KU News Release

Jazz critic, musician to address annual KU colloquium

LAWRENCE — Fred Ho, founder of the Afro-Asian Ensemble, and Kevin Whitehead, jazz critic for National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air,” will speak at the fourth annual Interdisciplinary Jazz Colloquium at the University of Kansas.

Jazz studies scholars from KU and around the country will explore “What’s Avant-Garde About the Avant-Garde?” in sessions at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. The colloquium takes place Friday, March 30, and Saturday, March 31.

Whitehead will speak at 9:15 a.m. March 30 on “Death to ‘the Avant-Garde,’ Revisited.” His talk will question avant garde as a jazz category. In addition to working as a jazz critic, Whitehead is author of “New Dutch Swing” and teaches jazz-related courses in American studies and English at KU.

Ho will give the keynote address at 2:10 p.m. Friday. His talk is titled “Imagine the Impossible! Perpetuating the Avant-Garde in African American Music.” In addition to founding the Afro-Asian Ensemble in 1982, Ho is a composer, performer, author and activist.

Ho will conclude the Friday program with a solo baritone saxophone concert at 5:30 p.m. at the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium. He will speak with the audience after his performance.

The colloquium is free and open to the public.

Colloquium sponsors are the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, KU Center for Research, Hall Center for the Humanities and the Spencer Museum of Art.

More information about KU’s jazz studies program and the colloquium is online at www.ku.edu/~kuijsg.

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