Join us at the Bimhuis, October 13 – Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century

We often treat jazz like an old painting, a precious object to be handled with care. But what of jazz’s present, and its future? We are living in jazz’s second century, and it is a golden age. In Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century, the acclaimed critic and journalist Nate Chinen has chronicled jazz in our time.

Named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, GQ, Billboard and JazzTimes, Playing Changes is the definitive guide to jazz now, and a musical history of the present. “Whatever you choose to call the music, ‘jazz’ is as volatile and generative now as at any time since its beginnings.” In jazz parlance, “playing changes” has long referred to an improviser’s resourceful path through a chord progression. Playing Changes expands on that idea, following the musicians and the music through the many ideological, technological, theoretical, and practical changes that jazz has seen. The book’s musical cast is broad and multi-generational, from Wayne Shorter to Brad Mehldau to Esperanza Spalding. The music in it is alive. Chinen traces the influence of jazz education; considers a globalized jazz ecology; and explores the pollination between jazz and other musics, like hip-hop and R&B.

Join us at the Bimhuis for an afternoon with Nate Chinen, a former critic for The New York Times. He will read from the book, with musical illustration, and discuss its themes with moderator George Blaustein.

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This event is sponsored by the Bimhuis, the John Adams Institute, and the Netherlands American Studies Association (NASA).