Jason Moran is Expanding What it Means to Experience Music

BY AYANA BYRD

What do you do after the world declares you a genius? Take your twin sons to school, if you’re Jason Moran. In 2010, the jazz pianist and composer was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the financial award granted annually to innovatively creative artists that is commonly called the "Genius Grant." And while it opened doors and gave Moran more financial freedom, life for the Harlem-based musician went on as normal. Fortunately, normal for Moran is about as eclectically off-center as normal could be. How else to explain the catalog of an artist who has stretched far beyond the piano to create collaborations that challenge and transform the relationship between music, the other arts, and the audience with a list that includes visual artists Kara Walker and Glenn Ligon, opera singer and theater star (and his wife) Alicia Hall Moran, National Book Award honoree Asali Solomon and filmmaker Ava DuVernay, whose upcoming Selma will be scored by him?

This summer is no less groundbreaking for Moran. First, there was the May debut of Looks of a Lot, a performance with installation artistTheaster Gates, his group The Bandwagon, and the high school band Kenwood Jazz Academy, which explored 25 years of Chicago's jazz and blues history. "I have a lot of new grey hairs from that," jokes the Houston native, who feels indebted in many ways to Chicago. "A lot of my teachers came from that city. And it holds a significant place in America's Great Migration."

Read more: http://www.fastcompany.com/3033133/innovation-agents/jason-moran-is-expanding-what-it-means-to-experience-music?partner=rss

Photo: Michael Nagle