KU Distinguished Alumnus to give ....

KU Distinguished Alumnus Ron McCurdy (left) will perform his “Langston Hughes Project,” a multimedia tribute to the poet (right) at KU at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 7.

By Nick Krug
Sunday, April 2, 2017

For many in town, the name Ron McCurdy might be linked with fond memories of trumpets and tubas blasting over the triumphs of Danny Manning and Larry Brown while McCurdy served as director of the University of Kansas Basketball Band in the late ‘80s. It’s possible that KU music majors may have recorded jazz pieces within a Murphy Hall studio named after McCurdy, where he once served as the school’s first director of Jazz Studies.

But for everyone else stateside and far flung around the globe, McCurdy, a KU Distinguished Alumnus, is best known for creating “The Langston Hughes Project,” which he has performed internationally and which he will be bringing back to KU during a performance on April 7 in Swarthout Recital Hall.


McCurdy describes “The Langston Hughes Project,” which was voted “Best Live Performance” at the 2016 Jazz FM Awards in London, as an emotionally-stirring, multimedia concert performance. Hughes’ 1960 work “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz” is recited in a spoken-word style, accompanied by a jazz quartet performance before a visual backdrop of imagery from the Harlem Renaissance. That imagery, according to McCurdy, features many of Hughes’ artistic collaborators and the events, people and places of the Harlem Renaissance that inspired him.

read more at: http://www.lawrence.com/news/2017/apr/02/ku-distinguished-alumni-gives-jazz-tribute-langs/

Take 5 with Tim: Ron McCurdy

Ron McCurdy will bring his Langston Hughes project to Purdue University on Wednesday. / Photo provided

Ron McCurdy is a jazz musician and educator. Both titles get equal billing as the trumpeter travels the country performing and teaching students -- from elementary age to college -- all aspects of jazz. He can talk the talk and play the diminished scales.

A professor of music at the University of Southern California, McCurdy also directs the Grammys in the Schools program, a jazz band that performs during Grammys week, and he is a consultant for the Grammy Foundation. McCurdy will bring his Langston Hughes Project to Purdue University at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Fowler Hall inside Stewart Center. Hughes is a celebrated poet from the Harlem Renaissance. McCurdy composed music to Hughes' poetry collection "Ask Your Mama."

1. What is a brief summation of your Langston Hughes Project?

I was a professor at the University of Minnesota in the mid-1990s. ... I was teaching on the Harlem Renaissance in class and stumbled upon Langston Hughes' piece "Ask Your Mama" and put it together. That was in 1994, and I've been doing it ever since. We added the videography and composing music with the poem. ... We've done it literally thousands of times over the country. For me, it's an extension of my classroom.

2. What is your role in the Langston Hughes Project: speaking or performing?

Both. We're bringing the multimedia spoken word, jazz quartet and video of the Harlem Renaissance period, and I'll be doubling as spoken word artist and trumpet player.

3. Did Hughes' writing influence you in any way before this project?

It's been a little bit of influence. I can't do this for 18 years and have it not be. His poetry lends itself to jazz. It has a certain rhythmic quality that lends itself to jazz. In a subliminal way, the poetry has influenced my music.

4. While we all know about bringing jazz into high, middle and elementary schools, are college students in the know about jazz?

A lot of students don't know about it who aren't music majors, but once they hear it and experience it up-close and personal, they like it. If it's made available to them and not too esoteric, it goes over well.

5. As someone close to the Grammys, what were your thoughts on the 2012 Grammys?

I loved it. I loved Adele. I didn't know a whole lot of her before the Grammys. Paul McCartney was great as was the Whitney Houston tribute with Jennifer Hudson.

Online: www.ronmccurdy.com

http://www.jconline.com/article/20120224/ENT15/202240307?nclick_check=1