Humanities, Kuumbwa partner to jazz up Alumni Weekend

By Dan White

Returning Slugs and the general public will have an immersive jazz experience that is sure to stimulate minds, move feet, and soothe souls during Alumni Weekend.

The evening kicks off at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 30, at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in downtown Santa Cruz. Admission is $25.

The special event will feature a conversation on the history of jazz by experts in the field, followed by the vocal styling of jazz singer Kim Nalley, a Bay Area favorite and up-and-coming star who has performed all over the world, and is also a jazz scholar in her own right.

Alumni Weekend takes place April 28–May 1, 2016. Events are centered for the most part on campus, but some off-campus events, including this one, are likely to lure Slugs away from their alma mater, at least for a few hours.

Nalley is on faculty at the California Jazz Conservatory. She is also Ph.D. candidate in UC Berkeley’s history department, with plans to write her dissertation about the globalization of jazz and black cultural politics.

Before the performance, Nalley, along with UC Santa Cruz Humanities Dean Tyler Stovall, and UC Santa Cruz history professor Eric Porter, will give a thought-provoking presentation about global jazz history as it relates to race, class and culture.

The Kuumbwa event is also part of International Jazz Day, a joyous, worldwide celebration of music that falls on the same date. In honor of this special day, Santa Cruz will be a jazz hotspot, with several venues hosting evenings of music throughout the city.

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