conference Room 4440, Booth Library
EIU Undergraduate Research in the Blues

Undergraduate research presentations

Students, past and current, from Professor Michael Loudon’s course English 4750: Studies in African American Literature — Bluesology: The Blues and its Literary Legacy will present their work on a range of topics from texts such as Amiri Baraka’s Blues People through contemporary bluesmen such as Corey Harris to the usefulness of blues songs in children’s education. Each presentation will run 10 to 15 minutes, and the panel as a whole will demonstrate interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the blues.

Monday, April 1, 2013
4-5 p.m., Witters Conference Room 4440, Booth Library
Langston Hughes and the Female Voice Singing of Heartache in the Blues

Presented by Mr. Christopher Robison

In The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, we find many blues poems in which Hughes, using simple but poetic language, writes in the voice of a female, offering a more sympathetic view toward women than we might imagine. Through his blues poems, Hughes details a multi-faceted female voice in that we have the lamenting voice, the angry voice, the economic voice and even the suicidal voice, all of which are voices singing the story of a broken heart. Hughes writes with paradox — lonely women who find company in a lonely music — in that he depicts many of his female characters calling out to the blues for help, in a sense personifying the blues, as if there is nowhere else for them to turn. Through his poems, the lyrics of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, we see that these women not only sing the blues for themselves, but also for the loss of God or religion; for the black brother, son or husband swinging from the limbs of southern trees; and, from that singing and swinging, we see the paradox of these women who need the blues for solace and salvation. Those sorrows sing to us and remind us all of what it means not just to be an African-American woman, but merely and beautifully human.

Saturday, April 6, 2013
7 p.m., Doudna Fine Arts Center, Dvorak Concert Hall
Closing Concert

The America’s Music program ends with a grand finale that will feature music and dance performances in all of the various genres examined in this series -- Broadway; country and bluegrass; blues and gospel; Latino and hip hop; swing and jazz; and rock ‘n’ roll. Musical performers include the Unity Gospel Choir, Marilyn Coles, Motherlode, Mark Rubel and Friends, EIU Jazz Ensemble, Revered Robert and other regional artists. Dance performances include selections by the Pink Panthers, EIU Dancers and winners of the EIU Minority Affairs Step Show. Admission is free.