Ron McCurdy in a Matrix of Fabulous Discoveries

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CURATIONS & PROVENANCE

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ARTIST/CREATOR/EDUCATOR

Name: Ron McCurdy
City/Place: Los Angeles, California
Country: United States

Current News

What's Up? About the Langston Hughes Project

Jazz was a cosmopolitan metaphor for Langston Hughes, a force for cultural convergence beyond the reach of words, or the limits of any one language.

It called up visual for him as well, most pointedly the surrealistic techniques of painterly collage and of the film editing developed in this country in the 1930s and 40s, which condensed time and space, conveyed to the viewer a great array of information in short compass, and which offered the possibility of suggesting expanded states of consciousness, chaotic remembrances of past events or dreams — through montage. “To me,” Hughes wrote, “jazz is a montage of a dream deferred. A great big dream — yet to come — and always yet to become ultimately and finally true.”

Ask Your Mama was dedicated to Louis Armstrong, “the greatest horn blower of them all,” and to those of whatever hue or culture of origin who welcomed being immersed in the mysteries, rituals, names, and nuances of black life not just in America but in the Caribbean, in Latin America, in Europe and Africa during the years of anti-colonial upheaval abroad and the rising Freedom Movement here at home. Not only the youthful Martin Luther King, Jr. but the independence leaders of Guinea and Nigeria and Ghana and Kenya and the Congo fill the chants and refrains of Hughes’s epic poem.

Life & Work

Bio: Dr. Ronald C. McCurdy is Professor of Music at the USC Thornton School of Music where he served as chair of the Jazz Studies department for six years (2002-2008). Prior to his appointment at USC he served as Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at USC (1999-2001). He has served as Professor of Music and chair of the Afro-African American Studies Department and served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Minnesota (1990-1999). In 1997, Dr. McCurdy served as Visiting Professor at Maria-Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. In 2001 Dr. McCurdy received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Kansas.

Dr. McCurdy continues to tour the Langston Hughes Project, a multimedia presentation based on the Hughes’ poem, “Ask Your Mama.” This was Hughes’ social commentary on the struggle for freedom and equality among Africans and African Americans. In 2008 he premiered the orchestral version of The Langston Hughes Project, Ask Your Mama: 12 Mood for Jazz with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra with rapper and television actor, Ice-T. The multimedia presentation features jazz quartet, spoken-word and images from the Harlem Renaissance.

Dr. McCurdy’s latest CD is titled; April In Paris features his vocal, funk band called the Ron McCurdy Collective. His first CD, Once Again for the First Time on the INNOVA label enjoyed critical acclaim as well. He has also released a CD of the Langston Hughes Project, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz.

Dr. McCurdy served a consultant to the Grammy Foundation educational programs including serving as director of the National Grammy Vocal Jazz Ensemble. He served as Director of the Walt Disney All-American Summer College Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Singers for twenty years. A few of the guest artists he has worked with include Joe Williams, Rosemary Clooney, Leslie Uggams, Arturo Sandoval, Diane Schuur, Ramsey Lewis, Mercer Ellington, Dr. Billy Taylor, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, and Dianne Reeves, Ellis Marsalis, and many others. He has served as a member of the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Camp faculty. Dr. McCurdy is a performing artist for the Yamaha International Corporation.

from: www.music.usc.edu/ronald-c-mccurdy

Media & Markets

▶ Book Purchases: http://www.alfred.com/meet-the-great-jazz-legends/p/00-32180/
▶ Twitter: ronmccbop
▶ Instagram: ronmccbop
▶ Website: http://langstonhughesproject.org
▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/00pW9adii5HTdddq8GSkVK
▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/3wi8rl2SpPt0PlIVVWeGcv

Quotes, Notes & Etc. Career Highlights:
Served as president of the International Association for Jazz Education 2000-2002
Served as Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute (1999-2001)
Letters From Zora (Hurston): In Her Own Words– Pasadena Playhouse (2011)
Langston Hughes Project performance at Disney Hall (2015)
Premiered Harlem South: A Few Through The Lens– Grammy Museum (2019)
Premiered Shanghai Jazz: A Cultural Mix– USC Visions and Voices (2019)

Honors, Awards & Competitions:
Jazz Educator of the Year 2005 (LA Jazz Society)
Distinguished Alumni, University of Kansas (2001)
Langston Hughes Project w/ guest Rapper Ice-T- Winner- Best “Live” Performance for FM Awards in London (2015)

Recordings:
Once Again for the First Time, INNOVA Records (2002)
April In Paris, McBop Records (2009)
The Langston Hughes Project- “Live” at the Huntington (2010)
Letters From Zora: In Her Own Words — Soundtrack (2011)

Compositions:
Once Again for the First Time
Madeleine’s Lullaby
And Your Point Would Be….?

Research Interests:
African and African American Culture and Music
Jazz & Leadership
Artist Entrepreneurship

Publications:
The Artist Entrepreneur: Finding Success in a New Arts Economy, Rowman & Litterfield Publication, 2019
Teaching Music in Performance Through Jazz: Vol. I, Gia Publication, 2008
African Americans and Popular Culture (Edited by Todd Boyd), 2007
Meet the Great Jazz Legends, Alfred Publishing, 2004
Approaching the Standards, Warner Bros., 2000

Academic degrees:
PhD, University of Kansas, 1983
MM, University of Kansas, 1978
BM, Florida A&M University, 1976

Studied with:
David Baker, Jamey Aebersold, Willie Thomas, John McNeil, Ken Slone, and Boyd Hood